Comfort found in Himalayan cuisine

Passport & Plate - Dal bhat

Nepal | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Dal
1 chopped onion
2 cloves
¼ tsp grated Ginger
½ tsp Turmeric
1 cup lentils
salt


Veg Curry

Carrots, peas, and potatoes whatever you have
½ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp grated ginger
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry power
salt

 

How to prepare this recipe
Dal
Saute – 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves crushed garlic in oil
Add ¼ tsp grated Ginger
Add ½ tsp Turmeric & 1 cup Lentils
Submerge with water – cook for 20 minutes
Salt to taste

Veg Curry
1-pound Veg carrots, peas, and potatoes whatever you have (par boil if you have a lot of root vegetables)
Sauté ½ tsp chili powder, ¼ tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp coriander, 1 tsp cumin, 1tsp curry powder and salt
Stir veg into spice mixture, coat them thoroughly. Add a little water and cook for 10 to 20 minutes.
Serve with rice or any grain you prefer. It is traditionally eaten with you right hand, but you can also use a spoon and fork.

 

The story behind this recipe
After a long day on a bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara (6 hours to travel for under 150 km) followed by a 1 hour car trip, it felt great to get our legs moving and make the short trek to the Annapurna trailhead. We made it to our first teahouse just before nightfall. We hurry to settle into our modest little room before we lose light because there is no electricity. There are heavy blankets on the bed, but we are happy we brought our sleeping bags. The room has a chill and with no heat we know it isn’t going to get any warmer. Around 7:30 p.m. we head down to a beautiful open-air dining room overlooking a swift moving river for a bite to eat. The fresh mountain air and the sound of the rushing water are refreshing after having spent our first few days in the country in the congestion, pollution and dust of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital city. When our guide Pradeep shows us the menu of western fare we say we don’t want to be trouble and will have whatever they (the host, our guide and porter) are having. It is our first experience eating dal bhat: lentils, vegetable curry, rice and some spicy condiments. It’s comfort food, warm and very satisfying. After having just spent a month in India, it was a nice change. It is more subtle than Indian food, but the layers of flavour still come through and if you would like to kick it up there are spicy pickles on the side. It would become our lunch and dinner staple for the next 10 days on the trail. Food was a wonderful way to gain insight into the Nepalese mountain people– they are hard working, have little means and live a simple life. Dal bhat has a similar profile; it is simple, hardy and made from ingredients grown on their terraced land which we climbed up and down each day on the trek. I never got tired of the taste because each family who hosted us had their own special way of preparing the dish – not unlike a Baba’s borsch or a Nona’s spaghetti sauce. I never walked away unhappy with my meal, but I do remember the best.