Yak Yeti Yak Yeti Yak Yeti Yak

Birthday treats for Dr W. A visit to Nepalese Restaurant Yak Yeti Yak. Having never eaten Nepalese food, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. My geography is also unreliable so I did have to familiarise myself to exactly where Nepal was. It's here. By the way. Just in case.

So, drinks. A banana lassi for Dr W (pudding in a glass) and a limey iced-tea for me. Virtuous. Gin tonight.

We started with poppadoms and spiced pork momo, the Nepalese dumpling. Delicious steamed dough with a filling of cumin spiced minced pork. Slightly spicy but with the type of warm heat that you get from lots of pepper rather than chilli. I could (but should not) eat a lot of these!

For our mains we chose Yak Yeti Yak chicken and pork bhutuwa (see menu) served with bhat (rice) and musurko dal (lentils).

All in all pretty awesome food! Recognisably Indian spices but with cleaner flavours and less of the ghee rich sauces. Also served on hot, shiny brass plates called thali. Very pretty yes please.



A really lovely meal. Well made food, friendly service and cosy restaurant.


Finished! When can we go back?

Q. What did the cheese say when looking in the mirror?

A. Halloumi!

Crispy halloumi with cous-cous, salad and caper dressing.

Prepare the cous-cous and salad, dust the halloumi with flour and fry until golden and crispy.

Put walnut oil (I ran out of olive oil), lime juice (no lemons), capers, salt, pepper and sugar to taste in a clean jam jar and shake! This is fun.

Oh, and there's some roasted butternut squash in there too. Yum.

Kweetch.

End of veg box quiche.

Courgette, leeks and mushrooms cooked in a little butter until soft. Put veg in a blind baked pastry case and pour over whisked eggs, whole grain mustard, cream cheese (cake leftover) and grated cheese.

Garnish with tomato. First use of the word "garnish" in the blog. I think. May there be many more.

Bake until golden and firm.

Birfday.

Dr W's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAYZ! Crank's carrot cake.

150 g grated carrot
2 eggs (from happy chickens)
100g brown sugar
5 tbsp rape seed oil (sold as common-or-garden vegetable oil, check the label!)
100g self-raising flour
1tsp ground cinnamon & 1tsp ground nutmeg
50g desiccated coconut & 50g sultanas


Whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy and whisk in oil gradually. Fold in all the other ingredients and bake until golden and it passes the skewer test. Proper simple.

Piped (oh yes) with sweetened, lemony cream cheese and decorated with orange and lemon jelly slices. Retro fun!

This cake is the carrot cake my mum makes. And it's the reason why I dislike most other spongy, oily, overly cinnamony carrot cake.

Like all Crank's veggie recipes, it's well considered and packed with flavour. Buy a Crank's book. It's pretty easy to find original 1980s copies in charity shops for not much money. You do have to be a BIG fan of cheese, nuts and pastry though... Oh hang on!

(p.s. hello again)

Pie Love You.

Winter food. In May. And why not.

Beef, carrots, onions and garlic cooked slowly with bay, red wine and stock until soft and melty which will take about 3 hours. Worth it!

Cook thick slices of fat field mushrooms in butter and mix with the beef.

Put in dish of choice and top with pastry of choice. In my case, puff.

Brush with beaten egg (for the shiny), bake and think of snow.