In Tibet, drokpa (nomad) families have separate huts or tents lined with wooden beams to dry their Sha Kampo but here in America, we have the convenience of using a regular food dehydrater  – you can’t make it in quantities as large as back home in Tibet, but your Sha kampo will be ready in just about 48 hours.  So, here is my simple recipe – if you don’t have a dehydrater, you can let the meat hang dry in your basement or shed, or some place where its cool and airy.

Sha Kampo in 48 hours

3 lb Beef

4 tsp Salt

2 tsp cracked black pepper – optional

2 tsp ground emma (Sichuanpepper) – optional

Cut all the beef into long thin shreds … about ½ inch by 5 inch strips or longer. Add the salt and also the pepper and emma, mix together nicely and then lay them out on the dehydrator trays – or hang them out on a string and let them air dry. In the dehydrator, it took me 48 hours to get them done just right – air drying will probably take a couple of days. But keep testing until the meat is done to your likeness. Some like them not so dry but I prefer them completely dry. Once done, put in an air tight container and store in your refrigerator. It will last a long time unless you are a Sha Kampo fanatic like me.

It always feels good to have khabseys around – nice to eat and usually gives you the sense of something nice about to happen as they are usually made around the time of celebrations.  But as my son says, why do we only make them on Losar or on special occasions, why can’t we make them more often.  So saying, my son and his friend spend one afternoon making some .. and then eating some. I helped them with deep frying … below is the recipe we used. I wrote this a few years back when his kindergarten class compiled a collection of favorite treats.

KHABSEY 

Khabsey’s are traditional Tibetan Cookies made in huge quantities during celebrations. We make Khabsey’s of different sizes and shapes. Some are as big as your arms spread out and some are tiny. Some are called ‘Donkey’s ears’ and some are called ‘Knot of eternity”. Here, we have made the most common hand twisted style. The word comes from the Tibetan word “Kha” which  means Mouth and “Sey” which means eat. So its something to keep your mouth busy while you’re preparing for big celebrations and cooking many different dishes.

Ingredients :

2 cups plain white flour

4 oz butter (room temperature)

½ teaspoon salt

½ – 1 cup water

Oil for deep frying

Powdered Sugar

In a large bowl, gently work the butter and salt completely into the flour. Then add water (a little at a time) to the flour and knead it for about 5 minutes till you get a smooth dough. Cover and set aside for ½ hour.

1. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces.   Form each into a ball.

2. Take the first ball of dough and roll out to a circle 9 inches in diameter.

3. With a sharp knife and cut the circle into ½ inch by 4 inch length pieces.

Make a 1 inch slit in each piece.

4. Take one piece of cut pastry and fold one end in through the slit to make a twist.     Do this with all your pieces.

5. Heat the oil in a fryer or deep pan to 325 – 350F, then fry the Khabsey till they are golden and crispy. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle generously with powdered sugar when they are cool.

Almost every family has their own way of preparing Thenthuk – equally delicious but here I’m going to prepare it in the traditional Amdo style – the way it was taught by my grandmother to be prepared in our home. There are three important components to a good bowl of thenthuk  - first is the soup, then the labuk (daikon), and finally the dough. Usually, we boil some meat for the soup and the meal starts with the meat served as an appetizer, and then the Thenthuk is served after the meat has been polished off, usually with a side vegetable dish. We had it with some cabbage kimchi from our nearby Korean grocery.

Soup:

1-2 lbs of Beef with Bone (I used beef short ribs but you can use any available but with bone or you can use soup bone alone)

Ginger, Onion, Spring Onion

¼ teaspoon Whole Emma, ¼ teaspoon Whole Pepper and Salt

Dough:

3 cups of Wheat Flour

1 egg

11/2 – 2 cups Water

Thenthuk:

Vegetable Oil

½ Onion – chopped

3 cloves garlic – minced

1  lb Beef – sliced into thin bite size pieces

1 cup Daikon – sliced into thin bit size pieces

Spring onion – chopped for garnish

Salt, ground emma, ground pepper and soya sauce

Soup Base:

Put all the ingredients in a large pot, fill it with water half way through and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, bring the flame down and let it simmer for 45 minutes or so. Ocassionally, you can skim of the scum that builds over the soup liquid. (preferable to use whole peppercorn and whole emma as they can be strained off. Add just a little salt to flavor the meat but not too much as you’re going to use the soup later and it’ll get salty then.

Dough:

Put the flour in a large bowl, make a well in the center. Add one egg and slowly add the water, and knead the dough until it is firm but supple. Now, flatten the dough and slice it into strips about 1” wide. Add a little oil, and let it sit covered on a plate. This is your thenthuk dough ready to be pulled.  (You can bypass the egg but the egg addition makes the noodle a little firmer – it absorbs less of the liquid and keeps its form. If you are like me, and like to have leftover thenthuk the next day, the egg makes all the difference – noodles are not completely mushy and so tasty!!)

Thenthuk:

The first step is to make the Labu or Daikon. In a pan, add a little oil and fry the daikon on a medium flame by itself until it becomes nice and golden. This step is what makes a true Amdo thenthuk – daikon prepared this way, adds depth of flavor to your soup. Once browned, leave it aside – it’ll be added to the soup at a later stage.

In a big pot, add the oil, onion and garlic and let the onion brown. Add the meat, a dash of emma, black pepper, salt to taste and as it browns, a dash of soya sauce to flavor the meat. Once the meat is nicely browned, add your strained soup stock and bring it to a boil, letting the meat cook nicely.

Finally, add the browned labu(daikon) and now you are ready to throw your theenthuk (pasta).  I’m assuming most of you know how to pull the thenthuk dough – it sounds complicating but its quite simple. Basically, take one of the strips of oiled dough, flatten it out with your fingers and gently pull it till it is nice and flat like a long ribbon. Now, starting with one end, break of square thumb size piece from the end and throw it directly into the soup.  Keep repeating – the trick is not to get the steam on your hands, so, stay a little clear of the soup pot and throw the dough into the soup. If this is too hard, you can pull of longer strips and add them to the soup. But its really worth the effort, the resultant pasta is heavenly. After adding all the dough, cover, bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Let stand for 2 minutes and your soup is ready to serve. Garnish with some chopped spring onions.

To serve:

First serve the boiled meat accompanied by some nice spicy hot sauce. And then serve the bowls of thenthuk along with a side vegetable or two.

Shortcut Version:

If you don’t have time to make the soup first, then you can skip it, and instead of the sliced meat, add some stew meat with bone and make the soup along with the thenthuk. Instead of cooking a side vegetable, just add some spinach or any other green leafy vegetable after your thenthuk has come to a boil – and voila, you have a complete dish to serve.

Shogo Shabril

This is a favorite dish from my childhood. Kunsang Tse Machen la used to make this, and he called it Shogo Momo. But I’m going to call it Shogo Shabril as most people get confused when you say momo as it brings to mind traditional momos, and most think its some sort of mashed potato in dough wrapping. It’s actually a tasty meat filling wrapped in mashed potato – like a Tibetan version of shepards pie. It actually tastes very similar. In our home, it would usually be served as a side dish with Machen la’s special fried rice. But I made it today and served it as a side with some spicy beef curry. (Instead of the traditional meat filling, I used some left over Chinmen (Yeast) Momo filling from the other day). It’s also nice to serve with rice and dal or just as a snack with some hot sauce. You can  experiment with different fillings. I once made a vegetarian version filled with sweet peas, and instead of the egg, I used some buttermilk.

I hope you will take the time to try to make some Shogo Shabril for your friends and family.  :-)

Ingredients:

shaping shogo shabril

3 large potatoes, boiled with skin

1 cup Bread crumbs

Salt

1 Egg, beaten

Filling:

½ lb ground beef

1 small onion – diced

minced garlic

minced ginger

spring onion

salt, pepper, emma

soya sauce

Oil for Deep frying

Start by making the meat filling. Heat a table spoon of oil in a wok or pan, add the onion, ginger, garlic, and sauté till color changes. Add ground beef, season with pepper, emma, some salt and sauté until meat is browned. Add some soya sauce and adjust salt to taste, cover and let the meat cook – 5-6 minutes until completely done and no liquid is left.  Add chopped spring onions, and your meat filling is ready .. let it cool for easy handling.

Then make the mashed potato dough …. Peel the boiled potatoes, and in a large bowl, mash it with about a ¼ cup of bread crumbs. Season with salt. (The bread crumbs in the mashed potato allows it to bind and not crumble as easily).

Next step, in a medium size bowl, add the egg and a little water, season with salt and pepper and beat it nicely. In another bowl, add the remainder bread crumbs.

preparing to deep fry

To shape the Shogo Shabril, take a good size portion of the potato dough, flatten it out in your palm, add a spoonful of the meat filling and gently close the dough around the filling – shaping it with your hand. You can shape them in the traditional barrel shape or the easier way is just to make a flattish round shape. Once done, dip this in the egg mixture, coating it completely and then roll it in the bread crumbs. Now its ready for final step – deep frying. (I like to prepare all the dough before starting to deep fry since you have to keep a close watch while deep frying).

Heat oil in a deep pot. I usually use a deep pan ½ filled with oil and then I fry one side until golden brown and then flip it around to fry the other side. Just be careful when flipping as it is quite fragile – best to gently use two spatulas, one to flip and the other to hold it along the side as your flipping making sure not to splatter or break.

Shabaley 

With Tibetans everywhere, including those in my household, humming the Shabaley song, it would be more than appropriate to post a recipe for Shabaley, giving thanks to our ancestors who created this yummy thing called Shabaley. I don’t think I know anyone who’s tasted it and not liked it. My son took some of our left over Shabaleys for school lunch and he came home saying that his friends were begging him for a taste. He had three shabaleys, so he gave them one half to share.

Shabaleys are pretty simple to make if you know how. Some make them deep fried but I like the pan fried version that we called “Sokpoe” Shabaley .. “Mongolian Shabaley” – this is how it was always made in my home. The key is that the dough needs to be slightly supple – less firm than your usual momo dough – if you let the dough rest for an hour or longer, then it will have more of a yield.

Here’s my impromptu recipe for shabaley … this is not for the novice but for someone with a little knowledge of making momos at least

Ingredients for meat filling:

1 lbMinced or Ground Beef

1/2 cup finely chopped Celery

1/2 Onion finely chopped

1 small bunch cilantro (chopped)

1 small bunch spring onion (chopped)

2 Table Spoon Vegetable Oil

Dash of Soya Sauce

¼ cup water

Black Pepper, Emma, Salt

Dough:

Approx two-three cups of flour – knead a slightly moist supple dough, cover and let sit in room temperature.

Tomato Chilli Salsa:

1 Large Tomato

½ Onion

1 small bunch cilantro

1 small bunch mint

1 Jalepeno

salt, pepper and emma

Start by making the dough, adding water little by little to the dough until you have a slightly moist supple dough. Cover and let stand at room temperature.

Put the ground beef in a large bowl, add celery, onion, spring onion, cilantro, and season to taste with black pepper, emma and salt and some soya sauce. Add the oil and about ¼ cup of water and gently mix thoroughly until evenly mixed. Add more water if needed – mixture shouldn’t be lumpy, but neither should it be too moist.

To make the Shabaley, shape them like you make round momos, exept use twice the amount of dough and twice the meat filling – so it’s a really big momo. Then flatten it out, gently pressing with the tips of your fingers until they are as flat as you can get them without the skin tearing.

When frying, I usually have two pans going. One non-stick pan, where I dry fry them first – maybe 3-5 minutes on each side until they are slightly browned. Then transfer over to the next pan, where you add a little oil and let them cook on each side until nice and golden. The key is to keep an eye on the heat – after a couple of tries, you should get the hang of it – it shouldn’t be too hot or it’ll burn and it shouldn’t be too low or it’ll take forever to cook. (Alternately, you can do both steps in one pan.)

Transfer your shabaley’s into a container lined with some paper towels, and let them sit there until ready to serve. Shabaleys taste best after you’ve let them sit for a while. The dough shell softens and the paper absorbs the extra oil, and you get some melt in your mouth Sokpoe Shabaleys.

To serve with the Shabaley, its nice to have some tomato chilli salsa, and soya sauce. Throw all the ingredients for tomato salsa in a blender, add some salt and pepper to taste and voila … its ready to serve. Add less of more of the Jalepenos depending on your fondness for spicy hot sauce.

Other filling options:  You can experiment with all kinds of filling options. I sometimes make some potato and spinach shabaleys. Boil and roughly mash the potatoes, add some chopped spinach and also some golden fried onions.

Veggie Shabaleys – I chop whatever green vegetables that I might have, usually bakchoy is very good – you can add some chopped tofu and some shitake mushrooms, and a small bunch of chopped spring onions and cilantro.

Chive or Chutse-baleys – This is an Amdowa favorite. The Chinese flat leave chive has a strong and distinct flavor and very easy to make. All you need is chopped chive and some ground meat. No need to add anything else – just season with some salt, emma, pepper and some soya sauce and mix thoroughly.

Note:  

1. I don’t add garlic or ginger to the mixture for shabaleys or momos, but instead add some garlic to your chilli sauce. The chefs that I grew up with always seemed to look down on Garlic or ginger in shabaleys and momos – as they kill the gentler flavor of the other herbs.
2. Do add some cilantro and spring onions. Some people say add one or the other, but the one chef who made the best tasting juicy momos told me his secret is to add a touch of both – as they add aroma and flavor. Too much of either is not recommended though. 

Ingredients:

3 Cups Water

1 teaspoon broken tea leaves (Compressed Tea)

½ Cup Milk

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon Butter

Recipe:

Bring the water to a boil, add tea leaves and let simmer (about 10-15 minutes) until the tea is a dark amber color. Unlike regular tea leaves, the full flavor of this type of compressed tea is brought out only after a good boiling.

Strain the tea, add warm milk, salt, butter and then you churn it. Churning can be done using a blender – I use a hand held one, but a milk frother also works well.

A time saving trick is to brew a concentrated black tea, and then you can skip the first step, just add hot water to the concentrate, along with milk, salt, butter – a quick swift blend and your tea is ready.

Note:

Compressed Tea: In Chinese/Korean grocery stores in the west, this type of tea is called “Pu ehr Beeng Cha”

Today, I am posting my recipe for Amdo Bhaley. Traditionally, Amdo bread is cooked by placing the bread dough in hot sand in the hearth. I am told that the bread baked in this fashion is delicious and never got burnt; it would always come out golden brown. Amdo Bhaley is especially coveted for the golden brown crust, and as young children, we would fight over the crust. I have now learnt to slice the bread so that the goldencrust is distributed evenly, and there is peace at the table. Please enjoy Amdo Bhaley!

Ingredients :

1 ¼ Cups of Warm Water

¼  Cup Milk

½  teaspoon active dry yeast

½  teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 cups regular bleached Flour

½  teaspoon Shoptsa (Fenugreek Leaves)

Oil – Canola or Vegetable Oil

In a large bowl, add the Milk to the Warm Water. Then add yeast and sugar (sugar helps to activate the yeast). Cover the bowl and let stand for about 10 minutes.

The mixture will get slightly foamy on top which means that the yeast has begun to rise. Add one cup of Flour and mix thoroughly using a spatula or mixer until you have a smooth paste. Cover the bowl again and let stand for 20 minutes at room temperature.

Now add Salt and the remainder of the Flour and start folding the flour into the paste. You should be able to knead this until the dough is a smooth consistency (takes a couple of minutes of kneading to get a smooth dough). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 45 minutes or so)

Roll out your dough to about 10” round. Sprinkle your shoptsa and one teaspoon of oil and smooth it evenly on the flat dough surface. Now, starting from one edge, roll the dough to form a cylindrical shape and tuck the sides under. Place in an oiled baking tray, cover and let stand for 10 minutes while your oven is heating to 375 degrees.

Bake the bread at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes, then turn over the bread once and bake for another 10 minutes. This will ensure a golden crust on both sides of the bread.

Amdo Bhaley straight out of the oven, served with some butter is simply delicious!!!

This style of cooking meat is called “Rang Kho Rang Sim” meaning its cooked in its own juices thus retaining all its flavors. Tibetans love eating boiled meat and the word “Rang Kho Rang Sim” is almost uttered as something precious and unfathomable. It’s a recipe treasured by few only because most people fear the meat will burn if not enough water is added to it. The trick is to manage a medium low heat that’ll cook the meat very slowly. Once you get the hang of it, its really easy. I make this with all kinds of meats but my favorite remains beef.

Ingredients

21/2 – 3 lbs Beef    (Top Round or Roast Cut )

2 Stalks Celery (cut into 3 inch pieces)

3 Stalks Scallion (cut into 2 inch pieces)

2” Ginger (crushed to let out juices … I usually smack it with the side of my cleaver!!)

One medium onion – (peeled and cut 4 large chunks)

Spices:

2 Tablespoon Soya Sauce

¼ teaspoon Whole Black Pepper

¼ teaspoon Whole Sichuan Pepper (Emma)

 Procedure : 

Cut your meat into big 4” or 5” chunks and place them in a large pot. Add ¼ cup water and the spices. Throw in the Onion, Celery, Scallion and Ginger.

Cover the pot with the lid and place on the stove at medium heat for 15 minutes. At this point, turn over the meat in the pot and lower the heat just a bit to ensure that all the water doesn’t evaporate too quickly. Now let it cook on medium heat for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender. (You can turn the meat occasionally so that it browns evenly and you can add a little water if you feel the liquid has completely evaporated).

Once your meat is ready, discard the celery and ginger and serve with Amdo Bhaley, Boiled Whole Potatoes, Labu Salad(recipe coming) and hot sauce.

Some other options

* Let cool then slice thinly to make great sandwiches.

* Cut up leftovers into bite size pieces and stirfry with sliced onions, green chilly, scallion and some soy sauce (use a non-stick pan and let the meat brown).

Lephing (Spicy Mung Bean Cake)

Ingredients

7 Tablespoon Mung Bean Flour-Phingtsam

4 cups water

½ teaspoon salt

(Mung Bean flour is available in asian/korean grocery stores and sometimes labeled as Green Bean Flour)

Sauce :

1 teaspoon minced garlic

3 Tablespoon water

4 Tablespoon Soya Sauce

1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Chilli to taste (dried chilli powder or bottled/homemade chilli sauces)

Cilantro – chopped

Chives – chopped (if available)

Mix the Mung Bean powder with 1 cup of cold water until the powder completely dissolves – this will make a milky liquid.

Bring the rest of the water to a boil in a saucepan. As soon as the water starts boiling. turn the heat low, add the salt and slowly pour the mungbean mixture into the pan little by little while constantly stirring with a whisk or spatula. (Quick and constant stirring is the key to great lephing – continue until your liquid is colourless and the mixture is thick and gel-like.)

Pour into a slightly oiled container – (you can use cupcake holders if you want individual servings or just use a large rectangle dish). Let this set at room temperature. After about 15 minutes, when the surface of the lephing is hard to touch, you can cover it with cold tap water – this helps the lephing set faster and keeps it from drying).

Your lephing should be ready in about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Cut into bite size pieces, add your sauce and serve with Bhaley(Tibetan Flat Bread – recipe coming) or pita bread. (There is a trick to cutting lephing – you have to wet your knife .. a wet knife will just slice through your lephing otherwise it will stick).

Sauce :

In a small container, mix the garlic and water – let stand while you make your lephing. This garlic water forms the base for your sauce. You can just use the water or use it with the garlic which is my preference.

Add the rest of the ingredients stir well and your sauce is ready. (Use chilli generously as this is a dish meant to get you sweating – the spicier, the better)