I could not get the strong smell of aloo and chamsoorko ras out of my mind. This stew of potatoes and a sharp, slightly pungent green was all I wanted to eat and nothing more. I was not able to, though, and thankfully my daughter grew up just fine, and does not drool all over the place. If a pregnant woman does not get to eat the food she craves, so the Nepali saying goes, the child will drool. But I was in New York in the 1980s, and chamsoor proved far too difficult to find. So I delivered my baby girl without having satiated the craving for so simple a dish.
Does one live to eat, or eat to live? I guess in a country – indeed, a region – like ours, where so many must toil day in and day out just to be able to get by, the question may seem moot. But certain simple staples can be a culinary pleasure: these are the dishes that drive a powerful nostalgia when overseas, and that one does not tire of eating every day. Cuisine is varied according to community in Kathmandu, and Newari cuisine is obviously the most authentically 'Nepali', but for many of the valley's families, the menu for such a meal would read along the lines of: kalo daal (black lentils), bhuja (rice), kauli aloo (a dish of cauliflower and potatoes), saag (greens), tama aloo bodiko ras (a stew of bamboo shoots, potatoes and black-eyed peas), and golbhedako achar (tomato chutney). As the cherry on the top, one can drizzle a generous spoonful of ghiu (ghee) over the pile of rice. Of course, this thaali can be varied by substituting the tomato achar with potato alooko achar, but the kalo daal cannot be changed!
Kalo daal is maas daal that has been cooked over slow heat in a deep iron pan – the long-term leeching of the iron is what makes the lentil black. This is probably one of the few dishes in the world that is decidedly black, and not from being burnt. A well-used pan is often thinned out at the bottom and will eventually develop a hole, the family having been fortified by the iron. These days the busy householder cooks the daal first in a pressure cooker, and then pours it into the iron pot to allow it to turn its satisfying dark colour. Mixing in dried chives that have been fried in a ladleful of ghiu is another indispensable step.
The golbhedako achar has to achieve the right colour and texture. Ginger and garlic contribute the main flavours, along with salt, chilly pepper and Szechwan Pepper. In the old days, the tomato went through muslin cloth, but these days it can go through the food processor.