Category Archives: Nepal

Golveda Kerau Achar (Tomato and Green Pea’s achar)

Posted on August 18, 2014 | 4 comments

Ingredients

  • 4 medium tomatoes chopped
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 cup green peas (I used frozen one)
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon coriander powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Fresh coriander to garnish

Steps

  • Heat up the pan on high heat and add oil.
  • Add turmeric powder and peas and stir it for a minute or so.

achar (1)

  • Add chopped tomatoes into the pan, stir it and cover it with a lid for 3-5 minutes. Do not forget to stir it in between.
  • Once the tomatoes are mushy in texture, add chilli powder, salt to taste, coriander and cumin powder.

achar (2)

  • Stir well and mash the tomatoes to give it a gravy texture.
  • Add ¼ cup of water and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes on low heat.

achar (3)

  • Place the achar in a bowl and garnish with fresh coriander.

achar (4)

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Recipe

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Dry fry Nepali style goat curry

Posted on August 15, 2014 | 13 comments

I had guests for lunch last weekend. They informed me that they don’t eat chicken and chicken is what I do best. I decided to make goat for them but wanted to do something special. I have never tried the goat like this before but was so proud at the end when the goat curry turned out so good that I didn’t even have a piece left at the end of the day. Even my brother who doesn’t like goat at all ate it and had second helping. AS was really happy and the guests all praised my cooking. My mum will be so proud to know that I am becoming a better cook every day.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg goat with bones cut into 1 inch cubes (pieces with bones can be a bit bigger too)
  • 3 medium onions thinly sliced
  • 2 dry red chilies
  • 2 medium tomatoes diced
  • 2 tablespoons ginger & garlic paste
  • 1 inch cinnamon stick
  • 1 tablespoon turmeric powder
  • 6-8 curry leaves
  • 1 tablespoon red chili powder
  • 3 tablespoons garam masala powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 5 tablespoons oil
  • Fresh coriander to garnish

Method:

  • In a pressure cooker, put cut goat meat cover half the meat with water and add 1 tablespoon of salt.
  • Cook it until the whistle goes off 5-8 times. Let it cool down.
  • The meat is perfect if you can separate the meat from the bone with hand.

goat curry (1)

  • Drain the water and pour the meat into a large bowl with 2 tablespoons ginger & garlic paste, 1 tablespoon red chili powder, 3 tablespoons garam masala powder, 2 table spoon of oil and marinat well and leave it for at least a few hours in the fridge. I left mine overnight and it was just great.

goat curry (2)

  • In a pan, add oil, onion and salt and sauté until onion becomes soft and translucent. Take the onion out of the pan and put it aside.

goat curry (3)

  • In the same pan, add remaining oil, add dry red chillies, cinnamon stick and curry leaves and fry them for a minute.

goat curry (4)

  • Now add the marinated meat and fry until the meat is brown on all the sides. Keep stirring frequently making sure, the meat doesn’t stick to pan and keep frying for 5 to 8 minutes on medium flame.

goat curry (5)

  • Add tomatoes and fry them all together for about 5 minutes or until tomatoes are cooked and mussy.

goat curry (6)

  • Transfer into a serving bowl and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

goat curry (7)

Take care and happy FRIDAY ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

13 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Recipe

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Gai Jatra

Posted on August 11, 2014 | 4 comments

As you know in Nepal, there are heaps of festivals every year and today is Gai jatra. Gai means cow in Nepali and jatra means festival, so it is a festival of cows. It is said people in ancient times started worshiping Yamaraj,”the god of death” on this day.

The festival commemorates the death of people during the year. According to the tradition, every family who has lost a relative during the past year must participate in a procession through the streets of Kathmandu leading a cow. If a cow is unavailable then a young boy dressed as a cow is considered a fair substitute. It is believed that the cow, revered as a holy animal by Hindus, will help the deceased relative’s journey to heaven.

Legend has it that, when King Pratap Malla lost his son, his wife, the queen, was grief-stricken and would not be consoled. The king was very sad to see the condition of his beloved queen and in spite of several efforts could not lessen the grief of his wife.

Thus Pratap Malla announced that anyone who could make the queen laugh would be rewarded adequately. He also asked everyone in the valley to send a cow each for every dead relative in the family to show the queen that their son was not the only one who died.

During the festival of Gaijatra, the cow procession was brought before the grief-stricken queen. Then the participants began ridiculing and be-fooling the important people of the society. Finally, when the social injustices and other evils were highlighted and attacked mercilessly, the queen could not help but smile. The queen laughed and the king instituted a tradition of including jokes, satire, mockery and lampoon into the Gaijatra celebration. This still continues till today.

After the procession is over, in the afternoon, nearly everyone takes part in another age-old tradition in which the participants dress up and wear masks. The occasion is filled with songs and jokes. Mockery and humor of every kind become the order of the day until late in the evening. Hence, Gaijatra is a healthy festival which enables the people to accept the reality of death and to prepare themselves for life after death. According to Hinduism, “whatever a man does in his life is a preparation leading to a good life after death”.

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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Preserved lemon achar (kagati ko achar)

Posted on August 5, 2014 | 6 comments

Ingredients

  • 1 kg small lemon
  • 350 gms salt
  • 150 gms red chili powder
  • 20 gms turmeric powder
  • 150ml of oil

IMG_1361

Steps

  • Wash the lemons and use paper towel to pat dry.
  • Let it air dry for a few minutes after that to ensure there are no water particles.
  • In the meantime, wash a glass bottle/pickle jar and dry it well.
  • Cut each lemon into quarters.
  • In a large bowl, add lemon, salt, chilli and turmeric powder.

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  • Mix well with hands to mix all the spices with the lemon to coat them with the spices.

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  • Transfer prepared pickle into the glass bottle/ jar using a spoon.

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  • Make sure you fill only ¾ of the jar. Close the lid tightly so no air can go inside. Use glad wrap on the lid if necessary to make it air tight.

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  • Leave for a week under direct sunlight to dry the lemon.

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  • Move the lemon around every day so the spice gets to all of the lemons and they all get the sun .
  • The lemon is ready to eat once the salt melts and coats the lemon wedges.
  • If you want to make the pickle last longer, add oil into the jar and keep in the sun for 2 more days.
  • Now the pickle will last for a few months.
  • Never use wet hands or spoon to handle pickle.

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  • Enjoy!!!

 Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

6 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Recipe

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Nirbuni for my nephew (second birthday)

Posted on July 29, 2014 | 15 comments

I swear it feels like yesterday that I told you I had a new man in my life (my li’l nephew) and gosh it has been two years now. Even though he was born in 18 July, we celebrated his birthday on 26th of July which was determined by his birth chart and our own Nepali calendar.

Since his birth, he has given joy to everyone including his parents, us, my parents and my sister in law’s parents. When he was visiting last month to Nepal, he was the apple of the eye and was spoiled rotten by everyone.

Strangely, for reasons unknown and out of traditions handed down from generation to generation, the first birthday of a child is not celebrated by Newars. When a child is born, he will have chhaiti, nawaran then pasni. After pasni, the big celebration is second birthday, which is known as Nirbuni in Newari.

According to tradition, we make Yomari every even birthday (2, 4, 6, 8, 12) until a child turns 12. Yomari is a delicacy of the Newars. It consists of an external covering of rice-flour and an inner content of sweet substances such as chaku (Molasses).

yomari

During Nirbuni, a big puja is performed and the child is given a garland made out of two yomaris. The child is also given tika and sagun and prayed to ward off evil spirits from the child’s body. If we were in Nepal, relatives would come along with gifts and sweets for the kid. Therefore, this birthday was a big deal for us.

We started Saturday making yomari and sagun. With the help of our cousin it was done and then the puja started. My nephew was good during the puja as he sat on his dad’s lap while I perform the puja.

Nirbuni (12)I am not expert on performing the puja but this is what I did.

  • First I gave Nasala, a few drops of water, in the palm of the right hand of my nephew to sprinkle some into his mouth and the rest over his body for purification.
  • Then I put tika on Lord Ganesh with water, rice, flowers, and vermilion powder as well as a plate of sagun in front of him.
  • Then I gave water, rice, flowers, and vermilion powder to my nephew to worship the Lord Ganesh and also to all the God and Goddess by throwing the rice towards the ceiling.
  • Then I placed tika on his forehead and put a flower on his head.

Nirbuni (14)Nirbuni (11)

  • Then I placed the Yomari mala followed by flower mala.

Nirbuni (13)

  • After that I put bits of rice, radish, coins, cucumber in a small container and poured them on his head. This is believed to take all the evil spirits away from him. I did this three times.

Nirbuni (8)

  • Then,I gave Sagun to him. For Sagun, you put a plate of egg, bara (lentil cake), meat (chicken), a piece of giner and fish in the right hand and yogurt in the left hand.

Nirbuni (9)Nirbuni (15)

  • Once the process is finished with my nephew, I gave tika to the rest of the family, followed by sagun.

My parents and my SIL’s parents were on skype watching the ceremony. They were happy to watch all the ceremony even though they are so far away.

I also took tray of fruits, biscuits and a three piece suit for him as a birthday gift.

Nirbuni (10)

He looked really adorable in the suit.

Nirbuni (5)Then there was a party in the evening. I did the decoration and was happy with the result. It was a fun party with lots of kids.

Nirbuni (7)

The house was chaotic in a good way for the rest of the evening where kids ran, laughed , danced and played.

Nirbuni (3) Nirbuni (2)We had a nice cake for him and the food was catered so everyone enjoyed the day. It was such a fun day and the little man was very happy with all the attention and gifts.

Nirbuni (1)

On Sunday, I baked cupcakes for him to take to his childcare to celebrate his birthday. The childcare request simple individual cupcakes so I baked them myself.

Nirbuni (6) Nirbuni (4)Overall, it was a great nirbuni celebration for my nephew.

Wishing little man all the happiness of this world.

Take care ,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

15 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Nepal, Newari Culture, Newari Food

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