Image based on photograph by Iryna Kuchma

I grew up surrounded by the smells of plethora of Newah dishes, often prepared just for everyday meals. But I lacked passion for food or had any desire of engaging in elaborate Newari cooking. Being the eldest expat family in the United States, many frequented my home – often expecting a home cooked meal. This compelled me to cook dishes from my childhood. Slowly as my cooking evolved, I began adapting Newah cuisine from my childhood to my American-Nepali meals.

Newah Bhoye (Bhoj) is an iconic feast celebrating intimate family gatherings to lavish big weddings.  Newars of the Kathmandu valley are known for their love of good food. There is even a running joke in Nepal that goes like “others ethnic groups may ruin themselves with polygamy, but Newars would ruin themselves just by feasting”. Newah Bhoye showcases Newah culture’s deep relationship with its food. In the recent years, many Nepalese immigrated to the west, which forced them to exchange their traditional food with items from dollar menu.  As a Newah immigrant, I can only reminiscent days of Bhoye, when I accompanied my family to a wedding Bhoye of my older cousin, or Bhoye celebrating Yenyaye puni (Indra Jatra), or one during Mohani (Dashain).  Many Newars in Kathmandu valley still prepare Bhoye during traditional festivities, despite the demands of modern day lifestyle, and growing homogenization of the culture. However, this Bhoye culture is slowly getting lost somewhere between a newly opened KFC and microwavable dinner from Bhat Bhateni.

Bhoye is feasted while sitting down in a long line on a hand woven paddy straw mat on the floor. The straw mats, called Sukul, are usually 18 to 20 inch wide and 15 to 20 feet long. Diners are seated according to the family hierarchy, such as the father followed by his eldest son and so forth.

The food items in Bhoye are sequentially served to signify the harmony between food and our body. Bhoye starts by laying a leaf plate, called Lapte, in front of each seated guest by servers who are known as Bharin. The plates are handmade by stitching together leaves of Sal (botanical name Shorea Robusta) tree by blunt needle-thin bamboo sticks into a shape of  about 14-inch round plate.

Here is how Bhoye progresses in a sequential order;

1.  Baji (Chiura or beaten rice)
Bharins start Bhoye by putting Baji (Chiura or beaten rice) on the leaf plates.

2. Aaloo (potato salad)
Next, Achar is put on the plate next to Baji. Achar is a salad made by mixing diced boiled potatoes (Aaloo) with small green peas, seasonal root vegetables such as radish, carrot. It is seasoned with ground sesame, chili, lemon juice, oil, turmeric, salt and fried fenugreek seeds. Often, Achar is served in a separate leaf bowl called Bohata, which is 3 to 4 inches bowl made similar to the leaf plate (Nepali Potato Salad Recipe).

3. Water buffalo meat
The third item served is curried stewed of water buffalo meat called Dayakugu Laa. Dayakugu Laa with its gravy is served over the Baji. The rich gravy soaks Baji with its umami flavors as well as softens the crispy Baji. After serving of Dayakugu Laa, guests may begin to eat.

4. Boo Bo (Geda Gudi or mixed beans)
The water buffalo stew is followed by Boo Bo (Geda Gudi or mixed beans), which is served as the fourth item.  The Boo Bo consists of three types of beans such as Mee Kegu (Methi Kerau) is a mixture of soaked fenugreek seeds mixed with small green peas simmered in aromatic curry. It is seasoned with garlic, ginger, salt, turmeric, cumin, chili, vegetable oil, and cilantro.  Kegu (Kerau or yellow peas) and Simpu (Simi or white beans) are two other beans made in the similar way as Mee Kegu. All three Boo Bo are put on the side of the same leaf plate next to Baji by three different Bharins.

5. Kauli (cauliflower)
The next item served is a seasonal vegetable curry, usually Kauli (Cauliflower) sautéed with garlic, ginger, salt, turmeric, cumin, chili, oil, cilantro and tomatoes.

6. Aaloo Chwon (Aaloo Tama or  potatoes and bamboo shoots)
Immediately after the seasonal vegetable, another Bharin serves Aaloo Chwon (Aaloo Tama). Aaloo Chwon is a stew of potatoes, sour bamboo shoots, and black-eyed peas or green beans. It is seasoned with lots of chili, garlic, ginger, salt, turmeric, cumin, oil, cilantro and tomatoes. The Aaloo Chwon is often served on a Bhota, the leaf bowl.

7. Khashi ya Laa (goat meat) or Kha ya Laa (chicken meat)
Next Bharin comes with a meat dish called Khashi ya Laa (goat meat) or Kha ya Laa (chicken).  These meats are not cultural norm in a typical Bhoye, but serving these meats signifies the higher social and financial status of the host.

8. Puk Laa (Bhuton or offal)
By this time another Bharin comes to serve Puk Laa (Bhuton), which is fried internal organs of water buffalo seasoned with some spices and salt.

After serving of Puk Laa, all Bharins line up to serve a second serving of the dishes, which may continue again.

9. Ayela (rice alcohol)
In between the first and second rounds, usually ladies of the host family line up and start to lay Salicha (small earthen bowl) in front of each guest. Salicha is a round clay glass about 2 inches in diameter that is used for serving Ayela (alcohol made of millet or rice) from a special long vase-like container called Aanti. The ladies pour Ayela slowly starting close at Salicha and gradually lifting up to the waist level to aerate the alcohol similar concept as aerating the wines.

Image based on photograph by Ritesh Man Tamrakar

10. Wauncha (Saag or green leafy salad)
After finishing second servings, Bharins begin serving cooked seasonal green leafy vegetables called Wauncha made usually from spinach or mustard leaves.

11. Paun Kwa (Amilo or sour soup)
Immediately after serving leafy vegetable, a sweet and sour soup-like dish called Paun Kwa (Amilo) is given to cleanse the palate. Paun Kwa is served in the empty Bhota previously used for Aaloo Chwon or in empty Salicha that was used for Ayela. Paun Kwa is made of fruit called Aamli (Lapsi – botanical name Choerospondias axillaris ).

12. Dhau (sweetened yogurt)
After serving of Paun Kwa, once again the Bharins come around serving Baji. This time the Baji is meant to be eaten with Dhau (sweet yogurt) as part of dessert.

Then the next Bharin starts to serve Dhau.

13. Sisabusa (diced vegetable salad)
In the end Bharins serve Sisabusa with a pinch of salt.  Sisabusa is mixture of vegetables and fruits such as diced carrots, radishes, cucumbers, soaked small green peas, peeled pieces of oranges or any other seasonal fruits and vegetables.

After the serving of Sisabusa, the Newah Bhoye officially completes.  Despite the completion of the Bhoye, the seated guests do not stand up right after finishing. Everyone waits until the elder member stands up, as a sign of a respect towards the elders.

14. Newari Desserts
Additionally, depending on the economical status or caste of the host, some tidbits, called Tuchha, are also served prior to the main Bhoye begins. Tuchha may contain pieces of boiled eggs, Chhoyela (grilled water buffalo meat), spiced soybean or black-eyed pea, and a small portion of fried Baji. Likewise, especially during the wedding Bhoye, a sweet snack called Lakhamari is also given to the guests as a favor to take home.

It is indeed a daunting task to organize a Bhoye for anyone, but some Newah expats are preserving this vibrant Bhoye culture by making part of some festival celebration. I hope my writing about Bhoye would at least inform about this ancient food culture, if not encourage a few to adopt it for their next festivities.

This writing was prepared with the assistance of family members Sahana Shrestha in Nepal and Bindesh Shrestha in the United States. A form of this article was published in Laskus magazine 2011 issue.

If above Jalebi video does not play, click here.

Everyday in Delhi, I ate Jalebi from a roadside stall close to where I was staying. Jalebi is a thin pretzel shaped pastry made from leavened fried dough dipped in sugar syrup. Similar are dessert are also found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya and is known as Zlabia.

The Jalebi stand was setup in front of a local mithaiwala’s (pastry chef) dessert store selling hundreds of Indian desserts – most shinny silver wrap and all made from flour, butter, milk, sugar, and pinch of spices. The video clip shows making of Delhi Jalebi.

Jalebi is an evening time snack in Delhi, India. In Kathmandu Nepal, where it is known as Jeri, it is considered a breakfast food often served with a thin deep fried flatbread called swari. Both go well so together that people normally get them together and referred to the dish as Jeri Swari. Most of Kathmandu roadside Jeri (Jalebi) stalls serve a simple Jeri. While in India, there is tendency of serving spiced up Jeri.

Often one can even find a pretty good quality Indian dessert in the United States – thanks to huge exodus of talented Indian pastry chefs. However, I have yet to find even edible Jalebi in the United States. There is a simple reason behind it – Jalebi is not served fresh in the United States.  Jalebi is a fresh dessert – fry batter, soak in sugar syrup and bite into crispy warm dessert – all done within a few minutes.

Often many mithaiwalas (pastry chefs) prefer serving cold Jalebi made in a big batch since it is cheaper to make. They try to beat the flavors of fresh Jalebi by adding other flavors such as saffron, cardamom or adding bright food coloring. Here’s the news for them – a simple Jalebi fresh off the fryer beats any of stale concoction any day.

The small Jalebi stall in a regular neighborhood of Delhi served the best Jalebi I ever ate in my life. The stall was not in a famous tourist or commercial district or had decades of history behind it. They simply made fresh Jalebi.

The flour batter for Jalebi was fermented few hours before in morning. Jalebis were fried to order. The batter was put in cheesecloth and dispensed through a small hole to make a desired shapes (see video). After fried golden brown, it was dipped in sugar syrup for few seconds and put in colander to remove excess syrup. The resulting Jalebi was thin crusted goodness – such a simple thing in life can bring such a big joy.

After nearly two weeks of eating Jalebi everyday, the Jalebiwala (Jalebi maker) gave me his recipe for what I consider the best Jalebi in world. Many us will disagree on where is the best Jalebi in the world. However, those who disagree also have a easy consensus  that a good Jalebi or Jeri or Zlabia is always fresh and often simple.

Here’s the  simple recipe for Jalebi from the Delhi Jalebiwala.

Maida (substitute all purpose flour) 300
Yogurt 200 g
Besan (chickpea flour) 100 g

Let it stay for at least ½ hour to few hours.

Fry in medium heat.

Dunk in sugar syrup.

Eat warm.

To see more photos including photos of the same Delhi Jalebi with the flash, go to DesiGrub’s Facebook Page.

Momo: the sound, the ambience and the memory of its smell could bring water to the mouth. In Kathmandu valley, this steamed dish used to be commonly cooked by the Newar community. Momo is primarily made with the ground buffalo meat wrapped in thin dough about 3 inches in diameter from all purpose flour called maida.

Water buffalo meat could be the primary reason that momos were limited to the Newar and handful of other community in the past. Due to the religious taboos, the buffalo meat was prohibited amongst other castes. Many Nepalese believe momo originated from Tibet, but similar dishes are found throughout the Central Asia. In recent years, the popularity of momo has risen very high – you probably won’t find anyone in Kathmandu who doesn’t like momo or at least have heard about it. Now, you can easily find momos with turkey, chicken, goat, beef or mixed vegetables. The prevalence of vegetarian Momo is the proof of the momo mania.

Momo is normally eaten with a sauce made out of tomato, cilantro and sesame seed and/or combination of one or many types of nuts such as cashews, peanuts, walnuts. Adding nuts to the sauce not only provides a good source of needed fat for your body but also gives a unique taste that makes a “plate” licking dish. Although momo comes in many different shapes/sizes and with varieties of meat, the best and the authentic Kathmandu Momo would be the one made with the ground buffalo meat.

No one could dispute momos is the mostly eaten street food in the Kathmandu as well as a party dish for Nepal expat community living abroad. In the United States, I make Momo with the turkey meat. This is not by my choice but what I can commonly find in local grocery stores. Many people make momo with wrapper that is freshly made using all purpose flour. For me, that is an extra chore. Thus, for my own convenience, I use wonton wrapper, easy to wrap and readily available in most Asian (e.g., Korean) grocery stores. Oh yeah- wrapping the momo requires a skill. If your momo is wrapped too tightly and close to the meat, it might not be as good as the one that has a small space between the meat and the wonton.

Ingredients:

Ground Turkey (approximately 1.5 lb)
1 pack of wonton wrapper – about 45 pieces
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Black Salt – 1/8 – teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Black pepper -  ¼ teaspoon
Ginger paste – ½ teaspoon
Garlic paste – ½ teaspoon
Momo masala – 1 tablespoon (optional)
Vegetable oil – 1/5 cup
Cinnamon  - ¼ teaspoon
Butter – 2 tablespoon
Timur – 1/6 teaspoon (similar to sezuan pepper)
Chopped or crushed Cabbage – 1 cup
Crushed dried onion – ¼ cup
Tomoato paste – ¼ cup
Crushed parsley – 2 teaspoon
Crushed red pepper 1/4 teaspoon

How to prepare Momo?

Add all the ingredients together (beside wonton wrapper) mentioned above in a bowl that is large enough to mix them all together.

Best if mixed with bare (cleaned) hand for about 10/15 minutes.

Upon mixing, you can put one tsp of mixed meat on to each wonton wrapper and wrap it leaving a space between meat and flour. Spray some vegetable oil on the steamer or rub some hardened butter or ghee. Place wrapped momo on steamer.

Steam for 10/12 minutes. The good indicator is when the dough just turns from dull matte texture to slightly shiny.

Serve with sauce of your choice.

Momo is the dish that can be most enjoyed making and eating with group – rather than just by yourself.

Related Dumpling Posts

• Tuna Momo with the easiest momo sauce
• Counting Calories in Momo
• Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha
• My attempt at making vegetarian momo
• Classic Momo Sauce – Roasted tomatoes and cilantro
• My Momo

A textbook definition of momo, for those who don’t know, is a steamed dish with spiced minced meat wrapped inside a  pocket made of a thin sheet of flour dough.

Momo, in its basic construction, is similar to the following dishes. Most of these dishes originate in Central Asia.

The difference is that the meat filling inside the momo is spiced with curry or related spices from the Indian subcontinent such as cumin, turmeric, coriander seeds etc.

Technically, momo is a potsticker with curried meat. For me, momo is a lot of fond memories; my mother making momos for 17 consecutive nights on our request, savoring cheap “especial” Mo: Mo in a local pasal against my parents wish, hitchhiking 100 miles to Philadelphia to buy my first steamer, Friday night weekly momo dinner at my cousin’s house in Virginia, loud momo parties at friends, last minute mad dash to accommodate a vegetarian momo eater or just a quite weekends with a special someone and lot of momos.

Although I have lot of special memories associated with momo, I hate making them. At first, I believed that I despised the repeated task of pinching dough and filling meat. I still hated it even when I got creative with each pinching of the dough and shape of individual momo.

I finally realized that more than disliking the monotony of making momo, I love the idea that someone made that “momo” just for me. To me, momo carries the warm feeling of someone taking care of me – maybe my ma, bhauju, fufu, bahini, sathi or just a complete stranger.  Each packet of dough filled with the curried meat is just made for me, someone took care of my needs and pampered me with my favorite dish.

For you many other Nepali people, momo would probably symbolize something else, it may mean comradery of working together in a group, taking care of people by feeding, sharing a plate with someone you just met, learning to cook as a child, finding innovative ways to steam momo in a college dorm, casual weekend gluttony, a bout of rebellion by eating meat against the religion, not giving into the peer pressure by staying vegetarian, or getting warmth in a winter night with the family. Whatever the reason maybe, lets celebrate talking, making, steaming, sharing, and eating momo this first week of February.

Related Posts

• Counting Calories in Momo
• Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha
• My attempt at making vegetarian momo
• Classic Momo Sauce – Roasted tomatoes and cilantro
• My Momo

I wanted to make an entire meal made of all pig meats after watching the TED talk by Christien Meindertsma. She is the author of the book “Pig 05049″, which discusses at least 185 non-pork pig products, from soaps to artificial hearts. I would call it – “The Pig Out Dinner”.

I had also been meaning to invite a few friends for a dinner, but was not following through my intentions. During one happy hour, some of my friends suggested an impromptu party at my place. I took advantage of the opportunity to host the pig themed dinner.

All of the invited friends were Nepali expats. I wanted to make the dinner in a style of a typical Nepali meal, but with non-traditional ingredients and using spices outside of the Indian subcontinent. The challenge was to make each dish consisting of pork from different parts of the world as well as to cook something that brings back memories of a typical meal from Nepal – dal, bhat and masu.

Here’s what I made for the pig out dinner;

Bacon Vodka – Pig Out Signature Drink
For a signature drink, I made bacon-infused vodka.

To make: add the left over bacon fat from cooking the bacon to vodka (or bourbon) in a mason jar, shake, let it stand, freeze it, remove the top hardened fat portion, filter the vodka through a paper coffee filters.

Fat from 2 lb of bacon
2 cups of vodka

The bacon flavor in the vodka was too strong. In order to reduce the total alcohol content and the bacony taste, I served the drink with twice the amount of chilled lime seltzer.

The bacon vodka was not a hit. People stuck with the beers and wines they brought. It might have been a more successful if I had delivered the bacon vodka differently. Next time I plan to serve the bacon vodka in Bloody Mary – that should work.

The Pig Out Appetizers

Pork Salami and Prosciutto with Brie and Bleu cheese
Simple, all I needed to do was buy them.

Pork Rinds
I served spicy and regular pork rind snacks from Utz. Again it was simple and tasty. Pork rinds are potato chips or cracker like snack, made by cooking and removing off most of the fat out of the pig’s rind.

Bacon Guacamole
Bacon with chopped crispy bacon. I cooked the bacon the night before the party. I chopped the refrigerated bacon into small pieces and prepped guacamole by adding tomatoes and onions (see how not to brown guacamole). Just before guests arrived, I added most of the chopped bacon to the guacamole and mixed them. I used remaining chopped bacon as garnish on top.

Even though, the guacamole was little toward the salty side, my guests still liked it. Note to self; add less salt if adding bacon.

The Pig Out Dinner Entrée
I served “a-typical” Nepali meal consisting of dal bhat masu.

Beans with Smoky Shredded Pork
As the dal (lentils), I served black bean cooked with smoked pulled pork. I made the black beans from dried Goya beans. I used the similar techniques from as the last time I made black beans (see how to make black beans) except for adding smoky pulled pork.

Rice with Pork Kielbasa Sausages
I made bhat (rice) with sliced pork kielbasa sausage. I added lime zest along with pinch of black pepper and salt for the flavor. Surprisingly, cooking the rice was the most difficult part because I was not used to making a large quantity of rice.

Slow-braised Pork Tenderloin
For masu (meat), I made pork tenderloins slow cooked in a crock-pot for about 18-20 hours. For 7.5 lb pork, I added 2 onions, 2 chopped bell peppers, 1 bunch or green onions, and 3 cans of chipotle abodo sauce.

The 3 cans were a bit too much of heat. I should have stayed with the 2 cans as I initially planned. The pork dish was similar to chipotle chili verde I made half a year ago.

The Pig Out Dessert (Idea only)
For dessert I was planning on baking cookies with chocolate chips, bits of bacon, some bacon fat, and maple syrup. However, I ran out of time and energy. Instead, I served them store bought cookies.

Making bacon cookies can be a separate pork related project sometime in the future – maybe all bacon dinner. Any takers?

The story of how I started respecting my sister’s cooking dates back to our college days.  My younger sister and I went to the same college. I started cooking at that time. Most of the cooking I learned was either by self-experimenting or by talking to my parents on the phone.

Being the older brother and a foodie, I instructed her on how to cook everything. At first, I was helpful. Later, when she became a decent cook, I was probably a nagging voice in the background. For example, I was someone who kept on telling her when to flip her food or what to add or substitute to enhance the flavors of the dish.

After years of living apart, she often brought a few things she made – usually desserts. Slowly, I started accepting the fact that she was a better baker than me.

I still considered myself a better cook – after all I had a food blog and I knew more about food.

The belief lasted until the last time I visited her. She made the most amazing dinner from the Indian subcontinent. I was genuinely pleased – I was not surprised.

The Nepali/Indian themed dinner started with mango lassi, a mango yogurt smoothie.

Her main course included the spicy chicken curry recipe published at DesiGrub by Minnat. The chicken curry was nearly as good as the one Minnat made.

Among all of her dishes my favorite was the paneer tikka masala or shahi paneer. This dish, made from Indian cottage cheese and paneer in a creamy tomato based sauce, was one of the best I ever had. It was rich without being too greasy. It was a perfect balance of savory and spicy. Paneer tikka masala was the dish that made me respect her cooking. She made it better than I could have ever done.

Mushroom curry made with button mushrooms was simple and reminded me of mushrooms my mom makes.

Kielbasa chili was made in a similar fashion as chicken chili. Instead of using chicken she used spicy kielbasa. This kielbasa dish is a perfect example of fusion cooking. She made a classic dish from home with with an influence from her current home in northeastern United States.

The other dish was lentil stew/soup, dal (see my best lentil soup).  She made a rich and thick dal, which was the favorite of one of the dinner guests.

Alongside everything, she served perfectly cooked basmati rice. She also served chopped onions and fresh green chilies, which are often served as the salad/condiment with the meal throughout the Indian subcontinent.

From now on, I accept that my little sister is better at making Indian/Nepali food than I am – although I still know more about beer and liquor.

Next post: Grand Marnier Tiramisu made by my sister

One of my favorite salads growing up in Nepal was Pomelo (Chinese grapefruit) salad made in a similar style as coleslaw. However, instead of a mayonnaise-based dressing, which is used in coleslaw, pomelo salad has a yogurt based dressing. The pomelo salad is known as Bhogatee Sadeko in Nepali, which roughly translates to marinated/seasoned (sadeko) pomelo (bhogatee, often spelled bhogate and mistranslated as grapefruit). It is also known as bhogatee (polmelo) paun (sour) in Newari language.

Pomelo, Citrus grandis or Citrus maxima, is perhaps the largest citrus fruit, about 7 inches or more in diameter, with a pale greenish yellow rind, which is a inch or so thick. Pomelo tastes like a bit like grapefruit but is sweeter, less tart,  and is not bitter.

Pomelo is native to southeastern Asia, and is cultivated and consumed in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Thailand , Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, etc. The attempts to introduce pomelo to the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century failed mainly due to inferior cultivar and enthusiasm. Currently, pomelo isn’t easily found in your everyday local grocery stores in the United States. However, it can be easily obtained at most local gourmet, Asian grocery stores and often in big box discount stores such as Costco.

In Nepal, pomelo is harvested around the beginning of the winter. A typical warm winter weekend may involve the family basking in sun on roof deck or porch and peeling off thick pomelo rinds for salad. The chef of the house, which is usually mom, marinates/spice up (sadeko) pomelo, while kids make hats out of pomelo rind and play.

During this thanksgiving, my cousin Sabi surprised us by making this traditional pomelo salad. This is how she made it. There is no exact amount for the recipe because there is no standard way of making it. Sugar and salt is added according to taste and also depends on the flavors, sweetness, and tartness of fruits used.

1 part pomelo
1 part other fruits (apples, bananas, oranges or any other fruits)
½ part plain yogurt
¼ part roasted ground sesame powder
salt
sugar
red chili pepper and/or paprika (a pinch per cup of salad)

1/8 part vegetable oil
fenugreek seeds (¼ teaspoon per cup of salad)
turmeric (a pinch per cup of salad)

Peal citrus fruits and add cut fruit pieces. You can substitute pomelo with sweet grapefruit, if you couldn’t find pomelo.

Yogurt is used as the base for this pomelo salad dressing.

Spice up salad dressing by adding spices.

Yogurt and ground roasted sesame are the key ingredients for the pomelo salad dressing. Add roasted sesame powder. You can make your own roasted sesame powder. Start by pan roasting sesame until it slightly browns, but be careful as it will start crackling and jumping off the pan. Let the roasted sesame cool. Ground it.

In the final step of its preparation; you temper the fruit salad mixed with yogurt and spices by adding warm oil seasoned with fenugreek. To season the oil, heat it with fenugreek seeds as shown in aloo sadeko. After fenugreek seeds turn black, turn off the heat, wait a bit and add the warm (be careful!) oil to the salad. Mix and eat.

Eating the pomelo salad after a long time brought back fond memories of my childhood — next time I will be sure to make a pomelo hat for myself.

I wish I took a second serving….

My passion for cooking started at a very young age – fueled by watching cook shows and browsing through cookbooks. My mother’s cooking skills and father’s desire for eating good food inspired me to learn good cooking. Finding out about food and trying new recipes was always fun and exciting.

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I cherish memories of “Saturday cookout session” back home in Nepal, which was also called “meat day”, where meat is usually served on weekends. Chicken curry used to be one of the most common dishes during those weekends. Every time I cooked a chicken curry, I always found there were new ways to prepare it. The chicken dishes came out perfect every time albeit with a new taste and style.

Last month, I made ‘spicy chicken curry’ dish for a friend’s surprise birthday dinner party. I was flattered when the chicken dish got so much attention. People complimented me on its deliciousness and on my wonderful culinary skills. The funny thing is that my spicy chicken dish is simple to prepare. All you do is put in the correct amount of ingredients and it’s done.

“Spicy chicken curry” in the menu was set in stone when another friend voiced his wish of having an authentic Nepali meal for the dinner. I gathered ideas from other people on how they prepared their version of spicy chicken curry. In the end, I created a new spicy chicken curry recipe that was a true amalgamated mishmash of all the recipes that I collected. I think chicken curry came out perfect, and my friend for whom the surprise dinner was set seconds my vote!

Spicy chicken curry recipe
Preparation and cooking time: 1 ½ hours
Serving: 4/5 persons

Marinade for spicy chicken;
2 lb boneless and skinless chicken thigh cutlets (washed and cut into about 1 inch pieces)
1 tablespoon ginger/garlic paste
1 finely chopped medium onion (red is preferred)
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
1 teaspoon red chili powder (more if you can take it!)
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
Salt to taste

Spicy chicken curry sauce;
2 big onions finely chopped (again, red is preferred)
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 inch cinnamon stick
3-4 dry curry leaves
3 cloves
4 to 5 green cardamom pods
2-3 red chilies
1 tablespoon of fenugreek (methi) seeds
2-3 tablespoons oil
2 big onions finely chopped (again, red is preferred)
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 teaspoon ginger and garlic paste
1 teaspoon coriander powder
3/4 teaspoon black pepper powder (adjust to suit your spice level)
¼ teaspoon cumin powder
2 tablespoon coconut milk
1 teaspoon curry powder
¼ cup cilantro leaves for garnish

Steps for making spicy chicken curry:

Marinate chicken pieces in chili, turmeric and black pepper powder, salt, ½ teaspoon oil, soya sauce, ginger/garlic paste and onion for 30 minutes. The key ingredient in the chicken curry recipe is choosing a boneless and skinless thigh meat. Don’t substitute with chicken breast. According to USDA, chicken breast and chicken thighs have similar calories, but the chicken thigh has about one third more fats. Red meat of chicken thighs is more flavorful and well suited for chicken curry. It won’t turn into dry and chewy chicken, which is often the case when you use chicken breast meat.

While the chicken pieces are being marinated, heat 1½ tablespoons of oil in your choice of cooking vessel. Add fenugreek seeds, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and curry leaves and red chilies.

Add the finely chopped onions and sauté until brown with a pinch of salt. Add ginger/garlic paste and sauté further for another 3 to 4 minutes on medium heat.

Add the marinated chicken and cook on high heat for 10 minutes, reduce the heat and cook covered for another 15 minutes.

Add coriander powder, cumin, pepper powder and combine well and simmer for another minute.

Add the tomatoes and let it cook for 3 to 4 minutes and mix well. Simmer until a layer of oil separates from the chicken sauce.

Add any curry powder and mix well. Add a cup of water to adjust consistency of gravy. Cook until chicken pieces are soft and you get the desired consistency for sauce. Don’t forget to adjust salt.

Add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk that thickens the gravy.

Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves.

Momo is my favorite food. For those who don’t know about momo, it’s a very similar to Chinese potstickers/dumplings or Japanese gyōza. To be honest, I was quite conflicted either to call my dish, momo or gyōza or dumplings, before writing this post. Other words are probably understood more widely but momo was what I was set to make, and how I know it from my heart. So be it, it’s “momo”. Oh well it’s not that I am calling a burger as “masu ko dalla”.

Often, I get asked by my vegetarian Nepali friends (Sau’bh, A’ya, A’u, S’e, Dha’na) how to make a good vegetarian momo. The easiest answer is to use any meatless sausage from your local grocery or homemade seitan instead of meat. However this time, I wanted to make a healthy and less processed vegetarian filling from scratch.

Many converted vegetarians don’t like momo much because they use watery vegetables that results in soggy overcooked momo. It’s complete blasphemy to art of momo making with complete disregard to the fact that momos are the texture food with meaty texture. You need to get the right texture not just flavor for your momos.

This is my journey on how to make a partially successful veggie momos. Partial success, because I’m still not satisfied with the final vegetarian momo. It’s definitely not as good as my favorite classic meat (masu) momo.

I used defrosted frozen spinach because it is has somewhat neutral flavor, is convenient, and has healthy overtones.

This is the most important step of making vegetarian momo — giving it texture. I added texture by adding lentil flour (urad dal) and use egg to bind the concoction. You can use other lentil flour such as chickpea flour or besan, now conveniently available in your local Wholefoods. I added imported momo masala for spicing my momos. If you don’t have momo masala, add any garam masala or make one. Please remember that all garam masala (or curry powders) are not created equal. Invest in a good one since it will last for many meals to come.

Here I’m improving my momo recipe by adding flavorful cilantros.

For more flavors, chopped onions, tomatoes and ghee were added. Everything could be added earlier but this shows how I was improvising (or was nervous about) my momo.

I used Nasoya wonton wrappers from a generic grocery store to wrap my momos.  My momo looked awful, but I was really tired and hungry. I just wanted to get done (also I can’t wrap momos well). For comparison, see some of the finest momo in this momo facebook album.

Steam it for about 10 minutes around when momo wrappers are cooked showing its shiny exterior.

Serve with classic momo sauce made with roasted tomatoes and fresh cilantro. As you can see from image of one open momo that the texture of even spinach momo was meaty like momo – not watery. Even though , the texture was fine, the momo was lacking something else.

I made a quite a few of these momo – so luckily I had the leftovers for dinner the next day. One of the classic ways to serve leftover momo is to deep fry or pan fry them. I decided on going a healthy route and baking my momos. Lightly coat with oil – maybe those Pam oil spray will come handy here. Bake 20 minutes in 375 °F oven. This still remains an attempt because I was not completely satisfied with it. Trust me the photo looks tastier.

Related Dumpling Posts

• Tuna Momo with the easiest momo sauce
• Counting Calories in Momo
• Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha
• My attempt at making vegetarian momo
• Classic Momo Sauce – Roasted tomatoes and cilantro
• My Momo

Here’s one of my simple and classic momo sauce with tomatoes, cilantro and black pepper or timur (similar to Szechuan pepper) . I made it for vegetarian momo.

Set oven to broil. Add chopped tomato and green chilies in oven safe pan (loaf pan here). Drizzle with oil.

Bake until you get desired amount of charring (about 10+ minutes).

Cool.

Add tomatoes and cilantro in blender. Add black pepper or timur. I added timur, which is a variant of easily found Szechuan pepper. Grind.

Store in a clean and sterilized* old pasta jar.

Serve chilled with steaming hot vegetarian momos.

*To sterilize pasta jar, put clean pasta jar in oven for 15 min+ at 250 °F. Turn off the oven. Let it cool inside the oven. Go green and use!

Related Dumpling Posts

• Tuna Momo with the easiest momo sauce
• Counting Calories in Momo
• Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha
• My attempt at making vegetarian momo
• Classic Momo Sauce – Roasted tomatoes and cilantro
• My Momo