Category Archives: Nepal

Chicken choila / chhoela / Choila

Posted on November 11, 2012 | 3 comments

I learned this recipe from my BIL (K didi’s husband). He is one of the best cooks around us and he loves cooking. I am sure it is true when they say that when you cook with love, it tastes better. He does put lots of time and effort in his cooking as well.

Ingredients

  • 500gm boneless chicken
  • Few stems spring onion
  • 2 small green chilies
  • 1 red onion finely sliced
  • coriander leaves
  • 5 cloves of fresh garlic
  • 2 inch on fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 teaspoons chili flakes
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (Methi )
  • salt to taste

Steps

  • Cut chicken breast into thin layers.
  • Heat the non-stick frying pan and sauté the chicken until cooked.

  • Cook on both side and make sure, the chicken doesn’t get burnt.
  • Once both sides are golden brown, repeat the process with all the chicken.

  • When you are doing this in batches, make sure you cover the cooked chicken in a container so it doesn’t become dry. This will also make the chhoela juicy and tender.
  • Once all the meat is cooked let it cool down for few minutes, slice the chicken into small diagonally into inch size pieces so it looks better for the presentation. Put all the meat in a big bowl.

  • Make a paste in the blender using fresh garlic, fresh ginger, fresh chilli and fresh coriander. If you don’t have fresh ginger and garlic, you can used readymade paste but fresh always tastes better.

  • Then add this paste along with sliced onions, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, chili flakes, turmeric powder and salt into a bowl with the chicken. Mix it well.

  • Now heat up the pan, add oil and fenugreek seeds and fry it till it turns dark brown. Make sure it doesn’t burn and turn black otherwise it will have a bitter taste.

  • Pour the oil over the chicken and mix it properly.
  • Cut the stem of the green onion into about 2 inch long sizes. Slice it into thin slices and add it to the chicken.

  • Add finely sliced red onion to the chicken

  • Garnish with fresh coriander and Chicken chhoela is ready to be served!

You may also like :

*Chicken chili *Goat curry *Momo

3 Comments

Posted in Nepali Culture, Nepali food, Recipe

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Bhuhari is going to Nepal

Posted on November 9, 2012 | 16 comments

Bhuhari means daughter in law in Nepali.

As per our plan, I have booked my flight to go to Kathmandu, Nepal for mid of December.  I know I have been back form my Europe trip not long ago and l haven’t finished blogging about places we visited in Europe but it has been more than a year since we went to Nepal so, it is a perfect time to go again. We will be using our Christmas and New Year break with our annual leave to accommodate this holiday.

We will be going via Bangkok and will be stopping over for 4 days to do some sightseeing , some shopping and meeting AS’s family . We had been to Thailand before but I will be really nice to go again and meet AS’s new niece. She is so cute.

While in Nepali, my nephew will have his Pasni ceremony as well so we have a celebration and a holiday with our family. My brother, sister in law and nephew will be travelling there before us.

I always like to book my holiday in advance so I can look forward to the day and that keeps me going. I am always very eager to go to Nepal and I am this time as well but I have some fear of all the changes I will face.

This time, going to Nepal will be very different for me than ever before. This will be first time for me to go to my home town as a Bhuhari. It may sound strange in western society but life after marriage for Nepali women is very different than here. Lots of things do change which I haven’t really felt because I am in Australia but that will affect me while I am in Nepal.

Every time, I go to Kathmandu, my parents would come to pick me up at the airport but I am not sure what will happen this time. Because I am meant to go to AS’s house (my new home) from the airport. I am thinking to tell my parents not to come to the airport to receive me as I don’t want them to go home without me but instead am planning to go and visit there on the same day in the evening.

I will have to divide my time between two houses this time and I have no idea how I can manage that easily.

Going to Nepal always meant waking up late, not exercising , being spoilt my parents with yummy food , going out and meeting my friends and relatives, a short break to somewhere with my parents and lots of relaxation.

But I am not too sure I can keep this attitude in my new home.  I think it will be very rude to wake up at 8 am and go to kitchen where my MIL will be preparing breakfast for everyone. We have help but still she likes to do lot of things herself. Don’t get me wrong, as I have mentioned before as well, my MIL is very understanding and caring lady but still I can’t be spoilt the way my mum makes me when I am with her.

I am not too sure how I need to plan my days as there are lots of pending invitation we need to attend this time form AS families’ side. As it is a culture in Nepal to invite newlyweds for dinner after their wedding, we got lot of those invitations after our wedding last year. But as we had only 4 days after the wedding, we declined them and told everyone that we will be visiting them next time when we come back to Kathmandu. That means most of our evenings we’ll be dining out either at AS’s relatives’ house or mine’s.

Even in terms of clothing, I don’t know what I will be expected to wear. Like I mentioned in my post before, married women in Nepal dress differently after their wedding. So I am sure I can’t dress however I want. I don’t really mind wearing Sari and Kurta while I am there but it will be mid-winter so I am not too sure how easy it is going to be. Even a year after the wedding I will be a newlywed buhari so I need to learn all the right manners :).

I am sure with all the confusion and anxiety I am still going to have a great time with my two beautiful families, just thinking about it makes me bit anxious sometimes though. There is still a long time till I land in Kathmandu but I can’t wait to write about my experience and Nepal  from Kathmandu  🙂

16 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Personal, Social Issue

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Learn Nepali

Posted on November 6, 2012 | 4 comments

Nepali /Nepalese is official language of Nepal.

I found that many people search ” Learn Nepali’ and end up in my blog so I will be adding a new section called ” Learn Nepali”.’

I have found these videos in YouTube which can be very helpful for anyone trying to learn Nepali.

I will keep adding other useful materials .

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

I also found this website which looks really promising. Please check out.

Learn more Nepali

4 Comments

Posted in Learn Nepali, Nepal

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How to make Chicken chili – Nepali Style

Posted on November 4, 2012 | 48 comments

This used to be one of my favourite entrée served in Nepali wedding parties back in the day when I was a kid. I still love them and I learned this from my BIL, my cousin K didi’s husband. It is simple, quick and yummy.

Ingredients

  • 2 chicken breast, boneless
  • 1 Spanish Onion
  • 1 large capsicum
  • 4 Green chilli
  • 2 big tomatoes
  • 1 table-spoon chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 1 table-spoon turmeric powder
  • 1 table-spoon cumin seed
  • 3 table-spoon Tomato ketchup
  • 2 table-spoon plain flour
  • 1 table-spoon ginger garlic paste
  • Few stems of green shallot chopped
  • 1 small bunch of fresh chopped coriander
  • 2 cloves of fresh garlic crushed
  • 1 inch of fresh ginger crushed
  • 1 egg
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil to fry

Steps

  • Cut the onion into quarters and take off each skin one by one.

  • Cut capsicum and tomatoes around 1 inch square in size.

  • Cut the chicken breast around 1 inch square in size.

  • Cut the green chili into 2 pieces length wise,
  • Put chicken breast in a big bowl and mix well with cumin, chilli, turmeric powder, salt and ginger garlic paste.

  • Then add plain flour and egg and mix it. Make sure to coat all the chicken pieces well.

  • Heat oil in a pan.

  • Fry the marinated chicken cubes in the oil.

  • Once it turns golden brown, take it out from the heat and put aside.

  • In a wok heat 2 tablespoon of oil and add sliced green chilli, cumin seed, crushed ginger and  garlic and fry for about a minute.

  • Add tomato ketchup in the wok and let it cook for a few minutes.

  • Add fried chicken and mix it well with the sauce.

  • Now add Spanish onion, tomatoes and capsicum.

  • Give it a quick toss we don’t want the onion to cook.

  • Add green shallot and coriander and give it a quick toss and take it off the heat.

  • Serve it as an entrée or with rice.

You may also like :

* *Goat curry *Momo

48 Comments

Posted in Nepali food, Recipe

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Gundruk Aloo Bhatmas Curry

Posted on November 2, 2012 | 13 comments

Gundruk is fermented green vegetables like mustard, turnip, radish, cauliflower leaves or any green leaves like spinach (Saag). It is one of the famous foods in Nepal. It can be made as a curry or as achar. It has a characteristic sour taste and gives an acidic and cured smell. It is Brownish Black in colour.

Gundruk is one of the most popular vegetarian dishes in Nepal. In Nepal you can buy it or you can make your own. If you are interested in making Gundruk, please click here for the steps . It is really easy.

The gundruk in this recipe was made by my cousin K didi in Sydney but we can also buy Gundruk in Nepali grocery stores these days.

It is served as a side dish but it can be made into an appetiser as a soup. Gundruk is an important source of minerals particularly during the off-season and green vegetables are not  available in rural areas when the diet consists of mostly starchy tubers and maize which tend to be low in minerals.

Today I am sharing the recipe for Gundruk with potatoes and soybean curry.

Ingredients

  • Gundruk (2 fist full)
  • 4 potatoes
  • 2 tomatoes chopped
  • 100 gm. of soybeans
  • 5 cloves of fresh garlic
  • 6 tablespoons of oil
  • 2 teaspoons cumin powder
  • 2 teaspoons coriander powder
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder
  • Salt to taste

Steps

  • Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch cubes.

  • Heat 1 table spoon oil on a pan and fry the soybean.

  • When it is soft take it out of the pan and keep it aside.
  • Peel fresh garlic and use pestle and mortal to crush them. If you don’t have fresh garlic, use 1 tablespoon of garlic paste.

  • In a pan, heat 1 table spoon of oil and fry the gundruk.

  • It will take only a few seconds for it to be cooked. Take it out of pan and keep it aside.
  • In a pot, heat remaining oil. Add dried chilli.

  • Add crushed garlic and potatoes with turmeric powder and salt.

  • Fry it for a while and then add chopped tomatoes, cumin, coriander and chili powder.

  • Fry it for a while. If potatoes start sticking to the pot, add a small quantity of water and keep frying for 5 minutes.

  • Now add 2 cups of water into the pot and cover it with the lid. Let it cook for 5 more minutes.

  • Now add the fried soybeans and gundruk into the pot and mix it well.

  • Remove the pot from the stove. Take some potatoes out of the pot and smash it and put it back into the pot. This will thicken the gravy.

  • Server with rice. Yummy!

You may also like :

*Aloo dum *Aloo ko achar *Aloo chop

13 Comments

Posted in Nepali food, Recipe

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