Country Challenge winner: Nepal

For dinner tonight, I chose to make Dal Bhat and Terkari, a traditional meal from Nepal. I read that Nepalese serve each dish seperately, and don't mix the different parts of the meal. I also found an abundant amount of lentil recipes in the cookbooks and resources I found. I used a brown fair-trade basmati rice, but any will do. I also used brown lentils, but any can be used as well.

I hope you enjoy this traditional recipe found here, given to the author by a Nepali housewife.

Dal Bhat and Terkari

(Lentils with Rice and Curry Vegetables)

Ingredients Needed:
To make Dahl (lentils)
3/4 cups lentils
3-4 cups water
1/2 onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped (to taste)
1/2 table spoon of ginger
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped(optional)
1-2 chili peppers (to taste
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of salt (to taste)

To make baht (rice)
1 1/2 cups of Basmati rice
3 cups of water

To make a traditional Terkari (curry)
4-5 large potatoes, peeled
1 large bunch cauliower
1 onion, chopped
3-4 tomatoes
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped (to taste)
1 1/2 table spoon of ginger
1 bunch fresh cilantro (optional)
1-2 chili peppers (to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1 teaspoon of salt (to taste)
_ teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 tea spoons of graham masala curry powder
(or other curry powder)
_ teaspoon cumin seeds (optional)
Plus anything else you might add to be creative!
Suggestions include: spring onion, green beans, peas,
or carrot

Cooking Instructions:
First you need to start making the dahl:
1. Wash lentils, Bring water to boil.
2. Add lentils and turmeric.
3. Boil about 1 hour, stir occasionally.
4. About 30 minutes into cooking the dhal, you can start cooking the rice and the curry (see
below).
5. While lentils are boiling, separately fry the chopped onions, garlic, ginger, salt, cilantro and
chili peppers.
6. When lentils start to dissolve or are no longer hard, add fried mixture and serve with rice and
curry.

To make Terkari:
1. Start by boiling the potatoes and then set aside.
2. Fry chopped onion, ginger, garlic (in Nepal you can never use too much garlic or ginger
because it's good for your health), and chili peppers until the onion starts to carmelize, stir
repeatedly.
3. Then add cauli ower and cumin seeds. Stir. Cook for 5-6 minutes. (Add any other vegetables
you choose from suggestions at this time).
4. Once the cauli ower is cooked, add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, curry powder, turmeric,
and cilantro. Mix.
5. After tomatoes have lique-ed, add the cooked potatoes and cook until the curry is warm and
serve.