Category Archives: Nepal

Celebrating Teej

Posted on August 28, 2014 | 14 comments

Today is Teej, the festival for women in Nepal and is celebrated by most Hindu women on the 3rd day of Bhadra Sukala Paksha (according to Nepali lunar calendar). It generally falls in late August or early September. This year the Fasting day has fallen on today. I am from Newar cast so even though we are Hindu we don’t celebrate Teej but I still join Teej celebration in Sydney with my friends.

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Teej is a day when woman fast for the whole day for marital bliss, well-being of their spouse and children and purification of their own body and soul. Married women fast for their husband’s long life, prosperity and long and strong relationship between them until death in this life and all the lives to come, while the unmarried pray for the perfect husband. Unless one is ill or physically unfit, fasting is followed by women and girls who have reached puberty.

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Teej is a four-day-long festival in Nepal and each day has its own significance.

  • First day is called ‘Dar Khane Din‘, the day to make merry.
  • The Second day is a fasting day.
  • The third day is purification day.
  • The fourth day is ‘Rishi Panchami‘.

Please read more about it here and here.

I wore my new red sari and tried my best to look like an authentic Nepalese woman with chura and tika and join my friends and family for an evening of fun.

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Like every year, we celebrated Teej last Saturday with Dar, lots of yummy foods, dance, songs and lots of fun.

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Sharing some of the photos from the day.

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Wishing Happy Teej to all of you out there celebrating today. Have a great time and enjoy your day.

Teej (4) Teej (10)Take care!

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

14 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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

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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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