Archive for the ‘Nepali food’ Category

Aloo chat – from everyday dorm ingredients

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Aloo chat is the most basic type of Indian subcontinental savory snacks (chaat) (also spelled alu chaat). Tradtionally, it’s made from deep fried potatoes (aloo) served with vegetables and chaat sauce, which is usually made from yogurt. This recipe is dedicated to my cousin R’sha, who is studying in a sleepy Midwestern town. She is a big fan of aloo chat. During her last visit we made samosa chat, she asked me to show her a basic aloo chat recipe with everyday dorm ingredients. A good chaat contains savory, salty, sour, and sweet flavors in a perfect harmony. It also has a velvety smooth sauce encompassing soft and crunchy fillings.

Here’s how to make a simple aloo chat.

Get home fries, sprinkle with pinch of garam masala and mix.
Or, cut a potato (slightly larger than egg-size) into small cubes (few cms) and coat with a teaspoon of oil, salt and pinch of garam masala. Here I used red waxy potatoes and mustard oil, which gives a pungent aromatic flavors but any fat would work.

Microwave three times, for 90 second each, while stirring in between. If using home fries, microwave only once. Let it stand for at least 15 minutes. Cooling potatoes before adding yogurt and other ingredients is essential.

Add chopped onions and tomatoes. Other highly recommended toppings are cilantro and canned garbanzo beans. Here I used yellow onion and grape tomatoes.

Add unflavored and unsweetened plain yogurt. Add chat masala (alternate any curry powder), black salt (substitute with salt, black salt gives a pungent flavor), a few drops of lime juice. If you don’t have traditional sweet tamarind (imili) sauce, add honey.

Mix and top with any crunchy Indian subcontinental snack such as, papad, aloo bhujia etc. Here I used dal biji. If you don’t have any crunchy subcontinental snacks, use plain potato chips. The goal is to have crunchy bite to the chat.

Play with the all the flavors; salty, sweet, and sour, until you get a perfectly harmonious aloo chat customized just for you!

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The best lentil soup with or without a Crockpot

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Technically, lentil is a type of legume (pulse) plant and its edible dried seeds. Lentil is commonly known as Masoor and has botanical name Lens culinaris. However, in the culinary world, the word “lentil” is also used for the whole family of legumes or pulses that include; masoorchana (split chickpeas), toorurad (see my last post of urad and jimbu) etc. In Indian subcontinent, lentils, which are commonly known as dal, are one of the quintessential food items and the biggest source of protein. It is usually prepared as a soupy stew like dish also known as dal and served with rice or flatbreads.

A few years into my graduate school, I bought a small Crockpot from Wal-Mart (couldn’t resist $9.99 price). I used it quite often because I lived in a dorm with a shared kitchen. Lentil soup was my default meal to cook in this new culinary toy. I would leave some lentils, usually from Safeway from across the street, water, knick knacks (hint — leftovers) in morning. When I came back in evening, I had hot lentil soup ready. I experimented with different type of “lentils”, different knick knacks and spices. My lentil soup was, in essence, adaptation of Indian subcontinental dal. My favorite is chana dal because it produces creamier, thicker and most flavorful soup. However, chana dal was not available in Safeway and needed a special trip down to an Indian grocery store in Virginia. This ritual went on couple of times a week for more than a semester until the dorm management confiscated my Crockpot. The official reason was that it was a fire hazard but I believe that they really wanted my lentil soup.

I miss my Crockpot. But now I have learned to make lentil soup without it. Here are my recommendations for making the best lentil soup with or without a Crockpot.

Rinse and soak lentil of choice (or mixture) overnight (at least put 3 times more water)

Throw out the extra water. Add same volume of filtered water as the soaked bean. Start boiling on medium-high heat. You can substitute some water with chicken stock for more flavorful soup.

Do not add anything until lentil soup starts to boil. Depending on type of lentils and presoaking, cooking may take anywhere from half hour to an hour and change. It’s nearly impossible to overcook lentils. However, it is easy to burn them. So after boiling reduce heat to medium or medium low.

Fried whole cumin seeds, onions, and tomatoes for the lentil soup

For yellow lentils, I recommend only one spice; whole cumin seeds. The whole cumin seed (not the powder) blends with yellow lentil in naturally aromatic and tasteful way that I have not seen with any other spice. Fry whole cumin in ghee (or butter) until you get dark brown color. Add a pinch of cumin seeds per cup of lentil soup. Beside whole cumin, I would recommend chopped sautéed shallots or onions (even dried onion powder works), tomatoes, and butter as flavors. Cilantro is an excellent garnish after lentil is cooked. A very few drops of lime juice also enhances the flavor but don’t add it if you are already adding acidic ingredients such as tomatoes. Other flavors you may add or substitute are roasted garlic, green chilies, asafetida (if adventurous).

Traditional north Indian dals don’t have any other ingredients except few seasoning but south Indian dal often has lots of vegetables. If you are making a lentil soup, I wholeheartedly recommend you to add other ingredients. For each cup of cooked lentil soup, do not add more than ⅓ cup of other ingredients. My favorites are commercial frozen meatballs (both Costco’s and Ikea’s), cooked pieces of meats, any veggies, rice, broken pieces of pasta, etc. My favorite veggies to add are; cut pieces of broccoli, green peas, mushroom, and zucchini. The idea is to add anything you want to eat or anything you have on hand. Be a lentil artist here! My suggestion is not to add too many ingredients at once because it’s going to confuse your palates. Don’t add more than one ingredient from each category of meat, vegetable and starch.

Lentil soupThe best lentil soup!

Once a friend of mine hated the flavor of his lentil soup recipe I gave him. Finally, I discovered that he didn’t put enough salt. Salt is probably the most important flavor in your lentil soup. Alright, technically it brings out the flavor of lentil soup. Don’t forget to add tasteful (and healthy) amount of salt. Just changing the amount of salt can drastically change lentil soup’s flavor. My recommendation is not more than ½ teaspoon of salt per cup of cooked lentil. Gradually add salt, taste the lentil soup, and calibrate amount of salt you want. Lentils maybe a healthy food but you will notice that like any other soup it’s high on sodium.

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Affair of ugly dried herb & unassuming lentil

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Jimbu

The one thing I wanted my cousin M’sha to get me from Nepal was Jimbu (or jhiku-cha). According to a thesis on Jimbu, it is actually two species of perennial Allium herbs (from family of onions), Allium hypsistum and Allium przewalskianum. They grow in harsh dry and arid climates like that of Mustang, where the use of Jimbu as a spice may have started. The stalks of Jimbu plants are sundried and stored for use as a spice. While cooking, stalks of dried Jimbu are fried in ghee, to bring out their flavors, and then added to a dish. In Mustang, it is used to spice vegetables, lentils, pickles, and even meat. In rest of Nepal, it is commonly used to flavor  a type of lentil, split urad dal. Interestingly, urad dal’s scientific name is Vigna mungo (no kidding!) and it is more commonly known as Kalo or Kali (black) dal.

(more…)

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Aloo Sadeko

Monday, December 28th, 2009

Aloo Sadeko is a boiled potato dish mostly popular in the Newar community in Kathmandu valley. Aloo (or alu) is potatoes and sadeko roughly translates into marinated. This marinated potato salad type dish is commonly used as afternoon snack and served with Chiura (dried beaten rice). I once made this as an appetizer for my friends and family in a small gathering at my place.  Since then, the popularity of this marinated potato salad has lead into a norm that I make this dish every time there is a get-together.

Complete list of ingredients and amount are given at the end of the post.

Boil egg sized red potatoes in a pot by adding some water and a pinch of salt.  Boil it under a full gas power for about 20 minutes. You can tell whether the potatoes are cooked by poking into potatoes with a fork or a tooth pick.

Once done, let the potatoes sit for 15 minutes for cooling off. Peel potatoes. Dice potatoes into to small pieces.  An egg sized potato can be cut into 6 pieces.

Dice tomatoes, onions, green chili pepper into small pieces and pour over the diced potatoes. Chop cilantro and add into the potatoes.

Chill in freezer for 10/15 minutes.

Add black peppers.

Chinese peppers.

Ginger and garlic, black salt (Kala Namak), and table salt.

Cumin powder.

Turmeric powder.

Crushed red chili pepper.

Paprika

Classic yellow French mustard. (or mustard powder)

Heat oil with Methi (fenugreek)   in a small pan for about 3/5 minutes until it turns into black. Once done, let Methi sit for 10 minutes for cooling off.  Be careful!

Pour oil with Methi over the potatoes.

Mix all the ingredients together in the bowl.

Best if mixed with bare (cleaned) hand.


Prepared Aloo Sadeko.

Most enjoyable if served with Chiura (dried rice).

Ingredients:

20 small size (an egg size or as small as you can get) red potatoes
1 small sized red dried onion (diced)
1 medium size (larger than an egg) red tomato (diced)
2 large or 4 small garlic cloves (crushed)
4 small or 2 large size green chili peppers (diced)
4 tea spoon of vegetable oil
1 tea spoon of ginger paste
1/2 tea spoon of black salt
1/3 tea spoon of regular salt
1/2 tea spoon of fenugreek
1/2 tea spoon of French’s mustard
1/2 tea spoon of red chili pepper (crushed)
1 tea spoon of paprika powder
1 tea spoon of cumin powder
1/4 table spoon of turmeric powder
10 strings of cilantro (chopped)

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Suji Halwa (Semolina Pudding)

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Suji Halwa (Semolina Pudding) is one of the classic desi dessert popular throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The video is in Nepali with English subtitles for directions. Also spelled Sooji Halwa.

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