Jyoti's spice styles

Cooking is very rare for Jyoti Shrestha, VJ at Image Channel. But when she does, it’s definitely good. However, it isn’t always easy to be working in the kitchen, she says.

“I’m usually very clumsy in the kitchen and my mom isn’t very happy about that,” confesses Shrestha as she flashes her prominent smile. She has lot of experiences of getting burns on her hands due to heated oil spurts in the kitchen. That, however, doesn’t discourage her to venture into the cooking zone. [break]

She makes sure that she’s all by herself when she decides to cook. “I don’t like to have anyone around me, not even to assist me,’ she says.

Shrestha isn’t the one who loves to cook a whole set of meal. Her cooking usually involves dishes that can be made instantly and demands less effort and time.

Photo: Abhishek Shah

“I need to finish up cooking within an hour or an hour and a half. I don’t enjoy cooking for hours,” she says.

For the person who loves Vietnamese foods, she loves to cook what she enjoys eating. Pasta, rice noodles, chips chilies are some of the dishes she likes to try her hands on. Her family is all praise for her pasta dishes, says the VJ.

“I don’t like to eat the dishes I cook. I rather prefer to serve it to family and friends and know their views on the dishes,” she says.

On her part, she equally loves plain and spicy foods but chooses the former for a normal diet. She has no inhibitions for food, though; she loves to indulge herself on good foods.

Having learnt the art of cooking through observation, she says that she follows traditional methods of cooking. She stuck to conventional cooking after many experimental tries of hers went disastrous.

Shrestha shares with The Week two of her favorite dishes: Rice Noodles with Tofu, and Sausage Chili. Both had unique tastes, with the latter more spicy, as it name suggests. The two dishes for lunch made a perfect combination!

Jyoti´s Recipes:

Sausage Chili

Ingredients

• 100 grams of sausage

• 2 sliced onions

• 2 capsicums

• 3 tomatoes

• 2 tablespoons soybean oil

• ½ tablespoon garlic paste

• ½ teaspoon cumin powder

• ½ teaspoon turmeric powder

• Salt to taste

Methodology

• Boil the sausage in a pan for 15 minutes;

• Cut the sausage into desired pieces and fry them up them in heated soybean oil;

• Take another frying pan and heat soybean oil;

• Add chopped onions, capsicum and tomatoes respectively;

• When the tomatoes melt and form gravy, add fried sausages to the mixture;

• Add, salt, cumin and turmeric powder and stir properly;

The Sausage Chili is now ready to serve.

Rice Noodles with Tofu

Ingredients

• 250-300 grams of instant rice noodles

• 200-250 grams of tofu

• 2 chopped onions

• 2 tomatoes

• 2 tablespoons soybean oil

• ½ tablespoon garlic paste

• Salt to taste

Methodology

• Boil the instant rice noodles;

• Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat soybean oil;

• Add tofu in the pan and let it fry in medium heat;

• In a different pan, fry onions and tomatoes respectively and add garlic paste to the mixture;

• Add salt to taste;

• Now, add boiled rice noodle and tofu to the pan and stir properly;

The Rice Noodles with Tofu is now ready to serve.