Deepavali food!
Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures - I was busy hostessing and setting out food and cooking food and mixing drinks and so on, and didn't really have time to focus and angle my photos, so they're all very quick snaps. 😅 But I was quite proud of my spread!
All the treats in the first picture are homemade. In the centre is murukku, a sort of Indian fritter (rice flour and two types of lentil flour, butter, cumin, sesame seeds, omam/ajwain/bishop's weed, and asafoetida turned into a dough, extruded and fried) that is a Deepavali staple. 😋 The long orangey-red strips are tape murukku, which is the same mixture but with chilli powder added to make it mildly spicy. And then there are suji biscuits, made with semolina, sugar and ghee. Almond London biscuits, coated with dark chocolate and topped with almond nibs. And cornflake biscuits.
At the top of the tiered cake stand are pineapple tarts (bought at an Asian store - a festive staple of Singapore and Malaysia) and coconut candy (made by me) and then the yellow flaky cubes are storebought soan pappadi, and then more of the treats from the first picture.
Mains were lamb briyani, a vegetable dish called mulai keerai poriyal (mulai keerai, or amaranth, is stir-fried with spices, shallots and garlic, and then has grated coconut mixed in at the end), tofu sambal, chickpea curry (pardon the ugly photo!), and of course plenty of raita and fried appalams. I've also got a picture of my plate - I couldn't have the briyani (I'm vegetarian), but I'd made potato pilaf for myself.
Dessert was semia payasam (roasted rice vermicelli is cooked in milk along with sago and lots of sugar until soft and tender, and then cashews and raisins are roasted in ghee and added to it).
Still gorging myself on leftovers. 😋