What I cooked for Baba in Kushe aaushi. Hectic Day 😁

Kushe aaushi is famous and old Nepali tradition. In this day we celebrate father and father figures. We give gifts to them, feed sweets and celebrate the day. I wasn't able to buy any gifts for him this year so wanted to surprise him with something. I realize next day is feast day for Nepali women, where women cook, eat and have great feast just before fasting day of 'teej'. So I decided to cook dinner for him which also can be feast for Aama and me.

While having breakfast I decide on menu about what to cook, and can be done. I plan on rice gravy, one fried vegetable, salad, pickle, sweets, snacks. Paneer is everyone's favorite so I thought of making one gravy out of it.Normally vegetables were available in garden so I thought of buying some other required ingredients. After breakfast I secretly sneaked out from house to buy few ingredients but With all this lock down stuff and COVID stuff market place nowadays sucks. And with festival around nothing was available.Then I suddenly realized I have to change my menu and decide of things according to the things available. I bought few liters of milk for making sweets and kilos of tomatoes and a cabbage, because only those were available and fresh and remaining other were stale and price not to mention I almost get faint. Those were not worth getting paid even. So coming back home I take a good look at kitchen. There were beans, few capsicum, cucumber, potatoes along with my recently bought tomatoes and cabbage.in kitchen so I made new menu.

Menu

Momos and Aachar

Dhoklas

Capsicun potato fry

Matar paneer

Chickpea gravy

Potato cucumber Achar

Jeera rice

Sweaten yogurt

Rasmalai

When Aama saw me with milk, she was like "what on earth are you going to do with that milk'😁. I told her I didn't find sweets to feed Baba in market so bought them to make one myself.

So I place milk to boil in one gas while she was preparing for lunch. Then I took out some chickpeas, dried peas and Bengal gram and soaked them in water separately.  

While Aama was doing her lunch thing I shift my focus on sweets ,because they needs to cool down and refrigerate. So, I did partition of milk into two small vessel so they can boil quickly. I boil almost two liters of milk in a one vessel and added some vinegar to separate curd from whey when milk comes to boil. Then I cover the milk and turn off the flame. When whey and curd gets separated I drain them in muslin fabric and hang them so water is drained out completely.

It takes some time so, till that was happening I shift my focus on yogurt. Last night we forgot to make yogurt and it would not be ready till evening making in the mid day so, I thought of making sweeten yogurt with leftover of yogurt from yesterday. I add yogurt, condensed milk, jaggery and mix them removing an lumps.I add about a litre of milk in a pan and cook them in high medium flame reducing it to 3/4 or half. Add the milk in the yogurt mixture, mix them well and pour them in different small bowl sprinkle some almond and place in a steamer to steam for about 10 to 15 min. After 15 min I took them out of the steamer let them cool down and keep those aside.

 It was almost half an hour and my mother had no idea what I was doing😂. She was all curious while I starts blending Bengal gram that were soaked earlier. Because I told her about sweets only😀.I blended them into thick paste then add some 1 tbsp of lemon juice, 1/4th cup of curd, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar. Mix them well and keep them aside to ferment. It was almost  half past eleven time for our lunch. After having lunch every one leaves and Aama leave all the kitchen chores fully to me and then take over to her surprise😊. 

The curd I made earlier was ready till the time. So I transfer them to the flat plate and starts mashing them till they starts loosening and leaves ghee in my hands and plates. It took me almost 15 to 20 min. Then I place pressure cooker in gas to make sugar syrup.While syrup was being ready I made small  flat balls.The syrup I made was thin so it would be easy to absorb. Then I place all the ball in cooker and close the lid for 15 to 20 min. And in another pan I heat milk for the malai. I stir them continuously to make them thick and reduce a bit. Then I add some chopped almonds, pistachio, tbsp of sugar, yellow food color(we were out of saffron), vanilla essence(instead of saffron, for flavor). Took out both after 20 minutes and let them cool. After cooling I add all balls in the milk and after they were soaked and absorbed place them in refrigerator along with the yogurt after half an hour.

 

While sweets were cooling down, I had placed few tomatoes to boil.In a meantime I start chopping cabbage for momo's while taking look at tomatoes. When tomatoes starts leaving skin I took them out of water and cool them down. Then add some cumin seeds, red chilli, rosemary, mints, roasted peanuts, salt to taste, asafetida and blend them into fine puree.My tomato achar gets ready. And its time for momos now.

After chopping all the cabbage finely I leave them to ferment by adding salt to it. 

After few minutes I transfer those cabbage in another bowl throwing away water left by salt. Then I heat ghee in a pan,when it melts I add cumin seeds, cumin and coriander powder, coarsely crushed peanut powder(I use peanuts in many of my recipes so they are always in stock) and season cabbage with them. Then I made dough from all purpose flour.I had to call Aama for the help in rolling dough. She then roll them and I stuffed them with cabbage mixture. When all three plates were full I place them in steamer. After 10 minutes I took the lower one out and changes others place. My brother and Baba were so excited so I served them to taste with tomato achar. Even I taste two three. I was getting hungry with kitchen stuff I didn't even realize anything. After Momo's were ready I place dhokla batter in the same steamer. They needed almost 20 minutes to cooked. I leave them and start with main course.

Beans were already soaked so I decided on making gravy now.Firstly I heat oil in pan. Add along with some cumin seeds, bay leaves, pepper powder, cinnamon stick, two cloves,  2 cardamon,  2 chilli grated ginger and saute them. After that add diced tomatoes in it, turmeric powder, salt to taste and saute them again. At last add some dry roasted peanuts. Keep them aside and let them cool so can be blended in a mixture in a fine paste.Till then I heat pan and add ghee to it. After ghee melted, I add bay leaves and soaked peas to it. and let it cook for a minutes. Then add the tomato paste in a pan and mix them well. After a minutes I add diced paneer and cover them for minutes so that paneer can absorb all the flavors. At last add pinch of sugar to balance the taste.

In the meantime I took one batch o dhokla and place another one. After the mater paneer gets ready I 

heat a cooker for chickpea and add oil to it. Then add bay leaves, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, chilli,  saute them well, then add chickpeas to it again saute them. Add salt, chopped tomatoes, cumin and coriander seeds. Add some water and close the lid and wait for 3, 4 whistle. After that I took out a little bit portion of chickpeas and grind them into fine paste. Then I add the mixture back to the cooker and cook them for minutes. After those were done I  place rice in cooker to make cumin rice. And place pan in other side to make capsicum fry. I heat oil in a pan, then add chopped potatoes and capsicum and stir them time to time. Add some salt and cumin powder for taste.  Both rice and fry were ready at the same time.

When chickpeas were cooking I chopped cucumber for salad dressing or achar. I had placed few potatoes in steamer while cooking momos and took them out when they were boiled earlier. I peeled and diced those potatoes and mixing the chopped cucumber. Add some roasted flax powder, turmeric powder, salt, lemon juice. In a small pan heat oil and crackle fenugreek seeds and  chopped green chilli and season the mixture with them. I made another sweet seasoning with mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli, sugar and water for dhoklas. They were done too.

And finally dinner was ready. All by myself 😉 excepts for the momos. It was almost 7 in the evening when every thing was ready. I was finally relieved and so hungry that I would eat everything at single bite. But I didn't did that though.😂 And for the record I had even made dough for cinnamon rolls which I am gonna bake tomorrow morning if I wake up early.😀