Nepal - Daal Bhaat

Background
Nepal is predominantly an agricultural society, so naturally food is at the center of the culture. Given its ancients roots and intense topography, it is also unsurprising that Nepal has 36 ethnic groups and many languages. The character of the cuisine is simple but made flavorful with spices.

For the cultural and menu information we found an interesting book called Enjoy Nepalese Cuisine. Its purpose is to give people an overview of food in Nepal for people who want to know about it but not cook it. The author does this while referring you to her separate recipe book.

What qualifies as breakfast is interesting in Nepal. Being an agrarian society, the Nepalese tend to be early risers. The breakfast is hot sweet tea and some biscuits. Lunch is eaten at 8AM, when westerners normally eat breakfast. We decided to do both meals. The second meal consists of daal, bhaat and tarkari. Daal is a gravy made from split beans, bhaat is rice, and tarkari is green vegetables served with achaars or chutneys. Achaars are pickled food while chutneys are fresh.

As might be expected for such a diverse culture, all of these components come in a wide variety. We used the cookbook Taste of Nepal, which contained entire chapters dedicated to each dish. There was no particular guidance on which were preferred for breakfast, so we selected the dishes that most interested us. For the daal we chose to use black urad beans, with simple steamed rice for the bhaat, and a tarkari of stir-fried cabbage. We made a radish achaar the night before so it could marinate, but you can also make it the day of. We also ordered some samples of Nepal-grown tea from Upton Tea Imports.

This meal used three spices that might be unfamiliar to our readers. The first spice is asafetida, also called devil's dung, which has a potent unpleasant smell when first encountered. I would not use it for cooking if I ran across it randomly. It is made from the resin of a root in the carrot family. Second is timur, also known as Sichuan pepper, which is not actually pepper at all, though it resembles it. We used this once before, in the Japanese breakfast. The other new ingredient is an herb called jimbu, which is related to onions and leeks. We were able to purchase it at Bombay Market along with cumin-flavored bicuits for the first breakfast.

Radish Achaar (Koreko Seto Mula Achaar)

• 4 cups julienned daikon
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp lemon or lime juice
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp Sichuan pepper (timur)
• 2 tbsp mustard oil or vegetable oil
• 1 dried red chili, seeded and crumbled
• ½ tsp fenugreek
• 1/8 tsp jimbu
• ½ tsp turmeric

1. Mix salt and radishes in a colander and let drain in the sink for 10 minutes.
2. Squeeze the water from the radishes and place them in a mixing bowl.
3. Add the lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and timur to the bowl and mix.
4. Heat the oil in small pan over medium-high heat until it starts to smoke.
5. Stir in the chili, fenugreek, and jimbu. Cook for 5 seconds and remove from the heat.
6. Add the turmeric and pour it over the daikon and mix well.
7. Let cool before serving or refrigerate.

Black Urad Daal (Jhaaneko Kaalo Maas ko Daal)

• 1 cup black urad beans
• 1½ tsp minced ginger
• 1 tbsp ghee
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp turmeric
• 1/8 tsp Sichuan pepper
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 2 dried chilis, seeded and halved.
• ½ tsp jimbu
• A large pinch of asafetida
• 2 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp julienned ginger

1. Wash the dry beans.
2. Combine beans, 1 tbsp ghee, minced ginger, salt, turmeric, and 3½ cups water.
3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and boil uncovered for 15 minutes. Add more water if you think the level is getting too low.
4. Cover and reduce to a low simmer for 50 minutes, adding more water if needed.
5. In a small sauce pan melt 2 tbsp of ghee.
6. Add chilis and jimbu and fry until they are fragrant.
7. Add asafedtida, julienned ginger, and garlic.
8. Pour the mixture in the daal and serve.

Plain Steamed Rice (Bhaat-Bhuja)

1. Put 2 cups of long grain rice in a sauce pan and add 3¾ cups of water.
2. Bring the water to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
3. Once the water is at a boil, cover and reduce to a low simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Stir-fried Cabbage (Banda Govi Taareko)

• 10 cups shredded cabbage
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 dried chili, seeded and halved
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1½ tsp minced ginger
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ¼ tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp coriander
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• small pinch of asafetida
• ½ tsp salt

1. Rinse and drain the shredded cabbage.
2. Heat the oil in a large pan.
3. When the oil is hot add chili, cumin, and fenugreek and cook until fragrant.
4. Add ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin, coriander, black pepper, and asafetida. Cook for 30 seconds.
5. Add cabbage and salt and cook until the liquid evaporates and the cabbage is tender.

Results and Discussion
We started out with tea and cookies. The cookies we bought were really interesting. They start out tasting like a very rich shortbread. A couple seconds after you bite into it the salt and cumin flavors start to emerge. These are quite addictive and I would like to learn how to make them. Both the teas we tried had a very nice fragrance and were rather different from a typical Indian Darjeeling.
The only real difficulty in making the big breakfast was keeping track of the spices and getting the timing right so the dishes are done around the same time. I understand completely why people don't make this first thing in the morning. We also used about 1/3 of our entire spice rack in this meal.
The daal was nicely flavored and the ghee added richness and a smooth texture. The cabbage had a very nice texture and turmeric of course gave it a great color. The key is cooking it just to the point of wilting so it retains its crispness and texture. The radish achaar has a spicy, fresh crunch which was a nice counterpart to the other dishes.