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Alongside “Namaste”, “Have you eaten yet?” is a common greeting in Nepal. For millennia the land where Buddha was born has been home to a multitude of ethnic groups and faiths.
Today more than 100 languages are spoken across the country, according to Shree Ram Adhikari, the founder of Nepal Cooking School in Kathmandu.
Nepalis are protective of their society’s harmony, he says. “We say here that Nepal means Never-Ending Peace And Love.”
The cuisine reflects the country’s diversity, with distinct regional delicacies, and dishes that adopt and adapt from Nepal’s northern and southern neighbours.
A typical Nepali spread
“Dal bhat power, 24 hour!” Shree says. He isn’t the first. Visitors to Nepal are sure to hear this refrain from someone, somewhere – or see it on a T-shirt.
Dal bhat – lentil soup with steamed rice – is the closest thing Nepal has to a national dish. “Many Nepalis will eat dal bhat twice a day and nothing else,” the cooking school’s recipe book says.
Trekkers and mountaineers in the Himalayas will be told with a smile that they’re facing a “two dal bhat” or a “four dal bhat” climb. When Shree began his career in hospitality as a porter – hauling trekkers’ backpacks three-at-a-time to high altitudes – he was fuelled only by dal bhat.
And Nepalis view this nutritionally balanced staple as infinite in its variety. The most widely served version comes with bowls of tarkari (curried vegetables) and achar (spicy, sour pickles).
Add a half dozen more small dishes – from fried greens, cucumber salad, bitter melon, yoghurt and flat bread to less commonly fish, chicken, mutton or goat – and you have a thakali khana set. This popular platter, a cousin of the south Asian thali, is named for the trading route in the Mustang region that for centuries linked the vast and arid Tibetan plateau – a salt-rich region – to the lush, grain-growing hills and lowlands of Nepal.
Nepali curries, usually tomato-based, are lighter than their creamier Indian counterparts, while momo dumplings – sometimes filled with buffalo meat, or “buff” – are spicier than those served by Tibetans on the other side of Everest.
How to cook
Nepal Cooking School, a social enterprise that sends 100% of its profits to projects supporting women and children, is a short stroll from the busy Asan bazaar, one of Kathmandu’s main marketplaces.
After the day’s menu is chosen, cooking lessons start with a trip to the bazaar to buy fresh produce.
Along the way is a small covered rotunda for farmers who have brought their crops from remote regions. “My grandfather would sleep there after walking five days from our village to sell lentils,” Shree says. “Five days there, five days back.”
Back at the cooking school, spicy sauces and chutneys are prepared using a deeply satisfying bit of kitchen kit, silauto-lohoro grinding stones. The lohoro is a smooth stone bar that is rolled over the shallow dish-like silauto. Compared with a mortar and pestle, these hunks of rock offer extra pulverising power – you need both hands to wield a lohoro.
“Most kitchens in Nepal have them – they’re traditional,” says Ni Lam, one of the cooking teachers (the school trains and employs teenage girls and women).
Chatamari (rice crepe pizza) – recipe
By far the most requested dish at the cooking school is this speciality of the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, traditionally eaten during festivals and now a beloved street food.
Chatamari is a thin rice flour batter that is fried until crispy then topped with your choice of vegetables, plus eggs, cheese and minced meat, if desired.
“Older people in Nepal didn’t growing up eating cheese,” Ni says. “So my grandmother doesn’t like it with cheese but my mother and I do.”
This version features eggs and cheese and makes two chatamari.
Prep 15 min
Cook 10 min
Serves 2
For the batter
100g rice flour
200ml water
2 tbsp sunflower oil
For the topping
2 eggs, beaten
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 tsp ginger, grated
2 tsp garlic, minced
¼ tsp ground cumin
¼ tsp ground coriander
¼ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp ground Sichuan pepper
Chilli powder, to taste
1 pinch of salt
100g cheese, grated
1 spring onion, chopped
6 sprigs of coriander leaves, chopped
To make the batter, mix the rice flour and water in a jug or bowl. Aim for a very thin slurry. Set aside.
To make the topping, add the onion, ginger and garlic to the eggs and mix well.
In a small bowl combine the cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, Sichuan pepper, chilli powder and salt.
In a flat-based frying pan, heat half the sunflower oil over medium-high heat – it’s hot enough if a drop of water evaporates as soon as it hits the pan. Pour half the batter into the pan, swirling it around so a paper-thin layer covers the base.
Let it bubble and fry for one minute, then spoon on half the egg mixture and spread it across the pan. Sprinkle with half-amounts of the cheese, spring onion, coriander leaves and spice mixture.
Cover with a lid and cook for four minutes, then remove the lid. Continue cooking until the cheese is fully melted and the edges of the crepe turn golden and crispy.
Slide the chatamari on to a plate, then repeat with the remaining batter, cheese, spring onion, coriander and spice mixture to cook the second chatamari.
Serve the chatamari whole or sliced into wedges.
Gajar ko haluwa (carrot pudding) – recipe
This dessert – which is widely loved across south Asia – is quick and easy to make, and sweetly comforting.
Prep 5 min
Cook 15 min
Serves 2
250ml milk (1 cup)
1 tbsp ghee
1 large carrot, grated
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 pinch of salt
10 unsalted roasted cashew nuts, chopped
In a saucepan over high heat, bring the milk to a boil.
In a frying pan over medium heat, melt the ghee. Add the carrot and cook for about seven minutes or until it turns pale and partly translucent.
Pour the hot milk into the pan and simmer until most of the liquid evaporates.
Add the sugar, cardamom and salt and mix well, then simmer for four more minutes.
Serve in small bowls and garnish with the cashews.
