In today's edition of my series of Food updates, I'm introducing you to the lovely Ms Melody, a beautiful nurse and an even more amazing cook!
She's taken though, so all you guys calm your hormones down :D Her boyfriend's the luckiest guy in the world.
What makes this particular post a bit different from the others is that, firstly, this was a Sunday afternoon lunch invitation unlike all the others earlier which were dinner invitations. Secondly, apart from just food images, I have put up some other glamorous photos in the end as well, with permission from Melody of course. After our awesome home-cooked Sunday lunch, we went to Hyatt to watch our two friends Evon and Valtea perform, so we clicked a couple of pics here and there.
So coming back to that awesome Sunday lunch, here are the dishes Melody cooked that day, along with instructions on how to make them, as dictated by her to me.
First up, Vawksa rep leh dawlrep bai.
Smoked pork and dried arum stew.
First, wash the smoked pork in hot water.
Put them in a pressure cooker and pour water just enough to cover the pieces. Close the cooker and cook it. Let the cooker whistle for around 3 times and then switch it off.
Wait for the cooker to cool down and depressurize, and then open it.
Meanwhile, wash the preserved dried dawl (arum) and cut them into medium pieces.
Add the cut pieces into the pressure cooker containing the (almost cooked) smoked pork.
Along with that, take around an OK of lengser rep (sun-dried elsholtzia blanda / vietnamese balm) and add it to the cooker as well.
I said "OK" in the above paragraph because apparently, there is no English translation for what we Mizos refer to as "hmer" which is a unit of measurement we use while buying vegetables. Hmer is the amount of vegetables (leafy-greens) we take by making a circular shape using our thumb and index finger (the OK symbol). The amount of greens that fit within that gap is considered as "hmer khat" (one hmer).
Also add one pinch of anthur rep (sun-dried roselle / sabdariffa / rosemallow).
Grind garlic and add around 1 tbsp of it, along with a little piece of ginger and some salt.
Add some more water and close the cooker, cook it and wait for it to whistle for around 2-3 times. Your awesome dish is ready!
Chingit, bawkbawn leh bekang bai.
Dried pepper leaf shoot with brinjal and fermented soybeans stew.
Slice the brinjal into thumb-size pieces and immerse in water immediately (to prevent it from turning brown due to oxidation).
Boil water in a pan. Once boiled, put the sliced brinjal in it.
Meanwhile, take fresh chingit (Indian pepper plant) and pluck out only the leaves. If the stalk is young, then those can be selected as well. Wash them thoroughly.
Once the brinjal is almost cooked, put the chingit in the pan along with small amount of bekang rep (fermented soybeans), ajinomoto, dhania (coriander) and bahkhawr (culantro).
Take two king chillies and cut them in half, and then add them in the pan as well. Slicing it in half helps distribute the spiciness across the concoction.
Keep stirring for a few minutes until the dish is ready. Yummm!
Vawksa rep curry.
Smoked pork curry.
Wash the smoked pork in hot water and slice them into half each (they already come in medium pieces).
Heat oil in a pan. Add onions and garlic paste along with salt in the pan once the oil is heated. After that, add turmeric powder.
Stir for some time and then add the washed pork.
Meanwhile, chop potatoes into medium piece and boil them.
Once the pork is almost ready, add the boiled potatoes along with chopped tomatoes.
Keep stirring.
Add water and stir at regular interval until the dish is ready. Super dillu!
Egg tomato potato fry.
Simple dish.
Chop potatoes and tomatoes.
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Fry the potatoes first, and once they are almost done, add the tomatoes.
Take eggs, beat them up real good, and then add it to the frying pan once the tomatoes start becoming a bit watery.
Add salt and spice to taste. Stir. Done.
Laphetauh chutney.
Burmese mixture chutney side-dish.
Laphetauh is a popular mixture of nuts and vegetables that we get from Myanmar. You will need this packet to make this dish.
First, chop some cabbages and onions into very thin slices and put them in a bowl.
Add the laphatauh packet to that bowl.
Add a little bit of heated oil to that bowl.
Grind some dried Mizo chillies and add to that bowl as well.
Take nghapih (fermented shrimp paste) in a different bowl, add little bit of water and stir to make it into paste. Add it to the main bowl after that.
No need to add any salt as the laphetauh and nghapih are already salty enough.
Wearing a glove, mix them all together. The chutney is ready!
Zawngtah mu.
Crying monkey seeds. Just kidding. Seeds of stinky beans.
Simple and easy to make. Just peel the skin. Done.
And so this was my awesome plate that afternoon! My mouth still waters as I look at this today.
Yummm indeed!
And so that was it, the food part. I really hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to use the recipes and let me know your feedback.
Once we were done with the awesome lunch, we headed back to my place at KP where I changed and then we headed towards Hyatt to watch our friends Evon and Valtea perform.
Here are some of the photos later that day.
The photo below, I captioned it as "On our way to Church" on my WhatsApp status.
The above pic does look like we were on our way to Church right? And the beauty of it is that, my friends at PMCF who saw my update assumed I was going to the PMPC service, while my friends at PMPC thought I was going to the PMCF service, so nobody asked me why they didn't see me at Church that day. Ah, what a great time to be living in Pune :D :P
Reached Hyatt. Beautiful place. The best thing I like about Hyatt Pune is that, there are so many Mizos working here.
Evon and Valtea in action. They performed really well and thoroughly entertained us.
Evon may be a celebrity here in Pune now, but I've known her since her student days back in Delhi, long before she even started her career as a professional singer. That was a really long time ago, back during the days when she was known as "Muanpuii" and not Evon :D :P
Some cocktail to set the ball rolling :)
It was almost 3 hours since we had that awesome lunch, and so we ordered pizza again while listening to Valtea and Evon's performance :D
Some more pics outside the restaurant (smoking section) before heading back inside to continue with our pizza and cocktails.
And so, that was the event of the day. Amazing home-cooked Mizo lunch by an awesome cook, followed by great times spent with friends at a great place.
Hope you find this post useful, and see you again on my next upcoming food update. Cheers.
