Nepali food, Indian food and cake.

Lunch today was this beautiful plate of Nepali food, namely the moong dal (split mung bean soup) in the little bowl and the hot and fiery tomato achaar (chutney) which you can see on the rice. The Indian element of my meal is the alu matar (potatoes and peas) which was the perfect curried accompaniment to the rice and soup. Just can't get enough of this good stuff.


This is a closeup of the roasted tomato hot and spicy achaar. It's basically roasted tomatoes, green chiles, garlic blended into a puree and combined with fresh garlic, ginger, timbur (szechuan pepper), salt, fenugreek and red chili. The recipe is from the book "Taste of Nepal" which I highly recommend!


This is a boiled raisin "depression era" cake that I've made before. This time I used brown sugar and added orange blossom water and cardamom.

Nepali dinner.

I was in the mood for Nepali food tonight so out came my Taste of Nepal cookbook. First up, Moong Daal (yellow split mung beans) with red chilies, lots of ginger and garlic! It's a must to eat daal with rice. Sorry for the really bad photos, they seem to be super yellow!


It's good to have a curry to go along with your daal and rice. I made this mixed vegetable curry which was missing potatoes because I totally forgot that I had some! Too late. But this is still very good. Made with mixture of spices: timbur (szechuan peppercorns), fenugreek, garam masala, turmeric, asafetida and cumin.


While everything was cooking, I whipped up the No-Cook Tomato Achaar (chutney). It has fresh tomatoes, garlic, fresh ginger, timbur (szechuan pepper), hot green chilis, salt and lemon juice. The best way to eat this is to generously pour it all over your plate on top of the daal, rice and curry!

Taste of Nepal.

I love the simplicity of Nepali food. I've never been there but I'm in love with the food. I got this recipe for Black Urad Daal from a book called "Taste of Nepal". Cooked with fresh garlic, ginger, turmeric and szechuan pepper.


Potato, onion and tomato tarkaari. A delicious curry simply cooked in it's own juices and garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, turmeric and green chilies.