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Mha pooja, literally translated as self-wor­ship in Newari, marks the beginning of the Newari calendar (Nepal Sambat). Praying for an auspicious year ahead, mem­bers of the Newari community worship differ­ent parts of their own bodies on this day. This annual ritual, marked to celebrate one’s existence, is believed to ‘cleanse and empower the soul’. Mha pooja is performed when the moon rises on the fourth night of Tihar. Moti Raj Bajra­charya, Chakreshwor (high priest) of Raj Kriti Mahabihar and a guruju (one with great knowledge on Newari poo­jas), informs that it is done at night because “this is when the Newari New Year begins”.

Mandala, a sand-painting with powdered limestone, is an important part of Mha pooja. To make the mandala, a small circle is drawn with mus­tard oil at the center of the floor. This is surrounded by concentric rings marked with red rice, black lentils, black soybean, unhusked rice, puffed rice and mari­gold flowers. Bajracharya says that as our body is made of pancha-tatwa (‘five elements’), the man­dala also has five rings to rep­resent the self. The items used to make the mandala might differ according to differing family traditions and castes. The total number of mandalas depends on the number of family members. Plus there are three extra mandalas. The extra one at the top of the line is for the ‘House-God’. Then comes one each for the family members while the two at the end are for Jamaraj and Yamaraj, the envoys of death.

Bajracharya informs that the pooja and rituals are performed by the eldest woman in the family. A variety of nuts, fruits and sweets are offered to every person, with a wish for a fruitful and resourceful year. Tahsi (citron) and walnut are a must for the pooja. They are kept in front of the mandalas. ‘Shagun’—consisting of fish, eggs, meat, curd, and aila (homemade alcohol)—should be consumed before the wicks burned at the start of the pooja go out. Even children as young as a year old need to drink a little aila for the ritual to be complete. Once you sit at the mandala, you are not allowed to get up until the rituals are complete.

“I have been doing Mha pooja since I was a child. Now I am the eldest in the family. I try to recreate whatever I remember,” says Shanti Sayami, 72, a resident of Bafal, Kathmandu. As she is now old and as she also knows relatives who have stopped doing Mha pooja, she has also simpli­fied things. “It has been three years that we have done Mha pooja without man­dalas. When I was a child, my parents used to tell me that Jamaraj comes at night to inspect if we have done Mha pooja. So after eating, we left the mandalas and the dishes overnight without cleaning them. Only the next morn­ing, we cleaned everything,” she says.

As Sayami is the oldest in the family, she says she has to do the poojas and manage everything required to make mandalas now. “When I proposed we stop doing it three years back, my daughter suggested we at least do something on this day.” So now the family only does Sukunda (oil lamp) pooja, put rice tika on the forehead, and each person takes shagun. “I really don't know if my grand­children will continue with Mha Pooja in the future”, she says.

Bajracharya says the rituals have to be done in a particular way but different castes of the Newar community do it differently, as per their convenience. Newars who go abroad or move out of their family may not even con­tinue doing Mha pooja.

During Mha Pooja, Newars also wor­ship inanimate objects like broomstick, karuwa (a utensil designed to hold water) and nanglo. Bajracharya says that as these things help us we also need to show our respect towards them.

Sabina Maharjan, 28, is excited over the arrival of her favorite festi­val: Tihar. She says that it’s her favor­ite because Mha pooja is done during this time. “It is a chance for the entire family to get together. The process of making mandalas, its col­ors, the bright lights and the food are the things I look forward to,” she says.

As the poojas are done, start­ing with the eldest member of the family, Maharjan says she, as the youngest member of the family, patiently waits for her turn. “The process of doing pooja is long. My mother does the pooja and I try to learn by looking at her. I make mistakes even when she teaches me personally. The entire family laughs. The vibe of Mha pooja is so warm,” says Maharjan.

Mha Pooja falls on November 8 this year.

It takes a lot for a small business like Kasthamandap Bhandar in Maru Chowk to be continuously in opera­tion for nearly 60 years. This Maari Pasal that sells Nepali and Newari sweets bustles with customers in the morning. The smell of warm sel roti (traditional sweet, ring-shaped bread) greets you as you enter. “This is our fam­ily business, which used to be run by our grandfather,” says Gambir Rajkarnikar, the current proprietor. “Though we sell many kinds of sweets, our focus is on sel and malpuwa.” Their sel is so popular that people from as far as Dakshinkali and Thankot come to get them.

“Usually, we prepare sel using mainly wheat and rice flour, from 6:30 am to 10 am in the morning,” he says. The great­er availability of new products in the market such as cookies and biscuits has hampered the sales of traditional food like sel, malpuwa and gwaramari (round bread). “Not so much though,” informs Rajkarnikar. “Because sel is a cultural food, its value is intact,” he asserts. Especially during the Newari Mha Pooja, sales are high as its use is mandatory for making mandaps. Also, those who visit different homes singing Deusi and Bhailo during Tihar are traditionally greeted with sel, sweets and money.

With Tihar approaching, business is in full swing. “Compared to other times, the sales of sel increases by 60-70 percent during Tihar. We are planning to make sel from around 6 am to 5 pm, every day, during the festival. We want it to be fresh and because we never keep stock, we need to keep making it round the clock,” he informs. Sel costs Rs 10 apiece at the store but during Tihar, they increase its size and sell it at Rs 20-Rs 40. “We can make sel as big as the customers want,” Rajkarnikar says.

Many people used to make sel at home. But they have perhaps realized, he says, that the time and money involved in making it is just not worth it and so they prefer to purchase. “But in some houses, they still make sel at home as they want it to be ‘pure’ for pooja,” he reveals.

The market of sweets in Kathmandu is changing. A lot of people have entered this business and sel is now even sold commercially in department stores such as Bhat-Bhateni. “We are not competing against other similar businesses though,” Rajkarnikar adds. “We focus on our own product. People know they can have freshly prepared sel here so sales remain robust.”

Tihar is never complete with­out homemade ‘sel rotis’ and ‘phinis’ among other assort­ed desserts. It’s true that we today can easily procure them, ready­made, from one of the stores. Yet there can surely be no substitute for cooking them, fresh, in our own kitchen. APEX caught up with Chef Sandeep Khatri, also known as Pak Shastri, to get some tips. With 20-plus years of experi­ence in food experimentation, Khatri brings you contemporized versions of the traditional bread-based delicacies—exclusively for APEX.

First, a little info about the chef. Khatri learned culinary arts in Europe and he has travelled the world, learning, practicing and mastering his skills. Khatri is also an educator and founder of the Global Nepalese Chef Forum, which is working in collaboration with Global Chefs to make Nepali food popular around the world. His recent venture, Ka’ffi Global Catering, specializes in catering to the Nepali movie industry.

Sel Roti

(Authentic crispy rice donuts, coated with dark chocolate and coconut powder)

Sel roti is made in such a way that it will not go bad for months. Nor will it get fungus as it is deep-fried. It actually tastes better the next day, at least to some peo­ple. The sel roti is like an arti­san’s baguette or other Europe­an bread which they make and store to consume for days and months. That’s the reason they ferment the dough. Sel roti was historically the staple for travel­ers who walked up to Tibet for days to trade salt. Here we offer a lip-smacking version of it, sel 2.0 if you will.

Preparation Time: 3 hrs

Cooking time: 15 mins

Batch: 15 each

Ingredients

• Rice flour: 800 gm soaked for at least one hour

• Regular flour: 300 gm (Mixed well with rice flour in a batter, just as in pancake)

• Sugar: As per taste (Standard will be 10 tablespoons)

• Coconut powder: 1 cup

• Chocolate block: 1 cup (Micro­wave it to melt)

• Sesame seeds: Handful

• Water: 6 to 8 cups

• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon

• Spices like cinnamon powder, cardamom and vanilla are optional (for a tangy twist)

• Chocolate syrup

• Ice cream: The best would be vanilla but you can get a flavor of your choice

• Dry fruits: Crushed, to sprinkle on top

• Mint leaves for garnishing

Method

• Take a mixing bowl and add both rice and regular flours. Pour water gradually

• Add sugar and keep mixing, adding more water

• Dip the spoon and run your fingers on the back of it. The paste should be no more than 1 cm thick

• Then add the spices of your choice

• Again add sug­ar to ensure it is up to your taste

• S p r i n k l e some white s e s a m e seeds

• Let the mixture then ferment for three hours to get a nice texture

• Add baking powder (optional, and to be used only if you want to get fluffy sel rotis)

• In a deep pan, heat oil. It should be enough to submerge the dough

• Take a mineral water bottle and cut it in half. Use the neck part of the bottle to give your sel rotis a consistent, circular shape

• Put the dough in the half-cut bottle and pour it in the heated oil, in a circular shape

• Use a wooden stick or ladle to turn the sel roti

• Once it is golden brown, remove the roti from the pan

Time for the twist now

• Soak one side of the sel roti with melted chocolate on a serving plate

• Sprinkle some coconut powder and Gems chocolates on top

• Once the melted chocolate dries, top it up with vanilla ice-cream and pour some chocolate sauce

• Enjoy your contemporary sel roti

Phini Roti

(Nepali puff layered bread, with spinach and beet-root)

Preparation Time: 1 day

Cooking time: 30 mins

Batch: 15 each

Ingredients

Regular flour: 500 gm

Rice flour: 500 gm

Clarified butter (Ghee): 1 cup

Water: 3 to 5 cups

Beetroot: Bake or boil one medi­um-sized beetroot. Mash it up in a blender and let the water drain so that just the chunks remain

Spinach juice: Blanch a few spin­ach leaves and make puree in the blender

Method

• Add the spinach puree into regu­lar flour to make soft dough

• Add clarified butter/ghee with the rice flour and mix well to get your ‘satho’ ready

• Once the dough is ready, oil a flat, hard surface (maybe the marble in your kitchen or a sturdy chopping board) and roll the dough into a square, thin surface

• Add the mix of ‘satho’ on top

• Add some chunks of beet root

• Roll the dough from one side, just like you would roll a news­paper

• Once the roll is ready, cut the dough evenly into small sizes

• Roll the small cut-outs into square or round shapes. Don’t flip the phini while rolling, unlike you would do to normal roti

• Once rolled into the shapes you want, make at least 2/3 small cuts in the center of your phini so that they don’t get too puffed up while frying

• Fry the phini in a deep pan, just like you would the sel roti

• But do not flip the phini while frying. Use a ladle to pour hot oil on top of the phini while frying

The spinach and beet-root will give exotic colors to your regular phinis. Feel free to exper­iment with the sizes, shapes and presentation.