My Workshop – How to Make Chutney

Thursday, June 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Silk Route Cookery Workshop in Toronto

This summer I will be in the kitchen working with some lovely seasonal fruits – tomatoes (yes, it is considered a fruit!) and peaches.

I will be over at The Depanneur showing you how to make chutney; a savoury condiment, which is often eaten alongside main dishes in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

  • You will be given one jar of chutney as a gift to take home.
  • At the end of the workshop, we will enjoy the chutney by spooning it over some cheese and crusty bread.
  • The cost is $40+HST – more information on the workshop and how to sign up for it is available here.

N.B. This is not a canning and preservation 101 class – we will only learn how to prepare chutney.

Filed Under: Afghan, condiment, events, Pakistani, workshop

‘Cooking Along the Silk Route’ in Washington, DC

Friday, May 10, 2013 By 7 Comments

Tahchin Workshop Tahchin, Persian rice timbale with saffron-poached chicken

*NO SPACES LEFT*

IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR NAME PLACED ON THE WAIT-LIST, PLEASE E-MAIL ME, (ADDRESS AT THE END OF THE POST).

On Saturday, June 22nd, I will be hosting a lunch which is themed ‘Cooking Along the Silk Route‘. As such, we will prepare dishes from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan and then share a meal together, family-style, in a beautiful home in the Washington, DC suburbs, (near Tyson’s Galleria).

While we cook together, we will :

  • Learn how to prepare a mocktail, appetiser and main dish. I will provide my homemade dessert for the meal.
  • Prepare and assemble the dishes in groups of 3-4.
  • Enjoy a lovely Saturday chatting and eating with others who adore food from my part of the world!

Sample Menu:
Pakistani Sekenjabeen – Sweet & Sour Sparkling Lime Mocktail with Mint
Afghan Aushak* – Leek pâté dumplings, served atop yoghurt and crowned with savoury mince
Persian Tahchin (see photo above) – Rice timbale with saffron-poached chicken
Pakistani Kheer aur morabba – Rosewater-fragranced rice pudding with seasonal fruit compote

Timing:
10am-1.30pm
Lunch will be served between 1.30 and 2.00pm.

If you would like to join us:
Please e-mail me at shayma (at) thespicespoon (dot) com.

*We are using store-bought wonton wrappers.

Filed Under: Afghan, events, Irani/Persian, Pakistani, Silk Route, workshop

My Workshop – How to Make Aushak, Afghan Dumplings

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 By 3 Comments

Shayma Saadat workshop

*SOLD OUT*

Crisis. That’s the face of a punctilious cook who can’t use a certain oil over another one for shallow-frying. When you’re teaching participants to make blinis in your first ever workshop, you unnecessarily stress over such trivial matters. To make matters trickier, you feel nauseous and soporific because you are expecting Tiny Spoon, unbeknownst to everyone at the workshop.

I was invited to host my first workshop last year in February, which turned out to be a lovely experience – we finally settled on olive oil (as the picture depicts) – and all the participants went home happy after having a few sips of Pomegranate & Rosewater Essence Sparkling Wine Cocktails.

I am in the kitchen again, (this time, stress-free) – teaching another workshop. I will be over at The Depanneur showing you how to make aushak – dumplings which hail from the Afghan kitchen.

The cost is $40+HST – more information on the workshop and how to sign up for it is available here.

Filed Under: Afghan, events

Morabayeh Holou – Peach Compote in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, July 22, 2012 By 19 Comments

Peach Compote

Dear All,

Thank you for all your kind messages regarding my lack of blogging as of late. I haven’t given up on blogging; I am just working on a non-food related project which has made it difficult for me to devote time to my blog at the moment. Inshallah, I hope to be back in the Fall with new recipes / posts. Thank you so much for your readership and warm and encouraging messages. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, breakfast, brunch, condiment

Elaichi Chai- Cardamom Tea in the Pakistani Manner

Sunday, April 8, 2012 By 35 Comments

Chai Tea

If you were friendly with one of the House Prefects, you were always guaranteed a thick stack of those buttery, crumbly biscuits for dipping into your milky tea. At 10am, as the bell rang, all of us would push past the Assembly Hall’s heavy doors and greedily reach for the blue and orange rectangular biscuit tins. The Prefects had control over the tins and if you weren’t on good terms with them, you’d have to ask your mates to share some of their goodies with you, which they always did, but rather reluctantly. It was all about survival of the fittest in that Assembly Hall. No one really wanted to share their elevenses with you. Not even your best friend. Everyone huddled together, with their plastic teacup of fragrant Kenyan tea in their hand, dipping the thin sliver of a biscuit with the frilled edges into the hot liquid till it turned just a tad bit soggy and melted in your mouth with each bite. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Afghan, Beverage, breakfast, brunch, Pakistani, tea time snacks

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

Sunday, August 21, 2011 By 28 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 33 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 23 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, dessert/pudding, Irani/Persian, tea time snacks

Borani Kadu: Roasted Butternut Squash Verrines in the Afghan Manner

Sunday, November 7, 2010 By 25 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, appetiser, borani (yoghurt-based cold salad), Irani/Persian, mains, vegetables/vegetarian

Ami’s Kebabs

Sunday, September 26, 2010 By 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
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