Asha at the helm

All the food here is wonderful, but I think I like Asha's cooking the very best. She has a bold hand with the spices and every dish is a perfect balance of spice and umami.

This is Asha and Shanti. When she saw me taking photos, Shanti started dancing around the kitchen singing "Asha famous! Asha famous!" and laughing hysterically.


Today's breakfast was dahl bhat with sauteed mustard greens.

Asha started by heating some chile flakes in oil:


Then she tossed in some roughly chopped green chiles (from a distance, since they caused the hot oil to spit):


Then she added washed, chopped greens and then threw a lid on the pot.




Once the greens were going, she turned her attention to garlic. The heads of garlic here are tiny, and peeling those little cloves is an undertaking. Asha pounded them lightly with the lohora before peeling.





She let the garlic cook in a little hot oil until it was golden:


then added it to the dahl bhat (lentil soup):



Asha turned her attention back to the greens, adding some chopped tomatoes:


And a bunch more spices:






The finished greens:



And the full breakfast: