Darjeeling Green Bean and Sesame Salad
1 lb fresh green beans
1 tbsp + 1 tsp sesame seeds
1-2 green chili
(Serrano)depending on how hot you like
1 tbsp mustard or corn or
canola oil
salt to your taste
juice of 1 lemon
Cut the green beans on a
slant into 1 ½ pieces. Put them in a pot, cover with water, add a pinch of salt
and bring to a boil. Lower heat to medium and cook 5-8 minutes until the beans
are just tender. Add water if necessary. Drain. Put into a serving bowl.
Dry roast the sesame seeds in
a small frying pan. Grind to a fine powdery paste.
Half and seed the chilis.
Then carefully cut them into very thin long strips.
Heat the oil in a small
frying pan and add the chilis. Fry 3 minutes until they start to get crisp.
Pour the contents of the pan over the green beans.
Put 1 tbsp sesame paste, salt
to your taste and the lemon juice on the beans and blend everything. Let it sit
at least 10 minutes before serving so the flavors merge.
Bhutanese Pork with Bok Choy and Cauliflower
Serves 4
1 medium sized cauliflower,
cut into florets
1 c water
2 tbsp corn, mustard or
canola oil
1 med/lg onion, peeled and
quartered
2” fresh ginger, peeled and
cut into thin strips
1 large jalapeno or small
Serrano chili pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips
3 cloves of garlic peeled and
sliced into thin strips
1 lb pork filet cut into thin
strips (use shoulder, country rib or boneless chops)
1 tsp crushed chili flakes
¼ tsp ground star anise or ½
star crushed
2 teaspoons salt
3 large bokchoy, cut into
strips
2 tbsp freshly squeezed
orange juice
for garnish: 1 bunch cilantro
leaves, roughly chopped
In a medium saucepan, combine
the cauliflower florets and 1 cup water with a pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, cover,
reduce heat to low and cook 3-4 minutes until florets just start to soften. Remove
from heat.
Break the onion layers apart.
Heat the oil in a large wok or sauté pan over medium/high flame. Add the onion,
garlic, ginger and chilies and stir-fry 2-3 minutes until they soften slightly.
Add the pork, crushed chilies, star anise and stir-fry another 3 minutes to
brown the pork. Add salt and continue to stir-fry until pork is cooked through
and not pink anywhere. Add bokchoy. Drain the cauliflower keeping the water,
and add along with up to 1 cup of that water. Blend everything and continue to
cook 5 minutes until everything is soft and cooked through. Squeeze in the
orange juice. Taste to adjust salt and crushed chili flakes to your liking. Add
the cilantro leaves, stir to blend.
Nepali Mustard Greens
This is a nice, easy preparation
for Asian mustard greens, which are different from the crinkly large leafed
American mustard greens. It’s perfect as
a stand alone side dish but I have also used this on a pizza, when a Portobello
mushroom was the “dough.” I fill the mushroom cavity with the cooked mustard
greens, top them crumbled cooked cauliflower and top that with thin slices of
yak, Gruyere or Fontina cheese. Slip in slivers of sausage or crumbled cooked
bacon if you can’t bear to be vegetarian.
Serves 4
1 bunch Chinese or Indian
mustard greens
½ tsp. turmeric
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. garlic ginger paste (3 minced garlic cubes and 1" grated/minced ginger)
2 dried red (arbol) chilies
2 tbsp. cooking oil (not
olive) mustard would be most authentic
freshly ground black pepper
Wash the leaves, cut off any
tough stems. Chop the leaves.
Heat the oil in a large sauté
pan or wok. Add the dried chilies and
stir fry until they turn darker—1-2 minutes.
Add the chopped greens,
tumeric and salt, stirring to blend.
Continue to fry over medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the garlic/ginger paste at the bottom of
the pan. Stir fry, then blend into the greens.
Continue to stir fry until
the greens are very tender, another 5-8 minutes.
Remove the dried chilies and
season with freshly ground pepper to serve.
Tibetan Lamb with Daikon
Labu Dikrul is made in two stages, so it can be made ahead
and is thus great party food. Tibetans normally serve it with rice or steamed
bread, tingmo, to soak up the delicious gingery broth.
serves 4
1½ -3/4 lbs. stewing lamb pieces with bones
1 lg. daikon, peeled
2 med./lg. onions
3 inches fresh ginger, peeled
7 lg. garlic cloves, peeled
¼ tsp. Szechuan pepper or ¼ tsp. coarse ground black pepper
& 1 dried chili
½ tsp. salt
4-6 cups water
1 lg. tomato, cored
¼ tsp. mild chili or 1/8 tsp. cayenne powder
1 tbsp. corn, safflower, canola, mustard oil
6-8 med. Asian mustard greens (1/2 a bunch)*
*You can substitute Spinach but you won’t get the pungent
flavor.
Cut the daikon into two inch long pieces (probably 5 to 6).
Quarter one onion. Smash the ginger and
6 garlic cloves with the back of a knife.
Put the lamb, daikon, quartered onion, ginger, garlic,
pepper and ¼ tsp. salt in a medium casserole or lidded saucepan and barely
cover with water. Depending on the width of the pot, this will require four to
6 cups. Bring to a boil, cover, lower
heat and simmer for an hour or a few minutes longer, until the lamb is just
tender enough to fall easily from its bones.
Remove the lamb and daikon from the broth. Boil the broth
hard for 15 minutes to reduce it. (This
is the point at which you can cool everything and put it in the refrigerator
until you want to serve it.)
Take the lamb meat off the bones, discard the bones and cut
the meat into bite-sized pieces. Cut the daikon lengths into thin (1/8”) discs,
then cut them in half lengthwise so you have semicircles.
Chop the remaining onion finely. Chop the tomato finely.
Mince the remaining garlic clove. Degrease the broth and strain it.
Over high heat, heat the tbsp of oil in a wok or large sauté
pan that has a lid. Add the onion and
garlic. Stir fry to brown. Add the chili
or cayenne pepper and blend. Add the
lamb. Stir to blend. Keep cooking on high about 90 seconds to brown the lamb
slightly.
Add the chopped tomato, another ¼ tsp. salt and ½ cup of the
broth. (If you’d like this really “stewy” and not braised, add ¾-1 cup of
broth.) Cook about five minutes until the tomato dissolves into the juice and
the broth is boiling.
Coarsely chop or break the mustard greens in half or thirds
(depending on their size), lay on top of the lamb and daikon, cover the pot and
steam for two minutes.
Remove the lid, stir the greens into the “stew”, adjust for
salt and pepper and serve.
You can use the remaining broth to make Scotch Broth or to
pour over rice.
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