Lai Kawaf (Daikon Radish with Goat curry)

This is one of classic and authentic curry dish that my mother used to make. It’s my all time absolute favourite curry dish. It’s a comfort food that goes very well with bowl of steam rice.

Normally we make it this curry with buffalo meat. Buffalo meat is the staple of newari cuisine. I love buffalo meat. It’s hard to get buff here so I substituted with goat meat.

I went to market last Saturday. I bought goat leg on skin. I love meat on bone and with skin. It is the best way to cook meat as it keeps meat moist, juicy and gives lots of texture. The slow cooked or braised meat on skin and bone is so good. The skin gets gelatinous and sticky and the marrow in the bone gives natural oilyness. I know here people don’t like their meat on bone and/or skin but you should try it, it’s just delicious. In Nepal, we chomp down every part of animal even offals. I have to admit that I love offal dish called Vutan. It’s definitely an acquired taste but if done right (like cleaning and poaching and frying) it’s so tasty. You can find these authentic dishes at local nepali restaurants.

I have to admit I love grocery shopping. It will sound crazy to you but when I see and buy all these great produce, I get excited with all these great ideas in my head of what I’m going to cook out of these produce. I go gaga for fresh herbs, green vegetables and I absolutely love tomato.

So when I bought this goat leg, I thought I will make a beautiful curry. Since it’s freezing here in Australia, this curry will warm your body and soul. The radish and potato soaks up the meatiness of goat and takes it to new height.

Here’s the recipe. Use pressure cooker to reduce cook time in half. If not, use thick based pot to slow cook for an hour.

Radish can be substituted with turnips or zucchini if you are not big fan of cooked radish.

Ingredients ( Serves 8)

1 kilo of meat (goat leg cut into chunky curry sized pieces)
1 onion
2 medium sized potatoes (cut into cubes)
1 regular sized daikon Radish (cut into cubes)
1 stick of cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of garlic paste
1 tablespoon of ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon garam masala (I used BMC meat masala that mom sent from Nepal)
2 tablespoon of oil
Handful of chopped fresh coriander
Salt to taste

Put the cooker on heat and add oil. When oil is hot, sauté onion until golden brown. Add goat meat and fry to seal and brown the meat. Add potatoes and the spices, except for garam masala. Let the spice cook for few minutes. Add 500 ml of water or stock and cook it for 30 minutes until meat is tender. Add daikon radish and garam masala and cook it for another 10 minutes. It’s cooked when meat’s falling off the bone and the skin is sticky and gelatinous.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot with steamed rice.

Recipe ideas for baby food

As a new mom, I get very excited about each and every milestones that my baby reaches. When he smiles, giggles, squeals, bangs things together and make cooing sounds and now he’s saying ‘baba’ and ‘booba’ and sitting up. These are very special moments that melts your heart. The moments like these makes you realize how blessed I’m to have my baby and become a mother.
There are times when things are tough and are very overwhelming not knowing why my baby is crying, sleepless nights and adjusting your life around your baby’s routine.
The times like when my baby had eczema and/or first cold, my heart just broke and ached so bad seeing him in pain and I couldn’t do anything to ease it. But you always find that inner strength and confidence being a mother.

When my baby first started solids, I was very excited as it such a big milestone. I was over zealous about him getting to explore and taste different fruits, veggie and meat. I was so looking forward to giving is as many varieties of food and making him discover new taste sensations.
Oh my, how naive was I. I didn’t know babies loves their routine and anything that messes up with it will face a huge challenge.

It was especially challenging for my baby due to suspected (yet to be proven) food allergy.
I had to be cautious with what I was introducing. It has to be one at a time and tiny portions like a touch and a speck to start with when introducing high allergic food like wheat, dairy, eggs, fish and nuts. So far my baby didn’t respond well to dairy and wheat. He’s good with eggs. Now we have to try fish and nuts.

Due to this hubby and I are very concerned with the iron level as we are restricted on choices of varieties of food that he can eat. Also he’s a choosy eater and he doesn’t seem to be very fond of bananas, avocados, pea purée, chicken or eggs that we have tried. But we are trying to prepare it in a best way possible so he will eat it.

There’s so much information out there on giving solids to baby that sometimes I feel inundated and confused.

I make all his meals at home with fresh ingredients twice a week. I try and include Veggies that are high in iron. He loves broccoli and spinach so I add these with base veggies of carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin.

Here’s his meal planner

Breakfast
Oatmeal with Prune Cereal

Lunch
Puréed veggies

Dinner
Apple purée with 2 tspn of oatmeal cereal or pumpkin purée

I’m going to try and give him chicken purée which I’ve poached and puréed. Because when I introduced chicken, I over steamed it making it too dry. Also I mixed it with pumpkin and puréed it together. The purée was gritty and tasted like cardboard

Here are 2 simple recipes you can at home.

Recipe 1
Ingredients
100 gms of sweet potato
50 gms of carrot
50 gms of broccoli florets
Peel a carrot and sweet potato. Wash it in cold water. Chop the veggies in medium size cubes.

Wash broccoli in cold water and break it into bite sized pieces

Put the veggies
in the steamer and steam for 20 minutes.

When cooked, purée the mixture and put about 3 oz in each storing container. Cool the mixture before freezing it.

Recipe 2

200 grams butternut pumpkin
100 grams of chicken breast

WaPeel and deseed pumpkin and wash it in cold water. Cut them in small cubes.
Put the pumpkin cubes in a steamer and steam it for 20 minutes.
(Option: Add handful of spinach or peas or broccoli for extra boost of iron.)

When pumpkin is cooked, blend it into a purée. Portion it into a small container and cool it before freezing it.

Fill the pot (with a thick base) with cold water. Put chicken in the pot and turn on the heat. When the water comes to the boil, turn the heat low. Cover the pot and let the chicken poach for 10 minutes in a gentle simmer.

After 10 minutes, remove the pot from the heat and leave the chicken in the pot for 5 mins.

Cut the chicken into small pieces. Put it in the blender and add 150ml of liquid (stock from the pot). Blend it to make fine purée.

Portion chicken purée into small containers and cool it before freezing it. I usually store the mixture for 5-6 days in the freezer.

Mix 2 teaspoon of chicken purée with 100ml of pumpkin purée to make a yummy lunch or dinner for your baby.

I hope your baby will love these recipes as much as my bubba does.

Enjoy.

Sheesh Kebab

This is a very easy recipe of a sheesh kebabs. We had an indian night for dinner yesterday and I made this recipe along with palak (spinach) paneer and spicy potato dry curry. It was an instant hit with hubby and family as they all loved eating restaurant dish at comfort of your home.

As a new mom, I’m looking for easy meals which takes less time to prepare and cook. We used to go out for dinner every weekend before our lil one came to our life. Since baby’s birth we have had no time to go out. Sometimes when we do manage to go out for dinner, it’s hard with the little one. They want to be fussy or cry when you are about to eat. I do hope once baby is bit older, we may be able to claim our old date nights back.

I’m a stay at home mum. I love food and nepali food is always my first choice. But I’m bored of eating same food everyday and I was craving for all these different cuisines, my palate is so used to. So I thought why not make it at home. It’s better, fresher, and cheaper and you can enjoy it while watching your favourite re-run of ‘Friends’ on Telly.

Also I had to come up with an inventive way of making mince exciting as my fridge is stocked full of it. I don’t like cutting meat and hubby is busy with Bub so we bought mince for lazy cooking days. So here’s one of many variations of mince dish that’s so quick and easy to make and taste delicious.

I’ve also decided that we will have a theme dinner night once a week so it’s exciting to plan and cook dinner and share and enjoy with your loved ones.

Please try this recipe, it’s very easy.

Ingredients ( serves 4 person)
500 gms of lamb mince
1 tbspn ginger paste
1 tbspn garlic paste
1 tbspn of red chilli powder
1 tbspn of garam masala
1 tbspn of ghee or butter
1 small onion finely chopped
Salt as per taste
1/2 cup fresh coriander finely chopped
8 skewers ( soak it in water for 1-2 hours before use)

Garnish
Pinch of chilli flakes
Pinch if chat masala powder
Lemon wedges

Place lamb mince and all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Grease hands with oil and grab 50 gms of mix and shape it like a sausage. Insert the sausage in the skewers. This mix will yield 8 skewers.

If you have a grill or tandoor, grill skewers for 5 minutes on each side and it’s ready to be served.

As I used oven on grill settings, please follow the instruction below.
Preheat oven on 220 degrees for 5 minutes.
Line all the skewers on the greased tray and place it in the oven. Turn the skewers after 5 mins and cook it for 5 more minutes.

It’s ready to be served on skewers or you can take it off the sticks and cut sheesh kebabs into 2 inches in a slanting way.

Sprinkle kebabs with some chat masala powder and chilli flakes. Serve hot with lemon wedges or raita dip if you like.