I belong to Darjeeling and have completed my hotel management degree. I love cooking all cuisines including Nepalese. Nepalese food is generally healthier as it has more vegetables, lean meats, pickles and green salads.
We have different communities in Darjeeling so there are different delicacies from each region. My favourite food is the ‘Nepali thali’ which includes rice, daal, meat curry, ‘aloo dum’, ‘gundruk’ (dried spinach leaves soup), ‘kinema’ (dried soya bean), tomato ‘achaar’ and green salad.
My main motive is to spread the taste of Nepalese cuisine among people. Hence, my fiance Depen Lama and I have started a venture called ‘DeRa’s Delicacy’ in the City to popularise this cuisine. At the moment, we are serving people from home and looking forward to opening a restaurant by the end of the year. Apart from food items, I also make different types of Nepalese pickles.
The recipe that I am sharing is of ‘Chicken Shyafaley’. It is a popular dish among the Nepalese and the Bhutanese. ‘Shya’ means meat and ‘faley’ means roti, so primarily it means meat stuffed in a roti. I have used minced chicken to prepare this dish. The process may sound easy but there is a lot of hard work involved. Keep in mind not to over cook or under cook the chicken as you wouldn’t want it to be either dry or raw.
Chicken Shyafaley
Ingredients
For the dough
* Flour/atta - 1 cup
* Water- 1/2 cup
* Oil - 1 tbsp
* Salt - a pinch
For the filling
* Minced chicken - 100 gms
* Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
* Salt - to taste
* Minced onion - 1 tbsp
* Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
* Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
* Cumin powder -1 tsp
* Coriander powder - 1 tsp
* Oil (to fry) - 1 cup
Method
* Mix the atta / flour with salt, oil and water to make the dough. Keep it aside for 10 minutes.
* To make the filling, add oil in a pan. Let the oil heat and add the minced onion and sauté it for sometime.
* Add the minced chicken along with the rest of the spices.
* Add coriander leaves once the chicken is done and let it cool for 15 minutes.
* Divide the dough into 8 equal parts and roll each part into the shape of a ‘poori’, keeping the middle portion a little thick. One shyafaley acts as the base and the other as a cover.
* Now add the filling into 4 ‘pooris’. Place each ‘poori’ onto the other one with the filling
on it.
* Wrap the 2 ‘pooris’ so that they won’t separate.
* Take these keema-filled ‘pooris’ and fry them till they’re properly done. Serve them with a red chilli sauce.
(As told to Surupasree Sarmmah)
(Radha can be contacted at 9663726707)