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.

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

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 

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

TURMERIC BRAISED CHICKEN IN YOGURT - LAWANG

By Katie

This pot of chicken gorgeousness will convert even the most stubborn skeptic of Afghan cuisine. Called lawang, it’s our favorite center-of-the-table dish for dinner parties. In addition to being delicious, it can be made a day ahead and reheated just before serving. It’s just as good as if you’d made it on the spot.

The first time I tried lawang was at Helmand, an Afghan restaurant here in San Francisco. They serve a version made with lamb that’s a true world beater. When Humaira suggested we prepare a chicken lawang, I was hesitant. I couldn’t imagine the lamb being improved upon. But Humaira isn’t hugely fond of lamb, so I agreed. And she was right, it worked beautifully with the chicken.

The key to lawang is patience. You must cook the onions and chicken low and slow for quite some time. This eventually renders delicious juices that, when combined with yogurt, creates an unctuous, turmeric-scented sauce.

It’s best to use the fattier leg and thigh meat rather than the breast in order to achieve a tender braised texture. Also important is how you incorporate the yogurt, the very last step. If you add cold yogurt to hot chicken, it will curdle and rob the sauce of its silky texture. We suggest bringing the yogurt up to room temperature and letting the chicken cool slightly before marrying the two in the pan.

Be sure to have plenty of nan or good pita bread handy. You will need it to scoop up all that “so good it might make you cry” yogurt sauce.

Turmeric Braised Chicken in Yogurt

Lawang

1½ cups Greek-style yogurt stirred until creamy

3 lbs skinless, bone-in chicken legs and thighs, separated

1/2 cup olive oil

2 large onions, pureed in food processor (or finely chopped)

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1 tbsp. ground turmeric

1/2 tbsp. ground coriander

1 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

Remove the yogurt from the refrigerator. Wash the chicken and pat dry with a dish towel or paper towel.

Heat ¼ cup of the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. Cook the onions over medium-high heat for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and continue to saute until deeply browned (another 5 minutes or so).

Add the remainder of the oil, the chicken and salt. Stir the chicken to coat with the onions, turn heat to low, put on the lid and cook for 25 minutes. Stir regularly to keep the chicken from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the pepper, turmeric and coriander and stir well to incorporate the spices evenly into the dish. It should take on a deep yellow color.  Cover and continue to cook on low for another 25 to 30 minutes or until the sauce thickens and the chicken is tender and cooked through. If the pan goes dry during cooking add water, a tablespoon at a time, as needed.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes to cool the dish slightly. Add the yogurt and cilantro and stir thoroughly. Return to the heat and gently cook over low heat for 5 minutes. The sauce will be thick & creamy.

Serve with basmati rice such as challaw and nan or pita bread.

Note: if you plan to make this a day ahead, cook the chicken but refrain from the last step of the recipe, adding the yogurt. When you are ready to serve, gently reheat the chicken to warm (but not hot), add the room-temperature yogurt and cilantro, and continue to cook for 5 minutes until heated through.

Serves 4-6

photo by Kim Harris

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.