Foods | Recipes That We Eat in Tihar Festival of Nepal

Deepawali, Tihar, also popularly known as the Festival of Lights is one of the biggest festivals that is celebrated by south Asian nations like Nepal, India, Bangladesh including others. It is a 5-day long festival celebrated with lots of enthusiasm and happiness. Almost all offices and schools get closed during this festival making them free from work, study, and other obligations. It is the time of Just Fun and nothing more.

One thing that strikes the mind of everyone when we say about having fun is FOOD. Well, Tihar is the only festival that is celebrated for 5 days and each day has its importance. Food is something that makes these days even more important and fun. Getting to cook delicious food and sharing them with family makes this festival the best festival of all time.

Given below are a few of the food and recipes that we eat during Tihar. Such foods are much popular in Nepali households during this 5-day long festival of Lights; Tihar or Deepawali.

1. Phini Roti

Yet another delicious dish without which Tihar is incomplete is Phini Roti. Preparing this roti takes a little bit of time, however, the smile it brings to everyone’s face is worth it. Enjoy making a phone as much as eating it. The recipe for making Phini Roti is as below.

Ingredients

Ghee
Fine Rice Flour
Maida
Sugar as per taste
Oil for deep frying
Water

Direction for Preparation:

To prepare phini roti, first of all, make a dough by mixing rice flour and pure ghee and mix it well until you have a smooth buttery texture. Now, slowly and gently add water to the mixture. Mix it well until the dough does not stick to the hand. Take a damp cloth and cover it and put it aside for a few minutes.

After a few minutes, divide the dough into 4-5 equal parts. Using a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a rectangular shape. Flatten each dough and using the knife, make three equally spaced slits on the dough.

Once the rotis are made, heat oil in a pan for each phone to deep fry. Each phone should be fried for almost 5 minutes until it becomes crisp. Once these are prepared, serve them with tea, meat, or even pickles. This Tihar, don’t just eat your phone, try making it and have fun.

2. Chini Roti

Tihar festival is all about celebrations and any celebration is incomplete without food. The traditional way of celebrating Tihar is by making and eating different varieties of rotis. Among different types, sel roti is the most important one. After that, if there is any other that is much more important, it is chini roti. It is sweet and goes perfectly with homemade pickles or even with meat items. Below is the recipe for making this delicious sweet dish, Chini roti.

Ingredients:

Rice(soaked minimum 6 hrs)
Sugar as per taste
Oil or ghee

Directions of preparation

To prepare this roti, first of all, blend the soaked until you get it smooth. Add little water until the final dough is prepared. But remember that, the dough should be like chapati but a little coarse to the touch.

Then make small balls of dough and make a round shape of it by dabbing dough with your hands and applying a little bit of oil just to prevent the dough from sticking to the hand or on the board or plastic. On the stove, in a pan, add oil for deep frying the roti. Since it will be deep-fried, add a lot of oil.

One by one put the roti in the oil and let it cook on each side for about 5 minutes

Once it is golden brown, remove the roti from the oil and on onto a paper towel to absorb extra oil. In this way, you can make the perfect Chini Roti which is a sweet dish and goes perfectly with homemade chutney. Serve it to your friends and relatives and have a good time.

Sweets for Tihar:

When we talk about Tihar Festival, the first thing that comes to our mind is celebrations and food. The celebration is incomplete without sweet dishes on the menu. So, on this festival variety of sweets are prepared at home and are served to the entire family. Mostly, people prefer buying sweets from the market thinking it would be difficult to make sweets at home. But, with our recipe for sweets, you can easily prepare sweets at home too. Below is the recipe for famous and delicious sweet dishes that people eat during the Tihar festival.

3. Gulab Jamun (Lal Mohan):

One of the classic sweet dishes that is enjoyed in the celebration meal of Tihar is Gulab Jamun. These are the berry-sized balls that are dunked in sugar syrup. The simple recipe for making gulab jamun at home using milk powder is as below.

Ingredients

Milk powder
Maida or flour
Ghee/oil
Milk
Butter
Baking soda
Sugar
Water
Rose water
Cardamom powder

Direction for preparation

To make Gulab Jamun, first of all, mix sugar, water, and crushed cardamom and boil it until it is slightly sticky. Once it is boiled for a few minutes, add a few drops of rose water and mix it well. Set it aside and keep it hot.

Mix the ingredients like soda, flour, and milk powder uniformly. Add ghee, yogurt, milk, and flour mixture to it and mix properly. Prepare the dough by consistently kneading it. Remember that the dough must not be soggy and should hold the shape given to it.

Prepare small-sized balls and fry them in ghee or oil until it becomes golden.

Finally, add all the fried balls to the hot syrup and allow it to rest for almost 3 hours.

4. Kalakand:

Kalakand is yet another famous Bengali Sweet that is equally popular among Nepali people. This delicious dish can be easily prepared at home using just a few ingredients. This Tihar, surprise your friends and family by serving them homemade Kalakand.

Ingredients

Condensed cream
Paneer
Milk
Few pinch of cardamom and a few drops of rose water.
Nuts for garnishing

Direction for preparation

To prepare Kalakand, first of all, grease a plate or you can even use aluminum foil and keep it aside.

Pour condensed milk into a pan and warm it u on low flame. Meanwhile, add paneer, milk, and cardamom powder to the pan. Stir it well consistently to prevent it from burning. Now, transfer it to a greased plate and spread it to half inch thickness. Refrigerate it for at least two hours and your Kalakand is ready to be served to your friends and family.

5. Milk Peda:

Yet another traditional sweet that is prepared during Tihar or Deepawali in Nepal and South Asian nations is Peda. It is made using Khoa and sugar and is the easiest sweet dish to prepare. Here are the ingredients and the method of preparing Milk Peda

Ingredients

Condensed milk
Crumbled mewa or khoya
Cardamom powder
Ghee or coconut oil
Few strands of soaked saffron

Direction for preparation

To prepare milk peda, first of all, get khoya and bring it to room temperature. Crumble it well and consistently. Add condensed milk and khoya to a pan. Mix it well and cook it on a medium flame for some time. Let it cook until it becomes thick and mass. Then, grease your hands and make balls out of the mixture of milk and khoya. And flatten them. Lastly, tuck pistachios in the center of each pedal and refrigerate them. Serve it to your friends and family and enjoy the wonderful festival of Tihar or Deepawali.

6. Dal, bhat, and Masu

Last but not the least, one must have a dish in every Nepali household during the Tihar festival none other than Dal, Bhat, and Masu. Apart from having sweets and roti, a staple dish of Nepal is a must. However, since this is a special day, dal is accompanied by various other side dishes like Chutney, achar, and meat items. A variety of mutton including mutton curry, and mutton Bhutan are prepared in this festival to celebrate it with lots of fun and excitement.

The staple dish of Nepal, Dal Bhat Tarkari and masu is prepared in the normal way just the way it is prepared normally. The only difference is that the staple dish is served with a variety of meat products.

The above-mentioned foods are just a few of the foods that are prepared during the Tihar festival. Tihar is all about having fun and celebrating and the celebration is incomplete without good food.

6. Sel Roti

Sel roti is one of the important and most delicious cuisines for the Tihar Celebration. Tihar is can’t imagine without eating sel roti.

Ingredients needed for Sel roti

Soaked rice (whole night soaked)
Sugar
Ghee
Rice – 2.5 Pound (or you can buy instant rice flour from the market)
Water or milk – Half a liter (500 ml)
Cooking oil
A mixture of rice: 200. gm
Soda (baking powder): 1 pinch
Cashew nuts, coconut chopped
Water or milk: as required to

Utensils needed for Sel Roti

A deep/flat frying pan is needed
Two sticks (Cuptero) – 1 foot long
A cup to pour the mixture into a pan (you can make it out of the raw cell of coconut)
Plate to keep sel (Nangle)
A funnel-shaped utensil or if it is not available a big-sized bottle cutting it into halves.
A special type of karat to cook sel where it is bulged in middle to cook sel or you can use a simple Pan too.

Tihar lasts for 5 days and during these days, all the offices and schools remain closed. The main focus is just on being with the family and eating good food. Tihar is always fun to spend time with. Since food is a binding thing that keeps the family together, share each other’s preferences and enjoy the time. It is one of the auspicious occasions for all the Hindus when all the family stay together and enjoy the company while eating good food, playing cards, going to see new places, and relaxing.

This five-day long festival is the time eating is one thing that is the highlight of the celebrations. Unlike any other festival, it does not include fasting or anything. There is no need to go any kind of fasting. That is why Tihar is really about eating different types of food and having fun.

Tihar is just around the corner. If you are up for celebrating it with lots of enthusiasm and fun, try making the recipe mentioned above and surprise your friends and family.