How to make a Nepalese dish called phaparko dhendo?

November 28, 2011 7:14 PM

What is phaparko dhendo and how can I learn to make it?

I know this is a long shot, but I love this stuff so I might as well. I just moved from NYC and one of my favorite restaurants there was Himalayan Yak. There was one dish I used to order that I could never find anywhere else called phaparko dhendo. The owners told me it was a Nepali dish. It consisted of a buckwheat flour "pudding", a yogurt sauce, pickles, and a variety of curries. Someone (not me) posted this picture of it on their blog
http://ameblo.jp/soshin/image-10993078635-11431902120.html

Thanks!

posted by melissam to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Best answer: Maybe it's dhido (not dhendo), as described here? Here's another photo (where it is described as phapar ko dhido).
posted by cabingirl at 7:40 PM on November 28, 2011

Best answer: Phapar Ko appears to translate as buckwheat, so what you're searching for is dhendo. Alternate spellings seem to include dhedo and dheedo, which gives more results. There's a video of someone making it here, the dhedo starts around 9 minutes in. The recipe looks almost identical to the typical preparation for polenta.

There's a reference to a recipe for it in a review of this book.
posted by hindmost at 7:43 PM on November 28, 2011

Best answer: In fact, you can get quite a few hits for it by searching for "Nepal Polenta" too.
posted by hindmost at 7:46 PM on November 28, 2011

Best answer: that just looks like (and reads like) really cooked down cornmeal and buckwheat. You have two options - track down coarse ground buckwheat and figure out the proportion to corn on its own or find some polenta taragna which is the Italian version of buckwheat polenta. To get it to form a mass like in your pic I would cook it in a very low oven until it was firm and cake like. like this blog post here. I'm not sure 100% buckwheat would form a mass like that, but you could give it a shot.
posted by JPD at 5:14 AM on November 29, 2011

Best answer: Hmm looking at cabingirls second link the gooeyness makes me think it might be 100% buckwheat actually. I'm reminded of a breton buckwheat dish farz although even that is bound with eggs and cooked in a sac.
posted by JPD at 5:17 AM on November 29, 2011