Afghan Samosas! (via Zaki's Mom)

This is a level of difficulty higher than the previous dishes mentioned (and more time consuming), but as we've graduated past many of the easier dishes, it's time we get to some of the truly delicious stuff!

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes (boiled)
• 1 onion 
• 2 green onions (optional)
• 4 sprigs cilantro
• 1 Serrano pepper
• 3 cloves garlic
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (or crushed pepper will work)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 cup corn oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 bag of thin fresh smaller sized Mexican flour tortillas (there is a longer way to make the pastry part of this dish yourself from scratch, for the sake of ease, they use tortillas for this step).

- Begin by boiling your potatoes, then peel and mash them into small pieces put into a large bowl.

- Add 4 sprigs finely chopped cilantro.

- Add 3/4 of your 1 finely chopped onion (leaving remaining bits for frying in pan later).

- Add 2 sprigs of finely chopped green onion.

- Add 1 teaspoon chili powder (or crushed peppers) and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt to bowl and mix.

- (we use food processor for this next step) - Add 3 cloves garlic, 4 table spoons lemon juice, and 1 Serrano pepper and a 'dash' of salt into processor (as salt can help breakdown the mix better), mix until very fine.

- Pour 1/2 cup olive oil into a frying pan, turn on high heat.

- Once pan is hot, add your remaining onion and begin to brown.

- Once onions are beginning to brown, add your lemon, garlic, pepper mix

- During this process you can add your 1 teaspoon of turmeric and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds to pan.

- When mixture is completely browned, pour over your bowl of potatoes and mix, using hands is preferred as it mashes ingredients together more evenly.

Adding filling to the pastry (tortilla):

- Put 3 tablespoons of flour into a small bowl, mix a little water in until consistency is gooey and thick (but still moves as a wet liquid, not a paste).  Mix this very well.

    our filling is ready to be added to the tortillas.  Now, there are two ways to do this depending mainly on your skill with folding and or the quality of the tortillas used (make sure to use the smaller size tortillas, the large flour ones won't really work).  Some tortillas can be too dry and may break when folding (which is why fresh tortillas is best), and some tortillas are too thick.  If this is the case, there is an easy way to fold your samosas and they will still turn out tasty.  It is considered a "cheating way," but it gets the job done.  Basically, cut your tortillas in half down the middle, fill one half with 2 tablespoons or so of filling.  Use the flour/water mix and dribble a little bit of it on the opposing edges of your tortilla.  Then fold it completely over your filling, and begin to press the edges together.  The goal being that the flour/water mixture acts as a glue, so keep pressing firmly until you see no open edges (you do not want the hot oil you fry them in later to leak inside the pocket).  They will be in a soft rounded looking triangle shape.  Set aside and continue until mixture is finished.

To learn how to fold the samosas the traditional way, here is a wikipedia link that shows you step by step how to fold and fill the samosa pastry.

Now that all your samosas are filled and closed up, you're ready to fry.  Fill a pot with a 2 inches of corn oil (or as you see fit).  Turn onto high heat.  Place 2-3 samosas at a time once oil is hot, the will begin frying right away.  Keep an eye on them once they're in the pot, if they're browning too quickly, turn heat down, if they're taking to long turn heat up.  They should brown within 30 seconds or so of being in the oil, make sure to flip them over and brown both sides.

Set aside on plate with paper towel down to capture remaining oil.

They're now ready to eat, we made a homemade spicy chutney sauce to go with it, but this is something you can definitely buy at an local ethnic grocery store.

Below are my attempts made later on by myself, though I know I'm not folding it 100% accurately, they turned out pretty cute to me!  (and VERY yummy!)

Lobya (pinto bean dish or 'Lubya')

  Afghans love pressure cookers.  In fact, probably most people do, it's just that Zaki and I are so inexperienced in cooking that it seems quite foreign to us.  For me especially, my parents never owned one.  So this is a new experience for me.

  His parents came for another visit last weekend.  They always bring goods, and this time it was a new pressure cooker!  Zaki's Mom decided to teach us how to make Lobya.  I'd never had it, but Zaki says it's delicious.

Prep work! --- Soak beans at least 1 day before (or minimum 8 hours)

Ingredients: (for 2 people)
- 2 cups pinto beans (sometimes kidney beans are used)
- 1 onion
- 1 serrano pepper
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 can small tomato sauce
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt

Garlic/Yogurt mix for extra tang! (mix beforehand)
- Plain yogurt

- Byblos pasteurized kefir cheese (see pic to right --->)
- 3 garlic cloves

•  Take 4 large spoonfuls of standard plain yogurt put in bowl
• Mix 1 large spoon of pasteurized kefir cheese
• Add 3-4 cloves of crushed (or finely chopped garlic)
• Mix well and set aside in fridge to use later

Lobya

• Chop 1 onion into medium/small pieces set aside
• Add 4-5 cloves of garlic and 1 serrano pepper into food processor with 1 teaspoon lemon juice and mix until finely chopped, set aside
• Put 1/2 cup olive oil into pressure cooker, turn heat on high -- wait a little for oil to get hot
• Add onions -- let onions cook for awhile (until it looks like they're boiling in the oil), they start to change color a little bit
• Add garlic/serrano/lemon juice mix, mix well
• Drain beans, add to pot
• Add warm water from faucet -- enough to cover the mix in pot (bring to same level as beans)
• Add 1 teaspoon salt 
• Attach and seal pressure cooker lid

     This is the part where you need to kind of watch what happens and change things accordingly.  So, Zaki's Mom's instructions were that this should take roughly 25 minutes to cook.  That is however, 25 minutes after the button in the middle of t he pressure cooker starts flailing around crazily.  When that thing is spinning like nuts and making noise, that's when set the timer for 25 minutes.

ALSO -- when you see the middle button spinning like crazy, it means the heat is too high, we turned our heat from high to medium during this time to slow down it's speed, then set our timer.

  When 25 minutes was up, Zaki's Mom released some pressure -- but to speed up it's natural depressurization process, she put the entire pot outside on our balcony.  After roughly 5-10 minutes she picked it back up and tested it's pressure, it was good to open (or just depressurize yourself).

  The end product should be thick looking, if it seems still too watery, put on your stove on medium and let some more water cook off.  Also, this is where you add 1/2 small can of tomato sauce.

  When it's ready, put into a long 2-3 inch deep server (we used a rectangular glass dish).  Now is the time to grab the yogurt mix you made earlier from the fridge.  Take spoonfuls of it and drizzle over the lobya.  It makes it look more interesting but also adds a delicious tang to the lobya while eating.

(I apologize we have no pics of the finished lobya, it was a hectic cooking day and lots of family arrived, didn't have time to stop and take a photo but hopefully when Zaki and I make it ourselves again in the future I'll post a picture)

Lobya has become one of my favorite dishes, it's thick and hearty and very delicious.  Best served with some Afghan or Arab bread toasted from the oven and of course Palau (rice).

Chickpea & Potato Curry

Chickpea & Potato Curry  (via Miriam, my Sister-In-Law)

Ingredients:
- onions
- potatoes
- garbanzo beans
- boneless chicken (for more flavor she says use chicken on the bone)
- turmeric
- Sheek Kebab meat spice
- olive oil
- salt
- ground pepper
- sugar

(enough to feed 4-5 people)
- Cut chicken into large chunks, set aside.
- Peel and dice 2 large potatoes into edible chunks. set aside.
- Finely chop 2 full onions (we use food processor for speed), put into large pot turn on heat, goal is to try and get some of the water out of the onion, cook until you see the juices have begun to sufficiently evaporate, keep turning with large spoon on occasion.
- When enough water as cooked off, add 1/2 ladle (she doesn't know amounts, so we used a ladle) full of olive oil
- Cook onions on medium heat until golden brown color, occasionally stirring (can take a few minutes).
- When onions are golden brown, add chicken, she stirred for awhile until the outside of the chicken was somewhat cooked.
- Add 1-1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
- Add 1-1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (less or more for spice)
- Add 1 teaspoon of Sheek Kebab spice mix (less or more for spice)
- Add some water, (again sorry no exact amounts), but add enough to almost cover the chicken
- Add 1/2 can of chickpeas
- Add potatoes.
- Cover with lid, set heat to low/medium range.
(Your curry will now sit for 30-35 minutes, depending on when your rice is done, go back on occasion to stir if you want)

Now begin with rice.  (Follow Afghan Palau recipe)
**  Interesting variation Miriam does...
When your rice is done on the stove, you've added your salt water, and are about to place into the oven,...
Miriam took out a small sauce pot,  filled it with about 1/2 ladle of olive oil and added roughly 1 tablespoon of sugar.  She stirred these two together until sugar was completely melted.  She then poured (in a sort of artsy way) the oil over the rice in a spiral fashion and DO NOT STIR together.  The goal is to have some of the rice dark brown, some light brown, and some white.  Creates a multi-colored rice effect, visually very pretty.
Place in oven, set timer for 20 minutes.

When rice is done, you can then eat.  The curry is awesome with yogurt and toasted Afghan bread (or pita if you have).

Happy Halloween!

Zaki's older brother is currently off on his first Hajj, so his wife Miriam and 3 kids are being looked after and entertained in his absence by all of Zaki's family.

Last night was our turn, we had invited the kids and Miriam (our Sister-In-Law) over.  Since Monday is Halloween, I decided to plan this amazing and fun-filled Halloweeny Saturday night together. I love kids, and they had never been to our apartment since we moved in.  I wanted to make sure I made a good impression.

Upon my insistence Zaki and I went to the store early that morning and picked up some pumpkins for carving Jack-O-Lanterns, I insisted because it's something that even as adult I've always loved to do, but also because he told me they've never carved one.  Since the kids were born in America I was surprised to hear this, they do take part in Halloween at school and they do trick-or-treat, but I guess never saw the need to buy and carve their own pumpkins.

So needless to say I was stoked to be able to share this new and fun activity with them!  We also purchased some Halloween cake mix to make cupcakes with chocolate AND vanilla frosting (colored orange) and Halloween sprinkles.

So they arrived around 4:30pm completely starved.  I had asked Zaki if we needed to sort out dinner ahead of time, but he said "We'll figure it out when they get here."  I was a little nervous about that, it was Miriams first time at our place, I didn't want her to feel obligated to cook for everyone.  So I started soaking some rice ahead of time to be safe.  Which was a good thing because when Miriam arrived she basically went straight into my tiny kitchen and began cooking.  Which was awkward because first of all, Miriam and I aren't that close.  We've really only been around each other a handful of times.  So for a traditional whitey person like me, I felt strange having her come into my home and begin cooking for us.  Seemed like something I should have planned for and figured out myself, but Zaki insisted it was fine and that she was excited to share her recipes with me anyway.

I had been told by Zaki's brother (the one on Hajj) that his wife's cooking was even better than their Mom's.  Since I've only learned Afghan dishes from Zaki's Mom (and they were all delicious to me), this was hard to accept.  After watching and writing down everything she was doing, when it finally came time to eat I was blown away by her simple curry dish.  Chicken, potatoes, chickpeas, traditional Afghan rice and yogurt.  We gobbled it up and I congratulated her on job well done and promised Zaki and I would try making it ourselves next week.  She beamed to hear that.

(I will post her recipe after this entry)

After dinner was cleared, tea was had and the kids and I got to pumpkin carving.  Though the boys seemed uninterested at first, by the end the were fighting over who got to do what, including lighting the candle at the end to see them lit up in the dark.   I was so happy it was a great success.  :)

Afterwards we did a mad dash to finish up the cupcakes before the kids had to go.  They were warm and delicious right out of the oven and it was almost 10pm by the time they left.

All in all it was a great Halloween night with the kids.  I got to speak with Miriam for a long time and get to know her better.  Any opportunity for me to make some good impressions on Zaki's family I'll take.  They were already so nervous about me from the beginning, so I feel like any time I can show them my true colors I'm winning them over.  After they'd finally left, even Zaki was surprised at how well it went, and he could tell Miriam was impressed with me.

Success!!!

Basic (but favorite!) Afghan Ground Beef Recipe

Kamachalau  (Ground beef with Rice, via Zaki's Mom)

- 4 cloves garlic, 1 green chili pepper (or 2 if you like spice), 2 tablespoon lemon juice, mix finely in food processor

- Add 1/2 ladle of vegetable oil to Medium Size pot or deep skillet, on medium heat, let sit a minute
- Add garlic/pepper mix to oil, mix a little.  Let sit for 2-3 minutes on medium heat
- Add 1/2 pound ground beef to pot and mix everything up until beef is cooked
- Add a little less than 1/2 a teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon curcumin (turmeric), 1/2 teaspoon Seekh Kebab spice
-Lower heat to medium/low and stir/let sit with lid on for 10 minutes.
- After it has cooked well and has reduced, add peas, stir and let sit for another few minutes on lower heat.
Serve with Palau, Yogurt, & Afghan Bread (or whole wheat pita)

Pictured here is our turmeric, given to us by Zaki's parents.  Turmeric is used in almost every Afghan dish.  They call it curcumin (or as they spelt it, kukumand).  I didn't recognize the name kukumand, so it took all of his Dad's memory to try and remember it's English name.  When I asked his Mom what type of flavor it adds, she just says "Makes great color!".  As I've found from these cooking classes with his Mom, getting exact information out of her is difficult.  All her recipes are from memory and is not written down.  There is no exact measurements, no "Add 1/2 teaspoon" I have to do my own translation from watching her, eyeing the amounts she pinches or pours and scribbling it down as we go.  Every time I make her stop to let me properly document something she giggles (she gets a real kick out of my need for accuracy).  In falling suit with my American need-to-know mentality, I did some online research of turmeric and found out it's a type of ginger root used in everything from dyes, to cosmetics, and is even being studied for it's medicinal qualities.  Whatever it does, it's definitely a necessity in any Afghan kitchen. 

Afghanified Fajita

Afghanified Fajita (via Zaki's Mom)

- Using food processor mix together 3-4 cloves of garlic and 2 tablespoons lemon juice
Set mix aside

- Dice1/2 red and 1/2 green bell peppers
- Dice 1/4 of an onion
- Dice 1/2 cup of broccoli (or more if you prefer)
- Rise chicken and cut into small bite-sized pieces
- Pour olive oil into large pot and begin to heat
- Add chicken, plus 1/2 teaspoon of salt, plus 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- Add 1-1/2 tablespoons of the garlic/lemon juice mix
- Mix well, add lid to pot and leave for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally
- After 5-7 minutes add the chopped veggies, moisture in pot should be mostly burned away
- Add 1 very large tablespoon of Hot Ajvar sauce, 1 tablespoon Sweet & Spicy Sauce (Chinese sauce optional), stir well
- Cook for another minute or so, make sure to not over-cook the veggies, they should remain partly crisp, not soggy.

Serve with Afghan Palau (rice), Arab Yogurt, and toasted middle eastern bread (pita will suffice).







Kamachalau  (Afghan ground beef with rice)

Afghan Rice

Afghan Palau  (basic Afghan rice, via Zaki's Mom)

- Rinse the amount of rice you wish to make to remove dust or musky odors (we use roughly 1 cup for 2-3 people)

- Soak the rice in a large bowl for minimum 2 hours in water, 6 hours for best results (this allows the rice to absorb the water and makes the grains longer in size than traditional rice)

- Bring a pot of water to boil 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees

- Once boiled, take a ladle full of boiling water into a tiny bowl, add 1 teaspoon of salt then set aside, drain soaked rice with colander in sink, then pour  back into boiling pot

- Cover with lid for 2 to 3 minutes 

- Crucial step: After 2 minutes, while stirring, check the rice grains to make sure they are not too soft or hard  (Take a rice grain in your finger, break with your thumbnail, if ready it should break in half easily, if too hard leave to boil more.  Another way of checking is to bite a grain in your mouth, rice should be somewhat soft, but not 100% cooked inside, also when rice grains appear longer, this means it's ready)

- Drain rice in colander 

- Put the rice back into pot and add 1/2 ladle full of olive oil, add previously made salt water mix, add 1 tablespoon of Bombay Biryani Mix, stir together gently.  (Optional time to add a few raisins)

- Put lid on pot, set in oven for 20 minutes. - After 20 minutes. turn oven down to 200 degrees, rice can either be eaten immediately or sit (to keep warm) up to 10 more minutes.

This is a basic rice palau, there are many different style of palau in the Afghan world.  His Mom taught us a basic staple rice to make and eat with other dishes we're learning.

   It's worth noting that most Afghans have their "own way" for making palau.  I've watched his Sister-In-Law make palau and she does some steps differently or cooks for longer or add red food dye for color.  Essentially these small differences are only notable to Afghans because I don't taste a huge difference.  Personally, I'm proud of my palau and Zaki approves.  I've now made it multiple times on my own, tweaking some parts of the recipe to suit us and our needs.  The more I make it the better it gets.

   It's also worth noting, Afghans and their rice is kind of a big deal.  My experience as a White American, we may steam some white rice from time to time to go with fish, or our own stirfrys, but I've never made or had rice like this at home.  Rice in the Afghan world is an art form, and they will all tell you Afghan rice is the best rice.  Period.