AFGHAN POTATO AND SCALLION BREAD - BOLANI KACHALOO

By Humaira

Bolani e kachaloo, unleavened bread stuffed with potato, scallions and cilantro is one of my favorite Afghan snacks. It’s in complete opposition to Mr. Atkins’ dietary rules: starch on the outside, starch on the inside. Maybe that is what makes it so delicious. Bolani can also be filled with other delicious stuffing: Chinese green onions (gandana), spinach,lentils, butternut squash or whatever you like.

Afghans make bolani for special occasion such as birthday parties, engagement parties or holidays. Nowadays most Afghans in the East Bay order their bolani from the many local Afghan restaurants. The most popular source is Fremont’s beloved hole in the wall De Afghanan restaurant which is reminiscent of kebab houses in Kabul. Some of my non-Afghan friends have discovered bolani sold by the folks at East West Gourmet Foods who set up shop at many of the Bay Area farmers markets.

On a field trip to Little Kabul last spring, Katie and I watched in awe as the cook at De Afghanan brought out a piece of bolani dough the size of a large pizza, spread a generous amount of potato mixture on it and then browned it as we watched. Somehow the two of us managed to eat most of this flavorful bread, along with a huge order of chicken kebab. In the Afghan community the De Afghanan version of bolani is now lovingly called Fremont style.

Although in Afghanistan everyone makes their own dough, over the years my mom Jeja and her fellow Afghan ladies have developed short cuts to making bolani. They use a bread dough bought from Costco or flour tortillas, the latter of which we think is the best and easiest way to go. For this post I’m sharing both a recipe for the homemade dough and also the method using tortillas. I have to confess once they were cooked it was hard to distinguish one from the other. Both tasted great.

We like to make bolani as an appetizer, an elegant addition to a dinner instead of bread, a yummy sandwich alternative in our kids’ lunch boxes or a quick snack to reheat in the toaster.

Bolani:Afghan Potato and Scallion Turnover

Bolani e Kachaloo

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup water room temperature

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. olive oil

1 lb. russet potatoes (about 2 medium-size potatoes)

1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

1/2 cup finely chopped scallions white and green parts

¼ cup plus 2 tbsp. olive oil

1 ½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground black pepper

Instructions:

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Slowly add the water and the teaspoon of oil and mix the dough together, kneading it a little until it forms a ball. If the dough is too dry to come together, add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Once the dough is formed, knead it for 10 minutes on a lightly floured cutting board. If you are impatient like us, set the timer so you won’t reduce the kneading time. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rest for one hour.

In the meantime, boil the potatoes until soft in the center when pierced with a small knife. Remove from the water and when cool enough to handle, slip the skins off the potatoes. Put the potatoes, cilantro, scallions, 2 tbsp. of the olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and mash together with your hands or a potato masher until thoroughly combined. Some lumps are ok. You can also make this the night before and keep it refrigerated until ready to use.

Take a small amount of dough the size of a small apple and roll into a smooth ball. Spread some flour on the wood board and roll out the dough using a rolling pin. Continue to flatten the dough until it takes a round shape, is as thin as a tortilla, and about 10-12 inches across. The thinner the dough the better. If you have trouble rolling the dough to the shape you want, use a lid from a pot to trace a perfect round shape.

Spread ¼ cup of potato mixture on one side of the dough, leaving a 1/4 inch border around the rim. Fold the other half over and press the dough together with your finger to form a seal.

Heat the remaining ¼ cup of oil in a medium-size sauté pan over medium-high heat. Brown the bolani, two at a time, until golden on both sides. The bolani should sizzle when they hit the pan. Lay cooked bolani on a paper towel. Add more oil to your pan if your oil starts to reduce. These are best served warm but are tasty at room temperature.

Serve with plain yogurt

Short Cut:

If you don’t want to make the dough use flour tortillas instead, it always turns out well and saves time.

2 tbsp. flour

2 tbsp. water

6 6-inch flour tortillas

In a small dish, mix together the flour and water to make a paste. Set a tortilla on your work surface and spread ¼ cup of the potato mixture on the tortilla, leaving a half-inch border around the rim. Using your finger spread a small amount of the paste around the edge of half of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla over, encasing the potatoes into a half circle. Press the two sides of the tortillas together firmly to form a tight seal. Brown the bolani following the instructions in the recipe above.

Bolani cut out with potato mixture

Folded over and pressed together

Using a tortilla you leave a wider edge for the paste which will hold the tortilla closed.

Tortilla Bolani ready for cooking

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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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