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.

Afghans & Food

  One thing that's important to know about Afghans, they are somewhat obsessed with their food.  They take great pride in their cooking, and will commonly tell you that they'll prefer their home-cooking to any other restaurant out there.  No matter how delicious a restaurant can be, it will never compare in the freshness and high quality of their own cooking.  It's almost comical how often the words "fresh" and "best quality" come up when talking to Afghans about food.

   Zaki's parents visited us today, bringing us tons of spices, plates, and cooking utensils (we just moved into this apartment and were severely lacking).  The last Sunday they visited they'd taken stock of what our sad little kitchen was missing and today arrived with bags upon bags of stuff.

  On his parents last visit, I was taught how to make a very basic Afghan Palau (rice dish), a staple to any Afghan dinner.  Today, they tested me by letting me make it myself, which I luckily did perfectly fine from memory (*sigh of relief*).  This time his Mom had also recommended I learn a basic version of Afghan Banjan (fried eggplant yogurt dish), she'd brought all the ingredients with her, and we quickly got to cooking (his Mama pictured left).

  Let me just say, I love this dish.  Being American, I did not grow up with very many eggplants in my house.  Though my Mom cooked every night (and delicious food at that!), it was just never a vegetable we used.  That said, I had tasted this delicious eggplant dish once before at Zak's brothers house.  His Sister-In-Law had already happily shown me her version, and now I've watched his Mom.  I love learning this stuff, not only because it's comfort food for Zaki but because it's extremely yummy stuff that I'd love to cook for myself or my family too.

  The eggplant was sooooo good, I couldn't help but stuff myself.  His parents kept claiming they weren't hungry and had only stopped by to give us some things and quickly teach me how to make banjan.  They promptly left and Zaki and I finished off the banjan ourselves.

One of these days I will add a recipe section to my blog and include all of these tasty delights.  Though many Afghan dishes can be found online, I feel it's important to see all the variations (with amazing photos included).  His family has their own way, and it seems worth sharing with the world.

The Burani Banjan without the yogurt added.

(Next time I will take better pictures!)

Introduction to my blog.

Hello!  And welcome, my name is Meera. :)

  The reason I started this blog?  Lots come to mind, but I guess the main one is I tend to look to friends, family, and Google for help with a lot of things in my life.  I love reading stories of people going through the similar things and relating.  However this circumstance of dating and Afghan is quite a rare one.  Well, let me rephrase that, not rare, but rarely spoken about.

 My one an only goal here (other than releasing my own personal thoughts on digital paper) is to aid any others who may be or have found themselves in my situation.  Whether your the Afghan dating a non-Afghan or vice versa.  I hope this may help you in ways it could have helped me nearly 10 years ago.

To start,  I am a 27 year old Caucasian female (non-religious) dating a 30 year old Afghan Muslim man.