Nepal - July 12th 2008

Maybe it's the effect of Mount Everest, but Nepal really has a very exotic appeal to me. And this is not a word I would normally choose to describe anything that doesn't have white beaches and palm trees but somehow Nepal really is exotic. Such a small country in between 2 huge countries (India and China) but with the tallest mountain in the world. You can almost hear it nagging at India and China (nah nah nah nah, I have the tallest mountain....). And bet on Nepal to have picked on both sides of the borders to get the best flavors in its cuisine. I am amazed at the sparkles in the palate from all the spices I have used for this meal.

Since the moment I have started looking for recipes, I had a wonderful feeling about this meal. So much so that I just couldn't make my mind up. What should I make? So many choices and all so wonderfully appealing to me. I just wanted to try it all. And I almost did: chicken, pork, lamb, filled potato, momos, vegetables, I tried to make as much as possible to capture the flavors of Nepal. I hope I did. I loved it. I believe my guests loved it too (either that or they were too drunk and polite to say they didn't...).
Thankfully, things at work at slowed down a little and so I was able to take the Friday afternoon off (one of the wonderful perks of my job - short Fridays in the summer) and make the trip to the farmers market with a long list of spices, meats, veggies and a resolve to find everything. Well - at least I hoped to. I did have a backup plan for one of the dishes: I just couldn't find mutton anywhere so instead of smoked mutton I ended up making a smoked and roasted chicken (I really did smoke it: here is proof - I had to air dry it so I hanged it on the pots rack for a few hours)

I had to start preparing the day before. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't have had enough time to prepare everything (after all I really was planning a feast: 5 starters, a main course with 2 veggies and a dessert) and Eric was coming back that Friday night from London and had already told me that he really didn't plan to stay up late. Some of the meats required marinating, I wanted to get the cookie dough made and so I had to get busy! Thankfully, aside from the mutton, the farmers market had everything else, including this really stinky spice (asafetida - what an apt name) that is used in almost every dish. This spice comes in a bottle that very much resemble an aspirin container and according to Eric, it smells of rancid sweat. Well, whatever it is, it must be good because I loved the way the dishes smelled and tasted. You only need to use very little (some recipes called for a quarter teaspoon, others for an eight of a teaspoon).

As I was preparing the various recipes on Saturday, I realized that most used a similar mix of spices (turmeric - love all that yellow - chilies, garlic, cumin, timur - a kind of pepper - and ginger aside from asafetida) and all these combinations were really awakening my sense of smell as they were cooking. Especially when the recipe called for seeds... mustard, cumin, sesame, etc; as you sizzle them in a pan, their scents fill the kitchen with wonderful aromas. It really made me feel like I really wasn't in Atlanta, GA. But maybe that was me wishing I was on vacation.

I absolutely loved the momos. These little dumplings filled with a mixture of ground lamb and spices are just a delight. It was a little scary to pierce them with a fork and seeing all that fat dripping out though. As the lamb is cooked when the momo are steamed, there is nowhere for the fat to go. Maybe next time I'll have to remember to use a leaner lamb or a leaner kind of meat anyway... oh hell, the spices are so good that I might just as well try a vegetarian version.

One thing I didn't think about as I was choosing the recipes is that most were requiring some kind of deep frying... well, after a while I felt like I needed to ask my friends to sign a disclaimer for their life (all that cholesterol could have killed them) and so I did look for alternatives: for example I baked the chicken phuraula (it was supposed to be fried in lentil batter and I baked it instead - albeit a little too long which resulted in a too dry chicken)....

... and I pan fried the lamb instead of deep frying it in a ton of oil (OK so it wasn't crispy like the recipe name suggested but it was tasty all the same since it was marinated for almost 20 hours)

Interestingly enough, one of the favorite dishes turned out to be the one that I had the biggest doubts on when I was cooking it: the fried potato balls filled with meat. The whole ensemble as I was preparing it just didn't seem very appealing but in reality it really worked well together. There were no left over of this dish - or at least not for Eric and I since everyone was quite happy to take a doggy bag at home (and if you look at Dan's blog you can see how he created some art out of the left over dinner - http://dansle2008.blogspot.com/)

The stir fried pork was alright I guess. It sounded a lot more promising than the results which was a little too dry I believe. I think the reason for this is that I simply couldn't find pork with skin on. I suppose that if I had fried it with skin it would have been a lot more tender (but I probably would have taken a few years off my friend's longevity). All of these starters were accompanied by an achar, a typical Nepali sauce. My choice was a tomato achar which was a little spicy but not too much and went particularly well with the momos.

By the time we arrived at the main course, I think everyone was happy and full and maybe a little tipsy (there is never shortage of wine at my table - aside from those wretched days when I forget that on Sundays you can't buy alcohol in Georgia (mighty uncivilized if you ask me) and therefore we have to make a trip to the pub). But the chicken was really tender and tasty. I guess that happens when you leave it to dry coated in spices and molasses and then roast it slowly on the grill for a couple of hours. I liked very much.

I have tried mustard greens again because I loved them cooked in peanut butter in one of those African recipes (was it Cameroon or Gambia?) but they were really bitter. Couldn't even eat the left overs...

The dessert was tasty but I guess I just had to improvise or better, use some imagination... The thing is, I just couldn't make the dough stop running. I must have done something wrong... I tried to make cookie shapes and fry them as the recipe suggested (in 2 - TWO - pounds of butter) but they just broke apart and when I tried to bake them, they just merged into one large cookie. At any rate they tasted lovely and so, who cares that they didn't look the part?

Finally, here is the menu and the scores... all in all, it was a wonderful evening with lovely friends (Kako, Joanne, Peter, Dan and Eric - sorry for the extra lbs) and lots and lots of food....

Appetizer
Classic Nepali MOMO (Nepali Lamb Dumplings) 7.8

Achar (sauce for starters) 8.8
Bandel Bhutuwa (Pork Stir-Fried in Himalayan Spices) 6.4
Potato Chop (Potato Balls Stuffed with Meat) 8.4
Chicken Phuraula (Chicken baked in Spiced Lentil Batter) 6.2
Lamb Tareko (Crispy Lamb Slices, Nepali Style) 8.8

Main CourseChicken Sukuti (Crispy Smoked Chicken Marinated in Nepali Spices) 8.0
Pala Wala (Spinach in spices) 6.3
Mustard Greens 6.6

Dessert
Anaras (Buttered Rice Cookies, Nepali Style) 8.2

Next time: back to the South Pacific in Palau

Stay tuned!