Category Archives: Nepali food

Nepali Sel – roti (Crispy Rice Donut)

Posted on October 6, 2012 | 25 comments

Dashain, the biggest festival of Hindu in Nepal, is just around the corner so I decided to learn how to make Sel roti, a speciality of the festival.  Dashain is celebrated for 15 days in Nepal. Sel can be eaten as a snack by itself or together with some side dishes if you like, such as aloo ko achar. Last Dashain I bought them $2 a piece so this time I wanted to make my own 🙂

Ingredients

  • 2 cups rice flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup rice soaked overnight
  • 5 tablespoons sugar (add more if you like sweet)
  • 2 cups vegetable oil for deep frying
  • ½ cup ghee (clarified butter)

Steps

  • Wash and soak rice overnight, drain excess water and grind into a semi coarse paste.

  • In a bowl, add ghee and sugar.
  • Using electric mixer, mix it well and slowly add rice flour and plain flour.

  • Add all the rice paste to the mixture and mix it well using hand.

  • Leave the batter for few hours in the fridge.
  • Heat oil in a deep pan, making sure the oil is not too hot.

  • Clean an empty water bottle and cut into half so it will be like a funnel. (Use funnel if you have but I didn’t so I used empty water bottle.)

  • Put the mixture into the funnel and carefully, pour batter into oil into a doughnuts shape

  • Once it comes to the surface and is golden brown at the bottom, turn it over and cook for one minute on the other side.

  • Use wooden chopsticks to turn the Sel if you have one so that the Sel doesn’t break.

  • Once both sides are crispy and golden brown, remove from the oil and place on paper towel until ready to serve

  • Repeat with the rest of the mixture

You may also like :

*Yomari *Momo *Aloo chop

25 Comments

Posted in Nepali food, Recipe

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Chatamari

Posted on May 11, 2012 | 7 comments

Chatamari is a special Newari dish which is like a crepe made of rice flour and optionally topped with mince meat with seasoning or vegetables.

Use non stick pan so that Chatamari doesn’t stick to the pan.

Ingredients 

For Rice Base

  • 2 cups rice flour
  • 3 eggs (beaten)
  • 1 cup water (depends on consistency)
  • 1 cup ghee or butter
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup of peas
  • A bunch of coriander leaves chopped

For Toppings

  • 250 grams minced chicken
  • ½ cup finely chopped onions
  • ½ cup diced tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon ginger, minced
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons curry powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Steps

  • Mix minced meat, salt, pepper, onion, tomato, oil, peas, curry powder, coriander leaves, garlic and ginger in a big bowl and put aside. This will be the topping for the Chatamari.
  • Mix rice flour, eggs, water and salt to make batter.
  • You may need to add more water if necessary to achieve the consistency similar to the batter for crepes.
  • Heat a non stick pan.
  • Pour in some batter and spread out into a thin crust. Cover the pan and cook just on one side for a few minutes. Don’t flip onto the other side.
  • Put the toppings on top of the Chatamari and cook for a few minutes by covering the lid.
  • If you like your meat well done, take the Chatamari and put it in the oven on low heat for 2 minutes. But this tends to dry the Chatamari. Alternately you can pre-cook the minced meat mix and then add it to the Chatamari in this step.
  • For vegetarian options, topping can be made with potatoes, onions and tomatoes or if you eat eggs just use scrambled eggs for toppings.
  • Serve hot with spicy achar or your favourite sauce.

You may also like :

* *Goat curry *Momo

7 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali food, Newari Food, Recipe

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Aloo Chop

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 8 comments

Aloo means potatoes in Nepali and this is a simple Nepali vegetarian dish.

Ingredients

  • 5 medium-sized potatoes
  • 2 onions, finely chopped
  • 2 cups gram flour (besan)
  • 3-4 green chillies finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon of ginger paste
  • 2 teaspoons of  garlic paste
  • 1 lemon (squeezed)
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • A pinch of  baking soda
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for deep frying

Method:

  • Boil the potatoes (use pressure cooker if you have one) and make a mash after peeling off the skin.
  • Add chopped onion, chillies, ginger, garlic, lime and salt and mix well. Make sure the mixture is a bit lumpy and not too smooth like a paste.
  • Heat two spoon oil and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the mustard crackles, remove from heat and add to the potato mixture and mix well.

  • In one bowl, make a batter from gram flour and baking soda.
  • Add salt to taste, cumin seeds, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
  • The batter should not be runny and should remain a bit thick.
  • Divide the potato mixture into equal sized portions, in the size of small egg.  and make a flat disc shape.

  • Dip each disc in the batter and deep fry till golden brown in colour.
  • Serve hot with achar/ketchup

You may also like :

*Momo *Aloo ko achar *Chicken chili

8 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Recipe

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Titaura

Posted on March 12, 2012 | 29 comments

Anyone who is from Nepal already knows what Titaura is. Just thinking about it, my mouth is salivating already. For the rest of you who don’t know, Tiatura is sweet, sour, salty or hot or mixture of all those made from fruits like lapsi (pronounced “Lopsy”) which is also known as Nepali Hog Plum or scientific name Choerospondias axillaries. Titaura is also known as Paun in Nepal Bhasa.

Titaura seems to be famous among teenage girls so it is also known as lyase paun. In Nepal Bhasa the word lyase means young girl .

Lapsi is found in Nepal in the hills and they bloom in spring which is around March /April. Lapsi grows in a tree and it has green cover with flesh and a single seedstone inside when it is ripe.  Lapsi by itself tastes sour but when they make Titaura, they boil lapsi and take the seedstone out . The gluey flesh is mixed with ingredients like sugar, chilli, salt, other spices depending upon what type of Titaura need to be made. Then it is dried in the sun before packing in a plastic pouch to sell it.

One of the most famous shops in Kathmandu for Titaura is Ratna Park Paun bhandar. The Tiatura from Paun bhandra is sold every where in Nepal form corner shop to supermarkets. These days you also find Titaura made from mango, tamarind, dates, lemon, gooseberry and lime.

For the last few years, we have been lucky to get Titaura in Nepali /Indian grocery shops in Sydney as well. It does cost almost 100% more but it is worth the price for the treat sometimes. I don’t buy it  often but when I do, I love it. I love the sweet ones a lot. Not a big fan of salty and hot ones.

Normally in Nepal, it is believed that these Titaura are not made in hygienic way and are discouraged by parents but you will find people of all age enjoying it nevertheless.

If you ever get a chance, do try it out. You may like it. 🙂

29 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali food

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Yomari Recipe

Posted on September 21, 2011 | 13 comments

It was my nephew 4th birthday yesterday , so my cousin sister (D) decided to make Yomari to celebrate his birthday in Newari tradition. In Newari tradition, we make Yomari every even birthday (2,4,6,8,12) until a child turns 12. Yomari defined by Wikipedia is “a delicacy of  Newars. It consists of an external covering of rice-flour and an inner content of sweet substances such as  Chaku (Molasses)”

I have helped my mum make Yomari before but never knew the step. Finally I know how to make it and I am sharing here if anyone else want to experiment. So this how we did it.

yomari

Ingredients

  • Rice flour
  • Hot water
  • Sesame seed
  • Chaku(Molasses)

Steps

  • Mix rice flour with hot water and make dough. Make sure you don’t make the dough too soft. Cover the dough with a warm and damp cloth and rest it for 10-15 minutes.
  • Use fry pan to heat chaku (molasses) to get a liquid chocolate like mixture.
  • Mix Chaku and fried sesame seed.
  • In a small bowl pour some water and oil. Now take small amount of dough in a hand and make a round shape.
  • Now press the dough to make a cone-shaped crust as shown in picture.Yomari
  • One side of Yomari should have long tip and other side is hollow.
  • Fill it with mixture of molasses mixed with Sesame seed.
  • Using both hand slowly close the hole and make shape as shown in the picture.

  • Steam it for 15 min.
  • Now it is ready to serve. Enjoy!

 We made 4 with only rice stuffing inside to make Yomari mala (garland) for birthday boy  and rest was made with chaku  (Molasses) . It was yummy.

You may also like :

*Aloo chop *Chatamari *Gundruk Aloo Bhatmas Curry

13 Comments

Posted in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepali food, Newari Food, Recipe

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