Category Archives: Foodie

C Momo

Posted on October 6, 2013 | 31 comments

If you have ever met someone from Nepal, you must already know by now that Nepali people are crazy about momo. There are many varieties of momo and a simple recipe for one of them is posted here.

Today I am posting the recipe for C momo, C stands for chill so it is a hot and spicy momo recipe.

Ingredients

  • 20 pieces of steamed Momo (for recipe check here)
  • 2 tomatoes cut into quarters
  • 1 tablespoon of crushed garlic and ginger paste
  • 3 green chilies halved
  • 1 small red onion cut into quarters and with layers separated
  • 1 red capsicum cut into inch square shape
  • 3 tablespoons Oil
  • 5 tablespoons of ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons of chilli sauce/ hot and sweet sauce (more if you like hot)
  • 1 tablespoon  Chili paste/ half tablespoon chilli powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 5 tablespoons soy sauce
  • Coriander to garnish

C momo (2)

Steps

  • Preheat the oven to 200 0C and bake the tomatoes for 10 minutes or until tomatoes are cooked and skin starts peeling off.
  • In a pan, heat a spoon of oil and brown the momo. (optional)

C momo (3)

  • Take the momo out from the pan and put aside.
  • In the same pan, add remaining oil and fry crushed garlic and ginger paste.
  • Now add the baked tomatoes and cooked it until it is a smooth paste. If the sauce starts drying, add a small quantity of water.

C momo (4)

  • Now add green chill, onion, capsicum, and sauté for a couple of minutes.
  • Add ketchup, chill/hot and sour sauce, soya sauce and cook on low heat for few minutes. If the sauce starts to dry, add small quantity of water. Make sure the sauce is not very runny.

C momo (5)

  • Taste the sauce and add salt as requires. Soya sauce makes it pretty salty so watch the amount of salt you add.
  • Add momo to the sauce and stir and close the lid of the pan for 2 minutes allowing momo to heat.

C momo (6)

  • Transfer the momo to a plate and garnish with fresh coriander

C momo (1)

  • Tasty hot and spicy C momo is ready. Enjoy!

You may also like :

*Aloo chop *Chatamari *Gundruk Aloo Bhatmas Curry

31 Comments

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Raw chocolate with 100% cacao – No thanks

Posted on October 3, 2013 | 8 comments

Just a few weeks ago, I was telling you all the benefits of dark chocolate and trying to convert all of you to eating dark chocolate from now on. I must add a warning with that post because I had a taste of a 100% Cacao raw chocolate and it was not what I expected.

As you know I LOVE dark chocolate so one of my friends bought this chocolate for me from a health food store. You can see the packing looks great like any normal chocolate but this one is made from predominately Cacao not Cocoa.

chocolate

Did you know that Cacao is actually a super food? Not cocoa but Cacao; this tasty little bean is full of the good stuff. Cacao is derived from Theobroma Cacao beans, which literally means “Food of the Gods”. Cacao contains over 300 compounds including protein, fat, carbohydrates, fibre, iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium. Magnesium helps to build strong bones and is a muscle relaxant associated with feelings of calmness. Cacao is also high in sulphur, which helps form strong nails and hair.

The difference between the two is something I never considered before. Cacao refers to the raw form of chocolate, including the tree and bean. Raw cacao powder is not roasted, relatively unprocessed, and contains no sugar or cocoa butter and so retains more of its natural nutrients. Cocoa is the Anglicized version of the word “cacao.” Cocoa powder has been roasted, ground, and sometimes mixed with a sweetener and cocoa butter. Most chocolate today is loaded with sugars, dairy products, sodium, stabilizers, emulsifiers, preservatives, and more.

Knowing all this fact, I thought I would love this chocolate. I had a piece and it is too bitter and too bland to my liking. It would be great if you were after a 100% no artificial ingredient chocolate bar but I have to tell you that it tastes nothing like the chocolate we know. For me it was one of the worst chocolates I have ever tasted.

As you can see in the packing, it says No sugar and 5.0 g fat per serve which means I know it will be great for my body but my mouth wouldn’t allowed me to have another piece.

Just to check how everyone would react, I gave the chocolates to my colleagues, AS and his cousin. All of them agreed with me that they would never eat this chocolate again. Anyway, if you can eat it I am sure it is great for you as raw Cacao bars are filled with nutrients and natural ingredients your body will benefit from.

We were joking that this is the chocolate we should introduce to our kids for the first time. Either they will love it and have all the health benefits or they will never eat chocolates again. 🙂

Just some quick steps on how cocoa bean becomes a chocolate bar

  • It takes six months for cocoa beans to ripen. Harvests take place twice a year
  • The beans, which are covered in a white pulp, are removed from the pods
  • Beans are put in large heaps and covered up to ferment. This takes about a week. and is when the cocoa flavour starts to develop
  • Beans are then dried for a week then taken to the chocolate factory
  • They are then roasted, and separated from their shells in hulling machines
  • The insides of the bean, called nibs, are turned into a liquid or chocolate liquor
  • The chocolate liquor is blended with cocoa butter, and other ingredients and stirred for several hours
  • The resulting thick mixture comes out and is poured into bar-shaped containers
  • The bars are now ready to be packaged and eaten, about four days after the cocoa beans reached the factory

You may also like:

*Dark chocolate health benefits *Benefits of wheat grass Juice *Eight foods you should never eat again

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Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut

Posted on September 22, 2013 | 7 comments

Ingredients

  • 185 g dark chocolate
  • 125 g butter
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Steps

  • Preheat the oven to 2000 C.
  • Lightly grease a deep 20 cm square cake pan, and line the base with baking paper.

Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut (2)

  • Melt chocolate and butter together in a saucepan over low heat, and stir in sugar and eggs one at a time.
  • Beat well with a wooden spoon, and then stir in sifted flour and walnuts.

Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut (3)

  • Pour into prepared cake pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until skewer inserted into the center of the slice comes out clean.

Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut (4)

  • Allow to cool in the pan, out of the oven, for a few minutes before running a knife around the edge of the brownie then transferring onto a cooling wire to cool completely down.

Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut (5)

  • Cut into squares and serve.

Chocolate fudge brownie with walnut (6)

You may also like :

*Chocolate cupcakes
 *Blueberry muffin
 *Chocolate mud cake with ice-cream

You may also like :

*Chocolate cupcakes
 *Blueberry muffin
 *Chocolate mud cake with ice-cream

7 Comments

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Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom

Posted on September 17, 2013 | 18 comments

Sometimes I like to add everything I love to eat in one recipe and this is the result 🙂

Ingredients

  • 500g penne
  • 200gm chicken breast, diced
  • 8 rashers smoked bacon, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 1 capsicum, finely diced
  • 200g chopped fresh button mushrooms
  • 4 dried red chilli diced
  • 2 eggs
  • 30ml olive oil
  • 350ml thickening cream
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (1)

Steps

  • Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil and cook the penne as per the packet’s instructions.

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (6)

  • In a frying pan over medium heat, add oil.
  • Once the oil is hot, add dried chopped chilli.
  • Add diced chicken and cook until it is brown. Once chicken is cooked, add bacon and cook until the fat starts to melt.

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (2)

  • Add the garlic, capsicum and onion then cook until the onion becomes soft and transparent.
  • Add the mushrooms, butter, and further cook until the mushrooms are soft.

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (3)

  • Add penne and stir through.
  • Make a well in the middle and add the cream and eggs.

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (4)

  • Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  •  Simmer until the cream becomes a bit thick
  • Pasta is ready to serve with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Creamy penne with chicken, bacon and mushroom (5)

You may also like :

*Creamy spinach and mushroom pasta *Thai red curry chicken *Jamie Oliver’s Dan Dan Noodles

18 Comments

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Bhatmas Sandeko

Posted on September 12, 2013 | 10 comments

Bhatmas is Nepalese for soya beans and this is one of the easiest and quickest recipes.

Ingredients

  •  100gm bhatmas (dried Soya beans)
  • 1 finely chopped green chili
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • 1 teaspoon red chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • Salt as per taste

Method

  • Fry soybeans (with oil or without oil) in a pan until the beans are cook. Soybeans is cooked when the cover started to brown, take it off the heat and let it cool.

batmas (1)

  • Add ginger, garlic, green chilli, salt and red chili powder. Mix well.

batmas (2)

  • Bhatmas sadeko is ready to be serve.

You may also like:

*Seviya kheer (vermicelli kheer) *Kheer(Rice pudding) *Gundruk Aloo Bhatmas Curry

10 Comments

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