It would seem that for people living overseas a blog post about their Christmas baking is a must. So here's mine...
I decided that today was the day to try my Miracle Oven for the first time. Is there such a thing? Yes, absolutely. It was invented by some smart person in Nepal for baking on a gas stove, since most people in Nepal don't have ovens. The electricity is so hit-and-miss here that having an oven would probably not be useful a lot of the time anyways. Pretty much everyone has a gas stove. Hence, the miracle oven.
Now, I realize that this may not look very miraculous to you. It didn't to me either. But it does a pretty good job. It's basically an iron ring that sits right on the gas burner, to keep the rest of the oven away from the direct flame. Then there is a circular pan and lid, and an aluminum liner that is removable. You bake things with the lid on, as in the photo. You can do a lot with the miracle oven...pies, cakes, bread, cookies, casseroles, etc. They do end up round with a hole in the middle (like a bundt cake...is anyone else having a flashback of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" right now, or am I the only one who loves that movie??), but they taste alright. I've eaten things that have been made in the miracle oven, but hadn't yet tried it myself. Until today.
Today I decided that the 2 essential baked goods around Christmastime for my family are Swedish gingerbread cookies, and these Swedish sweet buns called Lucia buns (for St Lucia Day, which is Dec 13 in Sweden). My mom ALWAYS makes them at Christmas, and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without them. So I got the recipes from my mom, and decided to give them a try.
The first challenge was getting the ingredients, although in the end pretty much everything was available at the nearby supermarket that is as close to a western-style grocery store as they come. I don't think there is shortening in Nepal...I couldn't find any, anyways. And the cookies don't roll well with butter or oil, apparently. In India they use a lot of ghee, which is some kind of fat product, and we have that here, too. It's quite fattening and rich. I decided that might be a decent alternative to shortening. And then I had to go on a hunt for yeast and corn syrup (I eventually settled for honey instead), but I found both. And I also stumbled across icing sugar. Perfect!
All in all, I'd say things turned out pretty well. They don't taste QUITE like they do at home, and I don't think the yeast was very "active," so the buns are a bit dense, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Can you tell that those are stars and Christmas trees on the cookies? (The correct answer is yes, by the way!) Yup, roughing here in Kathmandu!
And there you go! My first Miracle Oven experience. I'd say it was a success. The other first for today was that I got up the courage to stop at a little roadside stand and buy a deep-fried dough ring that they sell everywhere. Okay, so maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal. But let me explain. As a westerner, the kind of shopping I'm used to (likely the kind of shopping that we're all used to) is the kind where you go into a store, prices are nicely labelled for you, you go down the aisles, put things into your cart, and then go to the cash register where they ring it all in, and you pay the set amount. That's what's normal and comfortable for me. Fortunately for me (or perhaps unfortunately), at the supermarket near my apartment, the shopping is pretty much like that. It's easy, and it's comfortable. Great! The problem is that then it becomes really easy to just keep doing that, rather than venturing out and shopping the way most people shop in Nepal - at roadside stands, and in smaller shops, where you have to talk to the shopkeeper or person at the stand, ask the price, maybe bargain a bit, etc. I have done that in other countries, but here it was just so easy to not do that, and it made me a bit nervous, so I wouldn't do it.
But that's not how you adapt to a culture! The key to adapting is to dive right in and do it, rather than withdrawing into what's comfortable and familiar for you. For the last few weeks I've noticed all these stands where they sell deep-fried dough rings, and other treats, and have kind of wanted to try them, but have been too chicken. It doesn't help that the numbers in Nepali have no pattern to them, so you have to learn each one's name individually. It's not like once you can count from 1-10 you can count to 100. At this point I can still only count to 35! So I was nervous to go and ask how much something cost, and then not be able to finish the conversation. Which is silly, since pretty much everyone in Kathmandu speaks English anyways. But yeah, it was one more thing stopping me. Anyways, yesterday I decided that I needed to get over that and just force myself to do it. So today on the way home from class, I stopped at one of those stalls, asked how much they cost each (a whopping 5 rupees, or about 7 cents), and bought one. It was very yummy! And that was that. A small thing, but I was very proud of my accomplishment!
After an attempt at a conversation in Nepali with my almost-non-English-speaking house-helper this morning, I THINK that tomorrow afternoon I'm going over to her friend's house, where she and her friend will be cooking all day for a little Christmas party that evening. I'm pretty sure that what we decided was that after my language class was done, I'd get in a taxi, phone her, hand the phone to the taxi driver, and she'd tell him where to take me. From there, I will join in with her and her friend and their families, for some yummy food involving rice and coconut milk, and we'll be dancing and singing Christmas carols. Nepali Christmas carols, mind you, are NOT the same as English Christmas carols, so I won't be able to even hum along for most of them. I know 2 at this point. But it should be fun. As I say, based on our very broken-up conversation, I THINK that's the plan. I'll let you know how it goes!
