Chutney Surkh-e-Murch: Red Pepper Chutney in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, August 21, 2011 By shayma 26 Comments

Red Pepper Chutney

The Bullying. Stratford Landing Elementary School, Grade 2. In a suburb of Washington DC.

Ami used to make me sandwiches for lunch so I wouldn’t have to eat the horrid spaghetti in bolognese sauce from the school cafeteria. This “Italian” dish was usually made with meat which looked more like cat food, straight out of a tin. All the other children used to bring soft sandwiches smeared with peanut butter and grape jelly, and even though I pleaded for those sarnies, Ami said no. It wasn’t good for you- all that sugar and carbs. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, condiment, spicy, vegetables/vegetarian

Boulani- Potato Turnovers in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, April 24, 2011 By shayma 28 Comments

Afghan Boulani

Carb on carb is considered very naughty.

But we, the Afghans do it, the Pakistanis do it with our spiced potato sauté mopped up with pillowy naan; the Poles do it with their pierogies and you haven’t really lived yet if you haven’t been to that trattoria in Baschi, Umbria and had a silky raviolo stuffed with a velvety potato mash, served with a fruity olive oil and shavings of that musky, sweet, intense black truffle. That dish is called “i-want-to-lick-my-plate-and-the-person-who-created-this-combination”. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, appetiser, tea time snacks, vegetables/vegetarian

Gosh-e-Feel: Baby Elephant Ears- Fried Pastry in the Afghan Manner

Monday, April 18, 2011 By shayma 22 Comments

gosh-e-feel elephant ear cookies

I first tried “gossip” when I lived in Rome. No, not that kind. I learned what gossip was in the kindergarten when my ‘husband’, Jamie and I paid Gina for a pound of tomatoes and instead of putting the two plastic yellow coins in the till, she put them in her pocket. And instead of tommies, she handed us bananas. By recess time, everyone knew about the dreadful thing Gina had done to us. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Irani/Persian, dessert/pudding, tea time snacks

Borani Kadu: Roasted Butternut Squash Verrines in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, November 7, 2010 By shayma 23 Comments

Kadu Bharta.

Two words which sent shivers down my spine as a child-that Pakistani roasted squash dish which I just could not abide as a child. I don’t know whether it was the nursery food-like texture on my tongue of the cooked vegetable or the sight of it; one amorphous mound on my plate. I remember my parents scooping it all up with a chapati and adding spoonfuls of piquant mint chutney to the equation. It wasn’t for me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Irani/Persian, appetiser, borani (yoghurt-based cold salad), mains, vegetables/vegetarian

Ami’s Kebabs

Sunday, September 26, 2010 By shayma 32 Comments

I would like to thank Lucy Waverman whose staff helped me write this recipe. I had a loose recipe from my mother according to her andaaza, estimation method.

Ami and I usually sit in our breakfast room when we’re having an afternoon cup of tea. For her just a splash of milk, “pour it in with just a flick of the wrist, Sham,” Ami cautions me. And for myself, a cardamom popped in, no milk. We share namak paray, finger-thin crackly wafers spiced with cumin as we sip our chai. Ami used to bake buttercup-yellow dense cakes when I was a child, but she’s given up on baking now. But that’s all right, as my Aunty Shelly lives just down the road and I can steal a blueberry-banana bread loaf from her kitchen on most days.

My favourite chai-time treat is when Ami makes kebabs. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, appetiser, mains, spicy

Keema Bharta Borani- Aubergine & Savoury Mince Borani in the Afghan / Pakistani Manner

Sunday, September 19, 2010 By shayma 26 Comments

French-Indian. Mexican-Japanese. Thai-Chinese. Fusion cuisine? Not really my brand of gin.

But when you have a family who is originally Afghan, now settled in Pakistan- invariably, there will be lots of ‘fusion-cuisine’ type of dishes prepared in the kitchen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Pakistani, borani (yoghurt-based cold salad), mains

Doogh-Yoghurt Drink (Lassi) in the Afghan/Persian Manner

Saturday, August 21, 2010 By shayma 15 Comments

The chaunsa, sindhri, anwar ratol: Pakistan’s mangoes. Oh, and the dohsehri. That’s the one you soften with your fingers, till it feels like soft pulp and then you pierce a tiny hole at the top. You suck out all the juice. And that’s how you eat that mango. But my favourite, which appears in late July, is the langra- with a thick parrot-green skin. And when you cut into it, the juice starts to ooze out-like perfect yolk from a softly poached egg-and forms a puddle in your plate. The flesh is fibrous and honeycomb-sweet. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Beverage, Irani/Persian

A Picnic Potato Salad in the Afghan Manner: Borani Kachalu

Sunday, June 20, 2010 By shayma 33 Comments

Baba tells me that Bobby Darin’s Dream Lover would play repeatedly at picnics with his friends in 1960s Lahore. But for real affectation, there had to be some Françoise Hardy. Baba also tells me that if you didn’t know her hit La maison où j’ai grandi, or at least pretend to know it, then you were essentially a nobody.

And there were no picnic invitations for nobodies. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, appetiser, borani (yoghurt-based cold salad), brunch, vegetables/vegetarian

Dal (Lentils) in the Pakistani / Afghan Manner

Sunday, March 21, 2010 By shayma 47 Comments

La vita è bella

“It’s your last night here, what would you like to eat, Baba?,” I ask my father.
I know he likes the straccetti alla rughetta at Da Francesco in Piazza del Fico.
“A home-cooked meal. Dal and chawal,” he answers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Pakistani, mains, soup, vegetables/vegetarian

Aromatic Rice Pilaf: Yakhni Pulao in the Pakistani / Afghan Manner

Sunday, January 31, 2010 By shayma 50 Comments

Memories of Childhood Summers in Lahore

It was a hot day in Lahore. The kind of day when the Loo wind blows in from the Cholistan Desert, as the sun casts its tungsten-white glow on the people of the city. The canal’s water a dirty brown, small children leaping in one by one, to cool themselves off in the 40C heat. The willow trees lining the bank, drooped and in prostration, praying for the monsoons to come. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Pakistani, mains, rice
« Older Posts