RECIPE FOR AFGHANISTAN'S OWN POWER BAR

By Katie

The launch of The Power Bar in the 1980s opened the floodgates to a multi-million (billion?) dollar “energy bar” industry. Nevertheless, the folks at Power Bar were hardly pioneers.In Afghanistan this little snack bar here has been fueling city dwellers and nomads alike for decades, if not centuries. Made up solely of dried mulberries, walnuts and a sprinkling of salt, they take minutes to make and are a heck of lot more nourishing than almost anything you’ll find on the shelf at your local Whole Foods. As a dietitian and a mom, I’m a big fan.

The trick is tracking down those pesky mulberries. I got mine from Humaira who picked them up from her nephew Abe who brought them from Jeja, Humaira’s mom, who bought them at her favorite Afghan market in Fremont. Whew! Your best bet is an Afghan market, too.Or get them by mail order. There are myriad sources on the internet.

I used black mulberries in this recipe, which are crispier than most dried fruits and similar in flavor to dried figs. I’ve also stumbled upon golden mulberries which didn’t taste markedly different to me than the black ones. Humaira, who has a firm opinion on most everything, differs on this point. She thinks the gold ones are inferior. I think if you can track down mulberries of any sort, it’s worth a try.

Once you have your hands on some mulberries, you simply whirl them with walnuts in a food processor. Traditionally this is eaten as a paste with either the fingers or a utensil. But pressing the paste into a pan, chilling it and then cutting them into bars appeals to our modern sensibilities. They keep a good long while and are perfectly portable, just ask any Afghan nomad.

Afghan Mulberry and Walnut Snack Bars

Makes 16 small bars

½ lb. dried mulberries

½ lb. walnuts

¼ tsp. Kosher salt

2 tbsp. water

16 walnut halves

Put all of the ingredients in a food processor fitted with a metal blade and puree for 1 to 2 minutes until the ingredients form a thick, smooth, sticky paste.

Line an 8x8-inch baking pan with parchment or wax paper with the paper draping over two sides of the pan so you have something to hold onto when you remove the snack bars.

Put the mulberry/walnut mixture into the pan and firmly press it down evenly over the bottom of the pan. Distribute the walnut halves evenly over the snack bar mixture, gently pressing them into the bars, to make 4 even rows of 4 walnuts.

Refrigerate for an hour to firm up the bars. Using the edges of the wax paper, lift the mixture out of the pan and set it on a cutting surface. Use a sharp knife and cut it into 16 squares with a walnut in the center of each square. Store in a lidded container at room temperature, or the refrigerator if you prefer them cold.

By Katie

Afghan chix snack bars 182

Afghan chix snack bars 180

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IN PURSUIT OF AFGHAN SUNDAE: FALOODA

By Humaira

While Americans were fighting the crowds in the mall to take advantage of the after Christmas sales, returning gifts and window shopping, my Afghan family was at home eating various Afghan delicacies with my cousins who were visiting from Los Angeles. The LA cousins had heard of a an Afghan restaurant that makes the best Faloodah, an Afghan ice cream which they were determined to visit.

After a hearty dinner my cousin Hawa, convinced all of us to go on a 2 hour roundtrip adventure in search of this ice cream.  I must note that it was 40 degrees, pouring rain and around 8:30pm.  After very little arm twisting, nine of us put on our winter coats, loaded into 3 cars and drove from Fremont to Concord in search of Amoo Restaurant.  I was skeptical at first but once we got to the deserted strip mall in Concord I was convinced that this trip was a waste of time. We received a warm welcome from the owner who kept the restaurant open for us.  We ordered 8 Faloodah and one Afghan ice cream without the extra toppings.

Faloodah is what Katie and I call the Afghan Sundae: shaved ice, topped with creamy cardamom flavored Afghan ice cream, rose water, vermicelli noodles and plently of Afghan cream called qaymaq finished with a generous topping of pitsachios.  At least that is what I think goes into it. The owner of the restaurant wouldn't give his secret recipe away nor would he let me take his photo while scooping the ice cream out of a large bucket, nestled in a bed of ice. 

The ice cream is made on site just like at the ice cream parlors I remember in Afghanistan.  There they would make the ice cream by adding all the ingredients -- cream, sugar, and cardamom -- into a bucket placed in a bed of ice.  Then the workers would take turns twisting the bucket side to side until the ingredients turned into a creamy ice cream.

I thought the Faloodah at Amoo was good but I am not sure if it was worth the drive to Concord.  We could have driven five minutes to Salang Restaurant in Fremont or 2 minutes to Afghan Village in Newark to get an equally delicious Faloodah.  Katie and I plan to have a Faloodah making workshop.  We'll share the recipe when we do!

This is Jeja today cooking a qurooti, a savory bread pudding, in an Amercian kitchen with all the modern conveniences

Goblet with shaved ice gets a generous portion of ice cream. 

An elegant dessert.

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DELICATE AFGHAN BUTTER COOKIES - KULCH-E-BIRINJEE

By Katie

I’ve been involved for some time now with my neighbor Diego. It’s an affair based more on a mutual love for baking than for one another; which is good since I’m married, and my neighbor prefers men.

It all began several years ago when Diego and his partner Mitch moved in to the charming yellow cottage next door. I stopped over with a plate of ginger cookies to welcome them to our little strip of domesticity. The plate showed up on our doorstep a few days later anchored with a wedge of Meyer lemon tart so large and luscious it made me swoon. Diego had raised the bar, even garnishing the plate with a delicate arrangement of edible flowers from his garden.

And so it went. My husband would see me scurry from the kitchen and down our front steps with a half dozen cinnamon-dusted donuts/peach crisp/quarter of a chocolate birthday cake and know exactly where I was headed. And when the front bell rang unexpectedly, say on a Sunday morning, or after dinner on a Tuesday, we’d often find Diego on the other side of the door with a smile and a perfectly caramelized flan/blueberry buckle/zucchini quick bread.

I suppose like any sort of affair, you never think it’s going to end. And so I gasped when my husband broke the news last week that Diego and Mitch were moving, pulling up stakes for a job up north. I couldn’t believe it was over. We’d exchanged relatively few words over the years, but enough butter and sugar and the love that goes into cooking to fuel a small bakery. There was only one thing to do:bake something.

I wanted to make something special, and given my current fixation on Afghan food, it seemed an appropriate direction to turn. Plus, desserts in Afghanistan really are relegated to special occasions like this one. Prepared sweets are for weddings and holidays, and the repertoire of recipes is relatively limited. But there is a delicate little Afghan butter cookie that seemed just right, made with rice flour and cardamom, then crowned with a pistachio. 

I made the cookies and left them on the doorstep with a note. I envisioned Diego and Mitch nibbling on the cookies during their long car ride, reminiscing about their former life. Then I turned my attention to their house and noticed the new “For Sale” sign out front. Hmmm, I wonder if any bakers are in the market for a charming yellow cottage…

Afghan Butter Cookies

Kulche Birinjee

3/4 cup butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened to room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 egg whites

2 cups white rice flour

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios

1/4 cup shelled whole pistachios

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the egg whites and mix until smooth. Gradually add the rice flour, cardamom and pistachios. Mix well. Scoop up a tablespoon of dough and set on a cookie sheet (ungreased is ok). Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand. The cookie will not rise or spread during cooking. Next, press the back of a fork into the dough, making a criss-cross with the tines of the fork (like you would with a peanut butter cookie). If the fork begins to stick, dip it in a glass of cold water from time to time. Place a pistachio in the center of the cookie. Continue with the remainder of the dough, setting the cookies 1 ½ inches apart.

Bake for 12-14 mintues.  Let it cool before eating.

Note: the names in this story have been changed 

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