Nepali cooking lessons!

At our last Ladies Luncheon we begged Rojina to teach us how to cook some of the delectable Nepali dishes that she fixed for us.  She agreed and we excitedly gathered at Julie's house on January 26 for Nepali cooking lessons from Rojina.  We were so excited, in fact, that we were peppering her with questions, notebooks in hand to write down her answers.  Finally, she sweetly looked at us and let us know that all would be clear... in time.   She handled us with aplomb!  :D

We put down our notebooks (sort of) and fully immersed ourselves in the joyful process of cooking Nepali food with Rojina.  We are all so excited to be able to make these dishes at home now!  Thank you to Rojina for sharing your talents with us and for an absolutely lovely afternoon together.  It was very memorable.

Note - I will be sharing all 5 recipes separately so that they can be catalogued and easily located on the Recipes page.  

Alicia brought Rojina a little gift

A Truman athletics t-shirt

Red lentils - main ingredient in Daal

Rojina let the lentils soak in water for several hours.

Deb brought Rojina some architecture books.

Rojina and Deb

starting on the Daal

Susan brought gifts for everyone!  :D

Rojina let the dry chickpeas soak in water all night long.

preparing the base for Chana Masala

Don't let the Morton and Bassett bottle fool you...
This Fenugreek is directly from Nepal.  Just stored in that bottle.  :)
However, we will special order from Penzeys Spices (links below)

Another vital seasoning from Penzeys Spices (making an order soon!!)

Drained chickpeas added to seasonings (for Chana Masala)

The Daal is almost ready.

Alicia looking pretty while stirring the base for Pulao (pilaf)  :D

base for Pulao (pilaf)

Rojina putting the finishing touches on the Pulao

Starting on the cabbage - everything smells so good!!!!

Kelly 'pretending' to stir the cabbage.  :D

We were afraid Alicia would get to eat it all since she stirred the most!  ;)

So Kelly wanted to get in on the action, too!  

Rojina finishes the cabbage (crunchy like Julie likes it!)  :)

Julie

Rojina starting on the Aachar  

getting ready to eat!

Chana Masala

Cabbage

Aachar (sort of like a salsa or condiment)

Amazing food!!  Aachar, Cabbage, Chana Masala, Daal, Pulao, carrot sticks, Julie's homemade mustard sweet pickles (made with zucchini) and her homemade pear chutney.

Ta dah!  Julie, Susan, Deb, Rojina, Alicia, Kelly

Julie, Susan, Deb, Rojina, Laura, Alicia 

Rojina explaining to put the rice in the center of plate -
with other foods surrounding it. 

That way you can eat all the foods with the rice.  

a masterpiece of food!!!!

Julie, Rojina, Kelly, Alicia, Deb, Susan, Laura, and Anna (who dropped by, too!)

Important notes -

Use high quality spices.  Not McCormick or Tones.  Morton and Bassett is a good brand that you can often find in a grocery store.  But, for some of these specialty spices, you can order from Penzeys Spices.

Fenugreek - Rojina has a small supply of whole fenugreek that is from Nepal.  I am seeing that only ground Fenugreek is available for purchase from Penzeys.  I will purchase, but that will change the recipes a bit.  Something to keep in mind.  If you can find ever the whole Fenugreek, I would certainly purchase it!!   Fenugreek is also good for seasoning fried potatoes (along with a little cumin).    UPDATED to state that I found whole fenugreek at Spice House.  So that is where I am placing my first order.  :)

Fresh Cilantro goes in or on just about everything!  :)

One key to this cooking is to be sure and get the skillet super hot before you add oil and spices.

A Tupperware Stack Cooker is a fast and easy way to fix rice in the microwave.

Thanks again to dear Rojina for spending the day teaching us how to make these tasty and healthy Nepali foods.