My Girl Scout troop has to provide a snack themed to the World Center in Pune, India (S. of Mumbai). The three other groups are served tres leche cupcakes (Mexico), Swiss chocolate, and scones (England).
I need to prepare this at home and transport it to the school. Ideally it would be finger food, peanut free, not too spicy and not require plates.
2009-03-03T09:20:29Z
Oh my, Squid - I gained weight just READING that recipe. I'll definitely consider it - I'm assuming I can dust off the old fry-baby to fry those up.
Rozmin2009-03-03T13:00:28Z
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I'm not trying to be rude at all, but squid's suggestion is not good for what you need. You need a finger food, and gulab jamun is definitely not that. It is served in a syrup, and is STICKY. You need to eat it in a bowl/plate. Plus, you already have every other group serving a dessert. There are soooo many great Indian snacks. The word for snack food is "chat" (sometimes spelled chaat in latin script).
Some good snack ideas:
-Chevra: it's like Indian chex mix, not in flavor but in the concept. I couldn't find a recipe, but it's basically rice flakes (can use puffed rice), raisins, cashews, peanuts (can leave them out), spiced with green chilis, sugar and salt. Its a sweet-hot-salty combo. -Gattia: A fried snack mix. Here is a recipe: http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2006/10/17/thikshe-kare/ -Samosas: these are crispy triangular pockets filled with ground meat or mashed potatoes. They are deep fried, but not too messy to eat with hands. Very delicious. My childhood favorite. A site completely devoted to making samosas: http://www.samosa-recipe.com/ -Momo: this is a steamed dumpling (nice change from all the fried stuff, right?). You'll see it sold on streets frequently. It actually comes from Nepal originally, but I would now count it as part of Indian food. Recipe: http://www.netcooks.com/recipes/Breads/Momo.(Dumplings).html -Aloo Tikki: spicy potato patty. Recipe: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/snacks/aloo-tikki.html
I know some of those are "spicy" but you can make them less so just by reducing the amount of chili powder/chilis. The other spices don't give heat.
If you want to bring a dessert, more appropriate ones:
Burfi: the ultimate finger-food dessert. Absolutely not messy, easy to make, too. I've heard it called Indian fudge, in texture, not flavor. Recipe for Three Color Burfi (my childhood favorite): http://www.asianchefrecipes.com/dessert-sweet-recipes/three-colored-barfi.php Recipe for pistachio burfi (simpler): http://www.indiacurry.com/desserts/ds013pistaburfee.htm Halwa: It falls apart a little easier than burfi, but if you cut it into squares, it should work really well. Just make sure to let it sit before trying to cut it, it should harden up (when it's warm it will be softer). You can make it from semolina, squash, carrot, or beet. My favorite is with carrot. Recipe (works for beet halwa too): http://www.mangopowergirl.com/2007/11/moms-carrot-halwa-happy-diwali.html Ladoo: these are fried, so they could be just a little oily, but if you have napkins on hand they will be no problem as a finger food. Recipe: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/desserts/boondi-ka-laddoo.html Chum Chum: this is a tasty one, it's I think actually Bengali in origin, but would also work. I think it's dry enough to eat with hands. Recipe: http://www.angelfire.com/country/fauziaspakistan/chumchum.html Easier recipe (note: maida is just all-purpose flour): http://www.indobase.com/recipes/details/chum-chum.php
You can find other recipes by looking for chat/chaat recipes. This will give you spicer/savory recipes. Other desserts I'd steer clear of are: rasgulla, rasmalai, jalebi, kala jamun. These are all served in a sauce and/or are sticky.
real organic peanut butter on celery, bananas drizzed with a tiny bit of honey, chop up some pears, apples, grapes and other fruits in season and make a big fruit salad that will last 3 days....kids love frozen grapes in summer because it is like mini ice pop bites, raw veggies with fat free ranch for dipping, "lite"...salt free popcorn...you can always shake some parmesan cheese on it, very yummy. If you have the kids "help" they may even be more willing to try things they never had . Good luck!
Gulab Jamun is among India's most popular desserts! This delicious dessert consists of dumplings traditionally made of thickened or reduced milk, soaked in rose flavored sugar syrup. It gets its name from two words: Gulab which means rose (for the rose flavored syrup) and Jamun which is a kind of deep purple colored Indian berry (the cooked dumplings are dark brown in colour). Serve Gulab Jamun warm or at room temprature; by itself or topped with ice cream! Ingredients:
3 cups sugar 6 cups water 1 tbsp cardamom powder 2 tbsps rose water 3 cups powdered milk 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 cup thickened/ heavy/ double cream Vegetable/ canola/ sunflower oil for deep frying Mix the water and sugar in a deep pan and boil till all the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the flame and add the cardamom powder and rose water. Mix well and keep aside. Mix the powdered milk, all purpose flour and baking powder well. Add a little of the thickened cream at a time to them and knead to make a dough that is soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into walnut sized balls and roll between slightly greased palms till smooth. Heat the oil for deep frying in a wide pan on a low to medium flame. Fry the dumplings, stirring often to brown on all sides. Do not cook on very high heat as the dumplings will burn on the outside and remain raw inside! When cooked, drain (with a slotted spoon), remove the dumplings from the oil and transfer immediately into the sugar syrup. Repeat this till all the dumplings are cooked and added to the syrup. Allow the dumplings to soak in the syrup for 2 hours. Some serving suggestions: Warm Gulab Jamuns with ice cream; Gulab Jamun with thick cream; Gulab Jamun garnished with shavings of dried fruit.