Remembering Childhood in Kathmandu

Roasted corn, chickpeas, peanuts, and soybeans made up the major lunch meal for most Nepalese even in the Kathmandu-valley until a few decades ago. Back then, almost all households in Kathmandu had a small patch of land around their house where they grew enough of their own vegetables and grains to last a full year. Not many people could afford a refrigerator in those days, so the roasted grains made ideal snacks and lunches for most households.

 

Corn and soybeans are still part of Nepali meals for some Nepalese, but these grains are now roasted in a metal pot, unlike in the olden days when they were roasted in an earthen pot over a wood-burning stove. The wood burning stoves have also been replaced with kerosene or gas stoves in most households in Kathmandu.  

 

Outside of Kathmandu there still is a unique tradition of serving makai ra bhatmas bhuteko with a glass of buttermilk. Sometimes, a few slices of raw radish or soft radish leaves accompanied makai ra bhatmas bhuteko. While radish is a digestive root-vegetable with very few calories, soybeans are high in protein but need to be eaten with grains to get the complete nutritional value out of them. Thus, eating soybeans with corn, radish, and buttermilk was an ingenious idea that they had learned through their own experience, not from a book! 

Why the cows and goats look healthier than the humans in Nepal?

 

Other than a few urban areas, Nepal is mostly an agricultural land where villagers heavily depend on domestic animals, such as cows and oxen, for milk products and ploughing land. Goats, sheep, chicken, and ducks are also raised for meat and fertilizer. All this means that animals are an important part of the villagers’ lives. So, when corn is milled, the villagers separate the coarsely milled corn for chiyakhla and the powdery flour for dhido or for feeding animals. 

Since the powdery flour has corn germs and other fivers, this is more nutritious than the chiyakhala flour. This is one of the reasons you may find most of the animals in villages looking healthier than their keepers!

A perfect vegan soup for the winter

 

Quati ko rus (Vegan spicy soup of sprouted mixed beans)

 

 

Quati is a mix of sprouted beans, lentils, and peas of various kinds. Rus means soup in the context of Nepali cuisine. Jhol is another name for a spicy soup in Nepal, while a mildly spiced soup is called suruwa (broth).  Thus, jhol and rus are used interchangeably for a spicy soup in Nepali cultures. Quati soup signifies a special occasion, called “Janai Purnima” in Nepal. Janai Purnima is explained in detail in my book, Cultural Heritage of the Nepalese by Sasi Kala. 

 

Sprouted beans and legumes are no longer considered  as the “poor man’s meat” even in the Western world. In fact, recent research shows that the enzymes derived from sprouted beans and legumes are far superior to that of meat sources. Sprouts are also rich in vitamins and minerals. Thus, this colourful, healthy, and delicious vegan soup will be a perfect addition on your menu—especially for the winter months when we habitually look for a hearty soup. Since sprouting requires some efforts on your part, I suggest you sprouting more than you require for one meal.

 

Colourful sprouts are hard to find in many cities, but you can sprout your own at home.

To grow sprouts, gather varieties of beans, lentils, and peas. Soak them overnight in a container (any pot or bottles will do). Drain the water, rinse the beans, and shift them in another pot/container with a lid. Set the container in a warm place during the winter months (sunny window-ledge or a mildly warmed up oven) for a day. Sprouts are ready when they grow up to ¼ to ½ inch long. Sprouts longer than that height will lose some of the nutrients in them. If your sprouts aren’t ready by then, rinse the sprout again, strain, and let them grow for one more night. If you need more help in sprouting at home, please refer to A Culinary Journey to Nepal by Sasi Kala and read under the sub-section “Selective Preservatives and Probiotic Pickles”. 

 

 

Ingredients

 

2 cups mixed dry beans (makes about 5 cups sprouts)

1 medium potato (about a cup), peeled and cubed 

4-5 T. mustard or olive oil

2-3 dry cayenne peppers (1-2 for milder soup), broken into pieces for heat if desired

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper 

2-inch fresh ginger root, crushed

3-4 medium cloves of fresh garlic, crushed

½ tsp turmeric for color 

¼ tsp powdered Szechuan pepper (optional)

½ tsp garam masala powder 

½ tsp cumin and coriander powder, each

A pinch of fenugreek and jwano seeds, each 

A small pinch of asafoetida powder or ½ tsp baking soda (optional)

7-8 cups water for soup

11/2 -2 T. salt, or to your taste

1 large plum tomato diced (optional)

A handful of freshly chopped coriander leaves (optional)

 

Preparation

 

Step 1.           Rinse the sprouts thoroughly and drain the water. Set aside. Wash all the vegetables and cut them according to the specifications. Set aside.

 

Step 2.           Heat the oil in a deep saucepan and brown the seeds first, then add the chilli pieces, turmeric, and asafoetida. If you’re using baking soda, hold on to it until the next step. Immediately add the sprouts and potato.  Stirring often, cook for five minutes. Add the spices now and stir again. Cook until the water dries out completely, while constantly stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. This is a very important step to get the authentic sharp taste in your quati!

 

Step 3.           Add the water, salt, and baking soda now—if you chose this option instead of asafoetida. Stir and let the bubbles of baking soda settle before covering the pot with a tight lid. Lower the heat and let the soup simmer on low heat for 15-17 minutes in a regular pot. If you are using a pressure cooker, let is whistle for 3-5 times. If you use a pressure cooker don’t open the lid until the steam is completely out. This is very important for your safety!

 

Add the freshly chopped tomato and coriander if you’re using them once the steam is out. Stir and let the flavour develop for five minutes before serving with dinner rolls, boiled rice, or roti (pita bread). A bowl of steamy quati ko rus makes an excellent appetizer or a snack for a cold or rainy day. This soup stays good inside a refrigerator for a couple of days. It also freezes well and comes in handy to use in a hurry. 

 

Vegetarianism--is it a trend or a healthy choice?

Vegetarian foods are getting momentum these days for reasons of health or compassion to animal. Whichever the case may be, I think it is a fabulous idea to live a meat-free life!

Nobody needs to depend on meat to get the protein our body needs in this age of "plentiful". There are plenty of natural foods in most all parts of the world to substitute what we get from meat. Nobody need to sacrifice on the taste, either. We just need to be patient and find the ingredients to get the taste we love.

 

Living on meat was okay when there wasn't much growing in the 'hunter-gather' era. Eating meat is okay even now when somebody is forced to eat meat for sustaining their life.

Raising animals/birds/fish for food is barbaric and cruel way to make a living. I felt like throwing up in a conversation with one of my colleague--when she brought up a few  money-making ideas some people in back home are exploring these days.  She told me that people have starting fish-farms, sheep-raising, etc. Then she elaborated how fast the fish grow and fill the pond. The fish are one on top of the other because there is no space for them to swim/live!

Similarly she told me how the sheep-farmers making money from the sheep-wool and meat... I just couldn't tolerate her ideas of making money from such cruel ways.

Silence means approval in many cultures

I’m a business graduate. I had learned in my strategy-course that there is a great advantage in being the “First Mover”. Social system also works similarly. People are praised for their new/innovative ideas that have helped improve the society’s overall welfare. But many great people have also been punished—and even killed—for their new bold ideas, even though the society at large has benefitted from such ideas.

 

We find many example of such great ideas. Socrates and Galileo were two of the wise men whose ideas have revolutionized the world but not without paying the hefty price with their own lives. 

 

For instance, Socrates was the first man to recognize the limitation of human knowledge and believed that people do wrong deed out of their own ignorance. He introduced a new deity—people’s own inner voice or reasoning. Socrates was poisoned to death for failing to consider the gods that others were following. 

 

Galileo’s discovery of the “sun doesn’t revolve the earth, rather the earth revolves around the sun in 1610” wasn’t taken positively by the Catholic churches. The churches were teaching their followers just the opposite. They had said: “The earth is the center of the universe and the universe was created by their god”. Galileo’s discovery proved what the churches were teaching was wrong. Accepting Galilei’s discovery also meant losing their livelihood, since the churches ran from the donations their followers made. Thus, the furious churches asked Galileo to abstain from teaching or defending such heliocentric ideas publicly.

 

Punishments like the ones above have scared many people from sharing their  ingenious ideas/inventions with the public. I can’t compare my difficulties of sharing my own findings about the gods and religions. I am also having difficulties in selling my “universal cultural” ideas with the public. I find most people are like a sheep. They rather sooed (steered) by a rudder, than build/find their own path. These people have no idea what moral and morality mean. This frustrates me immensely sometimes!

 

The people I’m dealing with know so little. They’ve read so little or not at all the worldly stuff. These people know only their culture. Their God. Their traditions. Arguing with them that there are other gods and other cultures and other traditions is like arguing with an arrogant teenager.

Small mind and Bigger mind

 

People’s needs seem to move up when they expand their mind because as they start thinking about others around them, their needs move up to the higher level (charity, spirituality), and they start thinking about others (people/environment). When people care for others passionately, two things happen: Their mind’s horizon expands, and they forget to be selfish!

 

This is why Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs make sense. We always find the needs of the selfish self-centred people in the bottom of Maslow ’s hierarchy. They need to be praised, and they’re always looking for love and affection. They are emotionally insecured and they’re often running after money. 

Who were Gandhi and Mother Teresa?

Gandhi and Mother Teresa were the two revered public figures. Gandhi is known as the “Father of the nation” for India and Mother Teresa was admired as the most charitable ‘saintly’ figure of the 20^th century. But were they really so? Here are a few truths most people rather not know because these truths contradict with their own belief criteria that they’re so comfortable with.
 
People’s belief system works so naturally that they’re not even aware of it (their habitual acts). If someone ask why they’re doing so, they’ve no answer. Self-examination is rare thing among the people who are compliance with their traditions/religion.
 
Now, who was Gandhi? Gandhi was a male chauvinist, raciest, an astute politician and a manipulator. He forced many innocent fellow citizen to be faced the brutal beating or even killing spree at the hands of the British ruler, while he was securely snugged inside of the prison. Gandhi was also class-promoter who wrote white people are "the predominating race” and the black people "are troublesome, very dirty and live like animals”. (South Africa, 1903). He slept in between teenage girls to test his “will-power.” This is the man who developed the theory of Satyagraha! 
 
Similarly, Mother Teresa said: "There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ's Passion. The world gains much from their suffering."  (Christopher Hitchens on Mother Teresa). There are also many evidences of her taking bribes and money laundering—involving large sum of money!