Glimpses from a Nepali Kitchen

I finally gave a green light to the cooking classes that had been at the back of my mind for quite a while now. It felt like the right time since Petrichor has been temporarily shut down and I can’t speak for when it will reopen. So it felt like the opportune moment to not give up on what I love doing most especially when good friends come up and lend the much-needed support, letting that pass would have been a foolish thing to do. 
My doors opened to my friends who came rushing in with bottles of red and the sharpest knives ever!

Poster from my cooking class

I determinedly stuck to teaching Nepali cooking to them (although that's not the only thing on the menu) entirely because a couple of them can out cook some of the best chefs on any side of the world...and yea, you can't teach a fly how to fly, right?

It was one of the 'funnest' days ever!!

Helly's got the best job in the world - Baking and shelling peanuts!

Susannah - Stringing beans

Denna - Mistress of all food Italian!

A quintessential of every Nepali kitchen - the silauto lohoro!

Cath - Roasting tomatoes for the achar

Tomatoes and chives - In chopped glory!

And we sit down to savour what we cooked

Simi ko Tarkari in peanut and sesame seed marinade, almost on its way to the table.

Fresh mint leaves and dried dalle - ready to be ground 

Blanching  Tomatoes

Mula ko pickle

This side of heaven

Roasting a tomato for the Silam ko Achar for that charred, rustic flavor...on a gas stove!

Take a look at the “Beginner’s” MENU :)

Sadheko ko Aloo/ Aloo ko Achar (marinade method) – Marinated Potatoes in Mustard
Ingredients

1 kg Potatoes

4 Tbsps Mustard Seeds

Dried Red Chilies

Salt

Coriander Leaves

Lemon

Mustard Oil

Method

Boil potatoes until cooked. Cut them into bite sized pieces.

Toast the dry red chilies and mustard seeds in a pan or 3-4 minutes.

Grind them to a paste with the coriander leaves.

Heat a little mustard oil in a pan and add the paste. Cook until oil comes on top. Remove from heat.

Add the mixture to the cut potatoes with some salt to taste.

Add some lemon juice.

Toss well and serve.

Sadheko Simi (marinade method) – Marinated Beans in Peanuts and Sesame Mixture

Ingredients

1 kg Beans

250 gms peanuts

250 gms sesame seeds

Salt

Turmeric

1 Tbsp Red Chili Powder

1 tbsp Paanch Phoren

Slit Green Chilis

Lemon

Coriander Leaves

Mustard Oil

Method

Dry roast the peanuts and sesame seeds in a pan and grind them to a powder.

Blanche the beans in slightly salted water until just done. Drain.

Heat oil in a pan and temper the paanch phoren with turmeric powder, red chili powder and green chilies.

Add the ground peanuts and sesame seeds. Mix well with the rest of the ingredients in the pan.

Add the drained beans and remove from heat.

Mix well until the marinade mixture coats every bean.

Add salt to taste.

Finally, put some lemon juice and coriander leaves.

Toss well before serving.

Tamatar ra Silam ko Chutney – Tomato and Seeds Tangy Condiment

Ingredients

1 Large Red Tomato

2 Dalles

Mustard Oil

Salt

2 Cloves Garlic

Chives

Churpi

Method

Roast the tomato until charred.

Mix dalles, mustard oil, salt, garlic and tomato in a blender or grinding stone.

Pour the achar in a bowl and top with chopped chives.

Rajma Daal (Braising) – Kidney Beans Gravy

Ingredients

1 kg Rajma Beans

5 Cloves Garlic

1 Inch Ginger

1 Large Onion

2 Large Tomatoes

1 Cup Tomato Puree

Yoghurt to garnish

2 Tbsps Nepali Spice Mix

Garam Masala

Bay Leaf

Salt

Ghiu

Method

Soak rajma beans overnight in water with a pinch of salt.

Cook them in a pressure cooker until soft and drain.

Chop ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes to an almost paste like consistency.

Heat ghiu in a skillet and the mixture.

Add the tomato puree, Nepali Spice Mix and let it temper for five minutes.

Add the drained rajma beans to it, mix well and cook in high heat until the beans simmer.

Then cook in low heat for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle Garam Masala and a dollop of yoghurt.

Garnish with coriander leaves before serving (optional)

Halwa – Semolina Dessert

Ingredients

1 cup Sooji / Semolina

4 cup water

Sugar to your taste

2 Cardamoms

Raisins, Crushed Cashews and Almonds

Butter or Ghee

2 Tbsps Heavy Cream (optional)

Method

Heat the butter and add the sooji to it, continuously stirring it to prevent it from burning.

On the other side, heat the water and when it is warm enough, add sugar and cardamom to the sugar-water mixture. Stir until sugar blends with the water taking care not to let the water boil, only letting it get warm.

When the sooji is done, add the nuts and raisins to it and then slowly pour the sugar-water mixture onto your sooji while stirring it.

Stir it continuously until the mixture starts to thicken and remove from stove.

Garnish with crushed cashews and serve hot.

Bhat

Boil 3 cups of rice in 41/2 cups of water until half done.

Drain and steam in low heat for 10 minutes or until done.

Serve hot with the accompaniments.

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Sonika's Mean Fried Chicken Nepali Style - with a twist!

 So this is the girl i went to school and grew up with, had my first 'real' and disastrous cooking lesson with at the age of 15 i think... have fought, cried, laughed and jammed with since infant days of yore. Therefore, no surprises about the fact that she has been chosen to grace the first page of my new blog with her mighty, wild and unconventional presence, although i don't use that word 'unconventional' to describe my friends anymore. It just seems too mild...you know ;)

Also all my friends are great cooks and can whip up a mean gourmet meal within seconds even if an egg and a tomato are the only supplies in the fridge! To my mind, it comes from years of living by ourselves in city apartments doing the nine to five and coming home weary, sometimes very late in the night ravenously hungry,just to open the fridge and only find eggs and tomatoes in there! What can one do but make the best of a bad situation? I, for one, can find ten different things to rustle up with just eggs and tomatoes - that i might as well start a whole new blog on that! Just kidding...:0

Sonika is all that and more with an attitude to match - my best friend, fellow crafter and artist, tattoist, DJ, awesome dancer, world's top shrink, ruthlessly honest critic, partner in crime but the one attribute that drives it all home is her honest to goodness heart. There is so much to love about this extraordinary woman but I heart her heart the most :)

She and i always agreed on how each family or household have their own styles of cooking which is unique to only them. For instance in Darj, the same raaye ko saag and sungur ko masu might have varied tastes depending on where it is cooked and who cooked it. That is what i love about the art. One can get creative and do whatever the hell you want with a particular dish as long as it tastes good... let's make that 'awesome'.

That is how I cook and how Sonika cooks - we keep with tradition as much as we can but where's the fun if you don't put your own signature into that dish? How does that become yours? Of course most recipes out there are just too good to be messed with, but sometimes for your own sanity's sake, You got to OWN it.

She made the time and effort to cook AND click all the photographs for this entry because i couldn't be there where she lives.

Here's Sonika's take on her Grandma's Nepali Chicken Curry.

NOTE: This is a very simple dish but it needs a lot of attention.  It's not one of those dishes you put on the stove and come back after 30 mins and find it ready.  And the temperature is very crucial so make sure you use the smaller burner on your stove.

The Recipe

Ingredients:

500 gms chicken with bones

2 medium size Onions

2 medium size Tomatoes

1 tsp (heaped) fenugreek seeds

1” ginger thinly sliced

1 bunch coriander chopped

Green chillies as per taste

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp chilli pwd

4 spn Oil

Salt to taste

1sp vinegar / twist of lime

1tsp sugar

Use a big wok / pan for this dish.  Heat the oil.

Once hot add the fenugreek seeds. The seeds turn brown almost immediately (do not let them burn so keep the chicken close)

Add chicken, onions, ginger, turmeric, chilli powder and salt and cook on medium heat for a minute.

Add tomatoes, green chillies, vinegar, sugar and half of the coriander.  Cook for a minute.Add about a cup of water.  Cover and cook for 10 minutes on low heat.Uncover and cook till all the water dries up.

Leave the dish on low heat and keep stirring every minute till all the onion tomato mush has become crisp and starts coating the chicken pieces, should take about 15 minutes.

(Keep a strict watch since it can easily burn at this stage.  Incase it starts to burn, add two spoons of water and cover for a minute and continue with the last step again).

And lastly the all important taste test.  Check the salt, sourness and sweetness. If it's too sour add a bit of sugar, if it's too sweet add a bit of vinegar.  Garnish with the rest of the coriander and serve! Or eat.

Guest Speak

My mom is an amazing cook and I grew up eating such fantastic food that I guess it was just natural that I took to cooking (and eating!) like a fish to water.  I remember making an omelette - the first thing I ever cooked when I was just 10 and bragging about it for days!  I love entertaining and cooking for family and friends and this dish I’m sharing today is an old family recipe, with a twist!  Everytime I cook it, it takes me right back to my grandmother’s home in the plains of Nepal, a rustic sleepy village called Salakpur. It was surrounded by beautiful rice fields and flanked on one side by a bamboo grove, next to which was the wooden kitchen built separately from the main house.  Food was cooked on firewood   and the aromas would come wafting through all day!  You just could not be NOT hungry there!  

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