That's Babaji and Radhika didi...... It was Radhika didi's turn to give parshad in Mall Rd.... She asked me to make it instead of ordering at a store.... Yippeee.... This is very very special for me.... Have done Parshad earlier for my birthday, had made 'Cappuccino Tiramisu Cheesecake' and 'Ragu and Olive Pasta Primavera'.
That's babji and me.... Making parshad is a difficult task as it needs lots of planning in terms of shortlisting what to make, it must be easy to transport, ingredients should be easy to get, should withstand the weather, easy to eat in a crowded place and most of all easy to make cause if there are too many steps then making 300 individual servings and keeping it fresh is a issue from a home kitchen....Another aspect is to think of Sugarfree parshad too. Most diabetics crave chocolate as all the store bought things are done with fruit and custard or paneer based indian sweets....... My challenge was to make something chocolate with Sugarfree, with aftertaste of the artificial sweetner like splenda.
My belief is that while making parshad, if the attitude is 'I am the Doer' the obstacles are many.... if the attitude is 'I am the instrument', all obstacles are overcome.... Something which Priya didi taught me when i made parshad last time... It worked really well this time.....
To zero in on what to make, I made samples of To Die for 'Banana Chocochip Muffins' for Radhika didi, which would qualify all the criteria I mentioned above. She wanted them with walnuts and chocolate... made another sample batch, which had what she described[she wanted cocoa in them] and another with my version....... made her taste both without telling her which one was which...... She liked the improvisation which I had done... :)
Hence I came to the conclusion...
In most cases the consumer doesn't always want what they are saying... We need to know the strain of concern and then use our tasting/baking skills to create products which match their taste...... and sometimes be firm about the final product to work within the given deadline :)
These muffins were clearly 'Objects of Desire'..... given that they had no butter and very very little oil [I used sunflower oil, a healthier option without compromise on taste :) ]......
The monkey's totally tell my tale.... it was very hard for me to resist popping a muffin each from every lot I made. Very Very Tempting.......
My selection for the sugarfree parshad was 'Sugarfree Cherry Brownies'. Just that I made it loaded with cherries and used 1.5 times more chocolate.... worked like magic..... :)
I had taken over my sister's entire room for mixing and packing & drawing room for ovens as that's the only place which had high power sockets and noone would go in cause the room would be really warm due to the ovens running the entire day..... We worked on Friday from 7pm in the evening to 4am in the morning, Saturday from 10am to 2pm at night, Sunday from 11am to 3pm. By the end of it I had a bed full of 265 muffins[2 special ones for Daksayani with no chocolate n nuts] & 50 Brownies and 1 Bowl of eggless Mango Fool for Geetika[She's allergic to eggs] as parshad and lots of boxes of muffins to give for friends.... :)
These moist yummies have been a delight to make, it's such a forgiving recipe and not very exacting..... But the sheer hard, back breaking work for getting to the 300 mark was something else.....
Everyone really enjoyed them.... Babaji said they were really tasty. Vibha, Gunjan, Richa, Bhaskar, Sravanthi, Hitesh, Sukhpreet, Sumit, Nikhil, Kirti, Madhurima, Bhawna, Vibhore, Vivek, Pushpanjali, Anuraag, Rimjhim, Gunjan and lots more people said they were lipsmakingly delicious.....
Gunjan had a field day with chocolate.... :)
As long as she was unaware she's being clicked, I got natural pictures n the minute she was aware of the camera.... full on posing happened....
Verdict:
Vibha:
hey nachi,
tnx a trillion to u n neelu for the bonus brownies. I'm savouring them by putting a large chunk of my homemade choc fudge on top n microwaving it for 30 secs! Oh! It tastes like bliss! AWESOME!
Arunima: Thanks a ton...The muffins were just awesome :) Everyone loved those :D
Punee Bagai: nachi the muffins were awesome thanx a ton hope u got our sms too. The boys loved them...
Anjli:
Hey Nachi,
What a lovely surprise to get the yum yum muffins- monsoon showers, cool breezes and now this - our welcome to Delhi couldn't have been better!
Thanks much much,
love,
Anjli
