Preparing Droma and Droma Dresi and Droma Markhu

Tibetan food, traditionally, does not have a lot of sweets and there are not a lot of naturally sweet ingredients in Tibet.  However,  there are a few.  One sweet ingredient, unique to the himalayas, is droma.  Droma is a sort of wild sweet potato.  It is small, dark brown root, with a grainy texture and a mild and naturally sweet flavor similar to molasses.  Droma is used in a few Tibetan sweets, especially Droma Dresi and Droma Markhu.

Droma Dresi (left) and Droma Markhu (right), a recent photo from Yushu, Kham

Droma is stored dried, and as a result can keep for several years. When my friend M and I prepared Droma Dresi this past weekend, we were using Droma that was well over a year old, and that's fine. However, it does mean that it requires special preparation.


Techniques vary, but most people recommend soaking the droma over night. Just put the droma in a bowl and pour water until it completely covers the droma, and then a little bit more. Leave this over night and the droma will be ready to use in the morning.  Note that this is not ready to eat, just ready to use.

Soaked Droma

The simplest preparation of Droma, and the one most abhorrent to non-Tibetans, in Droma Markhu.  Mar means butter, and Khu means clear soup or juice.  Markhu, basically, means melted butter.  So Droma Markhu is droma absolutely floating and drenched in melted butter and sugar.  If you look at the top pictre, there is a dollop of sugared butter on top of the hot Droma, which will then be stirred in.  To prepare Droma Markhu, just boile the droma for about 5-10 minutes until it has become tender enough to easily bite, but not soft.  Mix butter and sugar.  Dollop.  Did I mention that Tibetan food is not heart friendly?  Delicious though.

The most popular Droma desert is called Droma Dresi, or sweet rice with Droma.  This is not only a desert, but a celebratory dish.  If you attend religious festivities, a wedding, or any other big Tibetan special event, chances are the first thing that will happen is people going around passing out cups of bhoeja (Tibetan salt and butter tea) and droma dresi.  Another fun fact:  I have not yet met anyone, no matter how unfamiliar with Tibetan culture they were, that hasn't liked Droma Dresi.  If you can't get droma, you could replace it with cubed yam or leave it out altogether. However, I think it's worth the effort to find it.

So, without further ado,

Droma Dresi

Ingredients:
3-4 cups of Basmati rice (really this depends on how many people you are serving)
a heaping handful of Droma
a handful of golden raisins
a handful of cashews
a cup of pineapple, cut into small bite-sized pieces (optional and not traditional, but I had it this way in Xining, Amdo, and fell in love with it)
sugar to taste
half a stick of butter (minimum!!!)

Pre-prep:
Soak the Droma overnight in room-temperature water.  Drain before preparing.

Preparation:

-Prepare the Basmati rice according to instructions
-While the rice is cooking, soak the golden raisins in warm water for about 15 minutes
-Bring a small pot of water to a boil, boil the dresi for about 5-10 minutes or until tender enough to easily bite, but not soft enough to squish with your fingers.
-When the rice has about 5 minutes left and virtually all the water is gone, stir in the raisins and cashews

Stirring in the raisins will plump them up

-Melt the butter completely

-When the butter has melted, add sugar and hot butter together to the rice, then add the pineapple and droma and stir while still hot

-Taste and adjust sugar

And there it is! Droma dresi, a delicious desert and an important food for special occasions

Our finished product

麻辣火锅 Sichuan Hot Pot

Oh, Sichuan hot pot. One of my favorite foods. Anthony Bourdain tried it in Chengdu (the home of Sichuan Hot Pot) and agreed that it's a painful, but beautiful experience, in fact, perhaps you should hear it in his own words. But here's the thing, going out for hot pot is expensive. However, it is not all that expensive or difficult to make at home as long as you enjoy having lots of leftover fresh ingredients in the house. I just made a huge hotpot today, which makes the above picture look like we were starving, so I figured I'd post my how to.

So, what is Sichuan Hot Pot? It's actually called 麻辣火锅, Mala Huoguo. This literally translates to Numbing Spicy Hot Pot. Mala is a common flavor in sichuanese food and it's very unique. It is a bit of an acquired taste, but it's very addictive. The hot is simple enough, Sichuan likes chilis. The numbing is the weird bit. This comes from a spice called "huajiao" 花椒, sometimes called flower pepper, sichuan peppercorn or Chinese prickly ash.

花椒, Sichuan Peppercorn

It's got a spice smell and an odd numbing effect. When eating, you don't want to crunch down on one of these babies, lest the side of your mouth go numb. However, I do recommend trying it once for giggles! Anyway, the final effect of the mala sensation is food that is truly spicy, yet oddly numbing at the same time. People generally don't like it the first time, and then 2 days later at 3 AM have pregnant-woman-style unbearable cravings for it. I'm a fan.

Anyway, no one makes Sichuan Hot Pot entirely from scratch, so I'm just going to tell you how I make it. A friend of mine, an exchange teacher from China, came over and ate it today and she was shocked at how authentic it was, So, although I make no claims as to my technique being authentic, my flavors are.

What you need:

Equipment:

Since this is like a fondue, you need a hotpot bowl, like in the picture above. You can get these inexpensively at most Chinese grocery stores and expensively at most Japanese grocery stores. If you ask for a huoguo pot, they will know what you want. These generally plug into an outlet and have a heating base. You can get them split and this is very handy so you can make two kinds of broth at once.

You can also use a pot on top of a camping stove, just be careful that it doesn't tip over.

A wide based pot on top of a hotplate works as well.

In a pinch, use a crockpot, but since it doesn't get to a very high temperature, you might need to pre-cook any thicker meats.

If you do not have any of these, just make it on the stove and you won't be elegant.

Broth:

Vegetable broth or stock (chicken broth will also work)

Water

1 packet of Sichuan Mala hotpot seasoning (it may be called Chongqing hotpot seasoning. Make sure to ask if it's "mala").

Dried red chilis

Huajiao/ Sichuan peppercorns

Dried dates (available in the bag at chinese grocery stores. These are truly dried, not like the snackable dried dates we get in western groceries)

Dried goji berries

Ginger root

Garlic

Scallion

Mix one part water to one part vegetable broth. Add hot pot seasoning to taste (start with less, you can always add more and it's VERY potent). Add dried red chilis to taste (same rule! Realize the chilis will get stronger as they boil.) Add around a table spoon of huajiao (more if you really like it) 4-5 dried dates, a small palmful of dried goji berries, a few slices of ginger root, 2 cloves of garlic (whole) and 2 scallions cut into large (1 inch long) peices. When this comes to a boil, it will be your fondue broth. In sichuan, it should have a sheen of blood-red chili oil floating on top. That can be painful for lots of westerners. Use caution.

Sauce:

Hot pot is HOT. You should probably dip anything you pull out in something both for flavor and to prevent mouth scalding. So here are the ingredients for the most traditional sichuanese dipping sauce:

Finely chopped garlic

Finely chopped cilantro

Finely chopped scallions

Salt

MSG (it's not going to kill you!)

Sesame Oil

(Optional Ingredients)

Chinese Black Vinegar

Soy Sauce

Mix ingredients in a proportion that you like in a small bowl.

Great Things to Put in Hot Pot

(Just a list of my favorites)

Sliced Beef/Lamb (you can get this from chinese grocery stores, frozen and shaved paper thin, so it cooks up very fast)

Tofu

Fried Beancurd Puffs

Rice Cakes

Udon Noodles

Fish Balls

Meat Balls

Bok Choy

Watercress

Chinese Brocolli

Enoki Mushrooms

Shiitake Mushrooms

Lotus Root
Sliced Yam
Sliced Taro Root
Napa Cabbage

But you can basically add whatever you can think of.

The way it all works together:

Get the broth up to a low boil in your pot. Add a bit of everything! People can add what they like. Everyone has their bowl of sauce, probably a bowl of rice and maybe just another general bowl and a pair of chopsticks. The food cooks quite quickly, with the meatballs taking longest because they are often served frozen. The meat will take less than a minute to cook through, but it's best to leave it in for at least a minute. Pull out what you like, dip it in the sauce (I usually let it sit for a few seconds to cool) then yank it out and eat! Enjoy!

Goes Best With:

Beer or soda, especially pepsi and fresh fruit for dessert.

PROTIP:

Tums before the meal. Seriously.

Losar Sang! Minyak Pholo

Happy Losar! Yes, I know I'm a few weeks late, but I've been moving. Anyway, I've decided to post a special Losar recipe to celebrate, even though I am late.

A Losar Altar

I spent much of this losar with my friend, Drolma, from Chamdo. She's a great cook.

Drolma with a bowl of Droma Dresil, or sweet rice, to start our Losar

Beef Momos

Anyway, I started to get nostalgic for a food I had during Losar of 2009, in the Minyak region of Kham, Pholo. Pholo is a big, puffy, sweet momo. While I have had some sweet momos in other areas of Tibet, Pholo are my favorite and are very unique. Outside of Minyak, I've never met people who've eaten them. Perhaps a few other areas of Tibet eat Pholo, but I've not encountered them. After talking with Drolma, we decided to make Pholo. We made a bunch and several people, Tibetan and western, helped us eat them. Everyone loved them, so I decided to share the recipe here.

Minyak Pholo
Ingredients:
Flour, 1 kg
Baking Powder, 1 handful
Powdered Chura, 1/4 kilo (Tibetan dried cheese)
Sugar, 2 big handfuls
half a kilo of Tsampa (Tibetan barley flour)
Walnuts, 2 handfuls, crushed
Butter, 5-6 sticks, maybe more....

Equipment
a steamer

Chura is kind of hard to get outside of Tibet. I'm not sure if there is a good replacement for it. I'm just going to have to assume that you have chura. Otherwise, I'm sure it will taste good without.

Chura is rock hard, so take your chura in a bowl and pour about one cup of warm water into it. This should be absorbed immediately. Stir it around so that all of the chura gets wet. The Chura should quickly start to soften.

soaking Chura

At this point, add the sugar to the chura and stir it around. If you are working without chura, you can mix the sugar into the Tsampa instead.
In another bowl, mix your flour and baking powder together. Make sure its well mixed. Then add water until you have a stretchy, flexible dough that looks kind of like this
Wrap this in plastic and ignore it for a while.

Next, mix your chura and tsampa together.

Gather as much butter as you can get on short notice. Melt it ALL.

We found four sticks of butter...it wasn't enough.

Mix your butter with your tsampa, chura, sugar and add the crushed walnuts. Knead this into a dough and make little balls out of it.


Take the dough out of the bag. Tear off small peices and make little discs of dough, like so.

Put a tsampa ball in the middle then wrap it up and roll it around in your hands until it forms a perfectly round, smooth, wrapped ball.

Continue until all the balls are wrapped

working hard in our Losar finery

Finally, steam the momos for 20 minutes. Make sure to give them room as they puff up.



Finally, ENJOY!


Now, I bet you're asking "How on earth was 4 sticks of butter not enough?" The answer is in that picture above. The filling is alike a paste, when it should be goopy from the melted butter. It tasted delicious but the filling was slightly too dry. I figure half again as much butter should do the trick.

Happy Losar to you all!