Note: this activity happened in April, but with the power outages in Nepal, the opportunities to blog there were limited. Our trip then moved on to other places and I never got around to posting about our cooking activities. So, here it is! Next week, I will move it to its chronological place on our blog.
Charlie and I enjoy cooking together – a mother-daughter vegan culinary team – and it’s been fun to seek out cooking classes in some of our vegan-friendly country stops. It will be nice to bring back something other than a few souvenirs and a lot of photos! Similar to our Thai cooking class, learning dishes from the Indian subcontinent meant that we were also exposed to spices that were unfamiliar to us and cooking methods that were new. Bring it on!
I was thrilled to discover Social Tours in Kathmandu, which offered a choice of three menus, and even more surprised at how reasonable they were priced (it was $10 per adult and half that for children). We signed up for two afternoon classes and were looking forward to making authentic Tibetan Momos and tasty Aloo Paratha bread.
Let’s get this cooking started!
Momos are steamed or fried dumpling that looks like a gyoza
I convinced Tim and A.J. to sign up for this class too and upon meeting at the kitchen, we were taken by the instructor to a very local market. To be honest, the veggies looks a little wilted and tired – not to mention dirty – but that was all part of the Nepal experience, I supposed, as I settled next to a basket of tomatoes in search of some worthy enough to buy (most were squishy and bruised). After our purchases, we washed everything and got started on chopping.
At the local market
I’ve never chopped anything as finely as those ingredients. Our instructor insisted on a super fine dice for all the fillings, so we all kept cutting away until the pieces were miniscule. Even then, I’m certain she was a bit disappointed in our efforts! When everything was prepared, it was mixed together in a giant bowl and set aside. We also cut tomatoes for the chili sauce and it turns out that you actually need to use soft tomatoes so they can cook down for the sauce.
Bowls of finely chopped ingredients
A.J. takes his turn with the mortar and pestle
Dough was made and after it rested for a short period, small balls were ripped off and rolled into a circle. This was then carefully flattened and a scoop of the vegetable mixture was spooned in. The momos were then folded and artfully closed. This was a skill that we couldn’t master with just one session, but we all had fun trying! After they were assembled, the momos were placed in steamer baskets and left to cook for 15 minutes.
A.J. filling a momo
Folding the momos
Jenn not quite getting it right, with the watchful instructor
We enjoyed them with different types of chili sauce. Yum!
The end result! We also made ones that were crescent-shaped.
Aloo Parathas are a fried Indian bread with a spicy potato mixture inside
A couple weeks after our momos class, Charlie and I went back for another cooking class right before we left Nepal. We both love aloo paratha and were excited to make it. I hope we can replicate these efforts once we are back stateside.
Our class started off with a trip to the market, once again, and then back to the class to peel and cook the potatoes and chop the seasoning ingredients – garlic, cilantro, chilis and so on. Overall the preparations for this class were easier than the momos class. We also made a simple dough and some sauces.
Making the tomato sauce (later to be blended)
The fun with the aloo class was rolling out the dough, scooping the potato mixture into the middle and then folding the dough over the mixture. Then came the real skill: rolling the bundle of potato-laden dough out very flat! Charlie was particularly adept at this, but my rolling was apparently a little too heavy handed as I “over-rolled”, breaking through the bread covering to reveal the potato below.
Frying them up
Trying to get the hang of flipping them
We fried them one by one and then enjoyed the bread with different sauces. Overall I liked the aloo class better because the end product was tastier to me, but Charlie thought they were both equally good.
Time to eat!
Delicious, served with a mint sauce and a spicy tomato sauce
If memory serves, the only vegan accommodation made in the class was frying the bread in sunflower oil instead of butter.
The classes were about 2.5 hours long and were a nice ways to spend an afternoon. A fun experience at a price that couldn’t be beat! (That said, we both rated our Thai cooking class higher because it was just an exceptional experience, one of our favorite days from the entire trip.)
Notes from a Big World 