Appetizer ... Gwara Mari (Manglore special pakodas):

Gwara Mari (Manglore special pakodas):

     This pakodas reminds me of the bygone days, when we used to go to mamaghar. Our mamaghar is located near Patan Durbar Square. My granny who was one the most beautiful and gentle woman I had ever seen, used to bring those hot hot gwaramari from neighborhood small shop which used to bring smile to everybody’s face. Gwaramari with hot cup of tea is superb breakfast you want to start a day with.

     This gwaramari shop is located in front of famous Honocha ko Pasal just behind the Bhimshensthan, Mangal bazaar. Owner of this shop are one of our close acquaintance. We call them Maha Kaka and Kaki baje. I always wonder and feel amazed, how a small skill like that can actually earn livelihood. They not only raised their five children but also, still is support system for their next generation.  I still cannot forget their positive attitude and always smiling faces. To my surprise this shop is still in operation. This is something that inspired me to try their recipe. 

This might not be  their actual recipe, but this is what I came up with:

1 cup of all purpose flour

½ cup of curd

1 tea spoon salt

Pinch of turmic powder

½ tea spoon of cumin power

¼ tea spoon baking soda (add this 10 min before frying)

And oil to fry

Procedure:

• Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
• Add water to it, little by little stirring it continuously to make the flour a thick paste.
• Cover the bowl and leave it overnight.
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• Now take a tablespoon of the Flour paste and put it into the heated oil. 
• The flour should slowly fluff up. Fry until it gets a good brown color. You can cook as many of them at a time according to the size of your fryer.
• Take out the now prepared Gwar maris and soak the oil in a paper towel.
• Serve hot with tea.

     Try this recipe and enjoy your day with this wonderful hot hot gwara mari with of course a cup of a hot tea.

     While you all enjoying this awesome gwara mari, I am pretty sure this incident that had happened to me a long time before, will bring some laughter in your faces too. This incident happened when I used to work for DSI at Kingsway. Those were carefree and the happiest days of my life. We used to go to different restaurant for lunch and try different foods from their menu. One day we happened to order “Manglore ‘Special’ Pokodas”. We were all anxiously waiting for that, but to our surprise there came a plate full of gwara mari. We were all bursting with laughter not only what we saw but being silly and had to pay price ten times more. 

LoL haha haha haha!!!

Newars

Painting by DB Chitrakar

Newar community is one the traditionally rich and most uniquely cultured group in the world. Newar’s main origin is basically the Kathmandu Valley. Their main occupation is business. They love to stay in close family and in the town. Obviously, they are found in the main towns of the Nepal, like Banepa, Pokhara, Narayanghat, Bandipur, Hetauda, Birjung etc. apart from cities of Kathmandu valley. As their culture is unique, so are their foods, dresses, buildings, Temples and monuments.

Before the Shah dynasty, Kathmandu Valley was ruled by Newar Kings. Under whose reigns, this valley had flourished culturally. The Downtown of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur are the living  proof of it. The pagoda style temples, stupas, stone taps and monuments are world famous and these are pride of Nepal too. I belong to this awesome community and I am proud to be called Newar. I happened to live just five minutes’ walk from the Patan Durbar square. I grew playing around these places. My mother tongue is Newari. I love love my culture, our way of living and food.

           Many writers have written books, journals on the Newars. This will be my just a small attempt to blog this community through my eyes.

Sel Roti: Nepalese Rice Donuts

   Sel Roti is Nepalese national sweet made out of  rice flour. It is unique too, until now I haven't heard of any country making this. This is made in most of the household, during the country's one of the biggest festival Tihar. Back in the Country, I still remember my father-in-law's saying that it doesn't even feel like Tihar, if  there is no Sel Roti. I learned to make this wonderful sweet from my Grannys and of course my mom too. All of them are awesome cooker of their time. Here in USA my friends like my Sel Roti. I really appreciate their compliments.

Ingredients for Making SEL Roti

6 cups – Sticky Rice (Jasmine)
1 cup - Sugar
2 table spoon – melted Ghee
¼ teaspoon – Cadmium
1 table spoon – finely chopped coconut
Oil for frying.

Process:

Soak rice for 12 hours. Then grind rice, sugar and ghee and make a thick batter and add cadmium and coconut. Leave the batter overnight or at least 2 hours in the refrigerator. Heat oil in the pan over medium high and when some smoke starts to come then oil is right for frying. 

TRY this recipe and enjoy the tasty SEL Roti.

This Tihar, I may have to cook a lot as my sis-in-law have asked for it. I am looking forward to it and our wonderful festival Tihar too.

Cauliflower...

      Couple of days before, I bought two big size cauliflower on top of that today I bought couple more as the deal is even better. This temptation to buy, when there is great deal is killing me. Now, I don't know what to do with all these cauliflowers. My family size is small to be exact only 3 people and one cauliflower veges-curry last for almost a week, darn. What I gonna do with all those. So I searched in the You Tube, for the new recipes for dishes with cauliflower and came up with this one.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Bacon Gremolata


 I tried this and already in love with the taste. Try this and I bet you all will gonna say the same. Enjoy...