Fini roti, Sel roti and potato pickle: Nepal’s popular dishes
Nepalese cuisine combines a range of ingredients, techniques and characteristics from its neighboring countries with its own gastronomic history. Rita Hama, wife of the Nepalese ambassador to Kuwait, welcomed Kuwait Times to her kitchen and told us the story of the popular dishes she prepared. “I will prepare three dishes - Fini roti, potato pickle and Sel roti. Fini Roti is traditionally made on special occasion like Tihar, Dashain, weddings, etc. Potato pickle is known as alu ko achhar and is a very famous dish. “We can have it at any time with any food. It tastes a little hot and sour,” she said.
The story of Sel Roti
A long time ago, there lived a poor family in a village. The family consisted of a father, mother, son and daughter. Both the daughter and the son worked in order to meet daily necessities. One day, the son decided to go abroad in order to work to make the life of his family easier. A long time passed, but he never returned home. Due to this, his family was in sorrow. Time went by and the festival of siblings called Tihar arrived. The daughter was making Sel roti and at the same time was praying to God: “Today is the day when siblings meet and celebrate. All siblings in my village are in a great festive mood, except me. Just like how this Sel roti makes a full circle and meets where it originated, I hope my brother is also reunited with me regardless of where he is.”
Suddenly, like a miracle, her brother arrived home with a lot of money that evening. When his family, including his sister, saw him, tears of joy came out from their eyes. They then celebrated Tihar together with great jubilation. It is said that ever since then, Sel roti is made during the festival as well as on other special occasions. Fini roti Ingredients 1/2 kg refined flour
1 kg ghee
200 gm rice flour
A cup of water
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
Preparation
Make dough out of refined flour with water. Mix the rice flour with 2 spoons of oil, 2 spoons of water and 100 g of ghee.
Stretch out the dough and then apply the rice flour on it and then roll it and cut at every 3 inches.
Give the pieces the shape of a chapatti.
Heat ghee in a utensil and then cook both sides of the chapatti for 2 minutes.
Serve with vegetables, meat or potato pickle as snacks. Potato Pickle Ingredients: 4 potatoes.
200 gm sesame powder. 5-7 green chilies 2 cucumbers
1 small lemon
100 ml cooking oil 1 teaspoon turmeric 100 gm green peas. Salt according to taste
Preparation
Boil the potatoes and peel them.
Cut the cucumbers and potatoes in small pieces. Heat oil in a utensil and cook turmeric, chilies and green peas for one minute.
Mix the heated ingredients with the cucumbers and potatoes. Serve with food.
Sel roti Ingredients: 1/2 kg of rice flour.
100 gm sugar.
200 ml milk.
50 gm ghee.
500 ml cooking oil
Preparation
Mix ghee, sugar and flour together.
Add milk to the mixture and mix again.
Heat oil in a utensil and pour the mixture in a round shape and cook it for 3 minutes. Serve with vegetables, meat or potato pickle as a snack.