Golveda ko Achar (Grilled Tomato and Coriander)

Achar (pickles) are integral part of nepali and newari cuisine. It’s served with every meal as it always add that extra punch and flavour hit to rice, daal and curry.

There are so many varieties of achar. Some are made on daily basis with fresh produce meals, others are pickled and preserved as per my previous post of daikon radish pickle.

Nepali cuisine is all about celebrating fresh and organic produce. It’s simple cooking with best fresh vegetables, herbs and meats.

We go and buy fresh produce twice a day in the local market. The best seasonal produce (fruits and vegetables) are brought straight from farm at the market by farmers and they sell it direct to consumers. There are no stalls, vendors just lay their products in the basket in designated area of the market. It’s an instant pop up market for few hours in the morning and night.

Most people didn’t have fridges and buying and cooking fresh produce twice a day was norm.

I remember when I was about 8-9 years old, I used to go to these market in the mornings with my sisters. We used to bargain and buy all these beautiful produce. Even the memory of these markets enthralls me. The sight, sound and smell used to lift my spirits. I still cherish those memories.

The recipe I’m sharing today is a very simple yet it celebrates the fresh produce and brings out the best.

I made this achar for last night’s dinner along with black lentil daal, cauliflower curry and rice. It’s a classic flavours combination that I love to eat during cold winters in Kathmandu.
Here’s a nepali vegetarian meal I had last night.

I will share the recipe of cauliflower in future post but try this achar. It’s dead simple, rustic and goes really well with meat or vegetable curry and steamy hot momos.

Ingredients
5 small sized tomatoes
1 cup of chopped of coriander
4 dried chillies
Salt to taste
10-12 sichuan peppers

Heat oil in the pan and fry dried chillies until it’s black. Remove it from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, put quartered tomatoes skin side down. You can use grill to roast the tomatoes or even open fire or charcoal. For added flavour char the skin of tomatoes.

Once the skin is charred, reduce heat to low and cook tomatoes for 10-15 minutes. The prolong cooking of tomatoes will extract water and concentrate tomatoes to enhance the flavour.

In a mortar and pestle, add fried dry chillies, salt, sichuan peppers, coriander and pound it to make a rough paste. ( you can use blender but I’m very old school and believe that grinding in mortar pestle gives it more flavour).

Add tomatoes and grind it with the mix to make a thick paste consistently. It’s ready to be served with your favourite meal even pasta.

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.

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.