My Granny,Ghumaune Ghar and Her Cuisine

 Ghumaune ghar is typical traditional house really exciting house made of wood and scrub. The walls of the house are plastered with a mixture of mud and khar (a kind of plant scrub) on both inside and outside. Inlet of air is made with just small holes there were not windows. In general such house contains four rooms, namely bhansa (kitchen), majheri (common room), Bhadar (guest room) and sikuwa (sleeping room). The roof is made of Khar (scrub) in umbrella style. Such type of house is called Ghumaune ghar (round house) in our community.Another next traditional house, it is rectangular in shape can be found iit is calledr or Charpakhe ghar.

I just remember how our grandfather managed the rooms for the guest and granny made the tasty items for guest.Celebration festivals like Dashai and Tihar brought lots of happiness there at home and sense of belongingness to home was the reason to identify own self with the rural environment we got born and brought up.The charm of natural beauty adds an energy to mind when we try to recollect the pals of our family gathering at home and public meetings also add different flavors of love and friendship .The homely feelings with the muddy substances,khar ,bhanchha and gundro are always interesting and most interesting is my granny cooking in bhanchha room.

The kitchen room always attracted me and the kettle on fire with warm for everyone,chapati cooking and fire in managed kitchen was the interesting fact of my home.The taste of food at home is owesome because cooking food in fire was the tasty .Wood is usually the principal source of energy for cooking food and for keeping warm.Chulo is a traditional Nepali stove that is made out of mud.

Chulo requires wood for burning. Cooking in a chulo is time consuming as one cannot turn on or off the heat level as easily as in the gas stoves. However, the food cooked in this traditional Nepali wood stove is much tastier than that of any other oven or gas. It is made of mud and also uses some sticks in order to give it support. It has two holes, one on the upper part where the utensils are kept and another on the side from where the woods are put in. A pipe usually made out of wood or metal, locally known as Dhungro, is used to blow to light up the fire. The utensils are coated with mud on the base before using it for cooking on the chulo. It is done to protect the base of the utensil from burning and also to protect it from turning black.

Traditionally, it used wood for cooking but it can be found in modified forms that use coal instead of woods that are cheaper and easily available. It is commonly used in rural areas, however, due to the continuous rise on the price of the petroleum products and also the rich taste in food cooked on it, many people in the various parts of the urban areas use it as an alternative stove.

The taste of the food cooked in chulo makes you forget all the hurdles faced while cooking. Despite the lengthy and tiresome procedure, the food cooked in a chulo gives an authentic Nepali taste.My granny making chulo by hands and cooking food items on it for families at home is a kind of golden memory for me.I just love the pictures of my granny cooking in bhanchha ghar made by my grandpa and her smile to enjoy cookery time and serve the delicious meals to all during festivals.

She was very particular about how she liked her vegetables prepared. To make her favorite curry, she would cook potatoes and cauliflower separately – so they wouldn’t get mushy in the sauce – in a mixture of turmeric oil, fenugreek seeds, jimbu (an onion-like Tibetan herb), and ajwain (an Indian herb whose flavor has been likened to anise and oregano). The curry was enriched with ginger, garlic, bay leaf, cumin, cardamom, and coriander. Sel Roti is a famous sweet ring shaped dish mostly prepared my granny It is a rich dish prepared by deep frying sweetened rice flour.  

Dhido is a traditional Nepali food widely consumed in hilly and mountain region of Nepal, where rice and wheat is not abundant. Dhido is similar to Polenta and is made by continuously mixing hot water and flours of maize and buckwheat. It is often eaten along with local vegetable curry, pickle, or Gundruk (fermented leafy green vegetable) soup.Puwa is regarded as pure food and is usually served during sacred rituals and Puja. Puwa is a sweet dish prepared with rice flour, butter and sugar. It can be eaten on its own or served with warm milkand is tastier when my granny prepares herself.Before serving dal bhat she prepared dhido too as side flavor before starting the main meal.

Anarsaa-roti are old fashioned sweet rice patties (resembling large cookies) made by my granny.  Rice flour gives this bread a crisp texture, and poppy seeds provide a pleasant nutty flavor.  The dough is hand stretched into circles and deep fried.The traditional sweet is freshly fried until lightly browned and stacked up neatly.  It is kept this way until all the extra clarified butter is drained from the patties, before moving into a decorative platter.  Anarsaa is eaten during festivals, family celebrations, and simply as a mid-afternoon snacks.My granny never forgets to prepare it for us and we love sugary taste of the food items.