Dear Kitchen Readers,
This weekend I had the pleasure of dining at a beautiful Afghani restaurant and truly fell in love with the flavors and spices. It was one of the best meals I'd ever had and has motivated me to learn to make this ethnic cuisine in my kitchen.
Do you think I may be biting off more than I can chew being that the most ethnic cooking I do is some of my mom's Mediterranean dishes. Also, any suggestions on cookbooks or other good resources?
Thanks,
Lisa
Dear Lisa,
Indeed, the flavors in Afghan cuisine are wonderful and there's more to this kind of cooking than kebabs. Definitely don't be intimidated; just be prepared to search a bit for some of the ingredients you might need that may not already be in your pantry.
The book, Silk Road Cooking by Najmieh Batmanglij is a wonderful introduction to the cooking of the middle east, including specific recipes from Afghanistan.
For a book dedicated to Afghan cuisine, try Afghan Cuisine: Cooking for Life a Collection of Afghan Recipes (and Other Favorites) for the Novice Afghan and Non-Afghan Cook by Nafisa Sekandari.
Also, afghan-network.net has a cooking page with a few recipes to get you started.
Have fun with it, and let us know how your experiments go.
(photo: UNDP Afghanistan)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
It's not too hard to do!
I don't have recipes, but I've been around when Afghan kefta kebabs (out of fake meat no less) have been made, and a sort of creamed spinach dish that is fantastic. Such great blended spices . . .
I've been meaning to get that and Iranian food into my repitoire -- walnut pomegranate sauce, wow.
BTW, Afghan is the correct adjective, Afghani is the currency of the country.
I am soo glad more people are venturing to try afghan cuisine- we discovered in here in washington a couple of years ago and it has now moved into my favorite ethnic cuisine spot. I think that the sweet carrot and lamb-Pilao wouldn't be too hard to get a handle on and is such a nice spring/summer dish. One of my all time favorites is the Pumpkin Buranee-and I would LOOOOOVE a recipe for that!
"Guys, the Afghanistanannies"
i love it too..... i embrace any cuisine that freely uses pumpkin and I am a bit of a nut for middle eastern food. In NYC I used to love the Afgan place on Saint Marks and for plane old humus and what not HUUMUS ASLI, BUT now that I live in Germany ( a country with a huge huge huge Turkish population) I have become a devote of Turkish food.
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Wow, this is cool. Thnks for the input! I feel like I stumbled upon a well kept little secret. The restaurant on St. Marks (Khyber Pass) is where I had my little culinary experience too. Talk about simple ingredients but intense flavors. Can't wait to try making a couple things.
~Lisa