AFGHAN QORMA e KHAWAR – NOT YOU’RE MOTHER’S CAPER RECIPE

By Humaira

You are never too old or too knowledgeable to learn something news. Recently, I learned about an Afghan dish called Qorma e khawar. Qorma is the common name for all Afghan meat or vegetable dishes that are slow cooked in a sauce. However, I had never heard of khawar. I called my mom, Jeja, my Afghan food encyclopedia.

This is how our conversation went in Farsi.

“What is khawar?”

“The tiny green things.” Jeja responds.

“Oh, you mean mawsh (mung beans)?”

“No, the other thing. 

It ‘s small, green, and soft. I don’t know what its called in English.”

“Do you mean karam (Brussels sprout)?”

“No.”

I spent sleepless nights, as this mystery loomed unsolved.  Finally, I got a call from Jeja that she found a jar of khawar in Trader Joe’s, which turned out to be capers. I always associated capers with smoked salmon, that is where my knowledge of capers ended. I had no idea that capers are native to

Afghanistan and that they are used in Qorma. Fresh capers are bitter but once they are dried and pickled, the bitterness dissipates. It turns out that my aunt makes the best Qorma e khawar. She lives in Orange County so I got a rudimentary recipe from her and then went to work on creating this dish. After a few tests and tweaks I settled on the best combination of ingredients and techniques. If you love capers, try this recipe.

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Afghan Qorma e Khawar

Creamy Chicken, Caper and Yogurt Stew

3 ½ cups jarred capers (four jars of Trader Joe’s capers)

3 tbsp. olive oil

2 large yellow onions diced

1 tbsp. chopped garlic

1 1/2 lbs. skinless boneless chicken breast cut in thin strips

½ cup chicken broth

½ tbsp. ground coriander

½ tbsp. ground turmeric

½ tsp. ground black pepper

1-cup full fat Greek yogurt at room temprature

Rinse capers in fresh water and soak for an hour in warm water to remove the vinegar and salt taste. Heat olive oil in a sauté’ pan on medium-high heat.  Add diced onions to the oil, sauté on high or 10 minutes until they are lightly brown.  Add garlic, chicken strips, coriander, turmeric, and pepper to the pan.  Stir well, cook for five minutes until the chicken is slightly brown.  Add the chicken broth, stir well, cover pan with a lid, and simmer for fifteen minutes until the sauce thickens. Add 2 tbsp. of the chicken sauce to the yogurt; stir until creamy smooth.  The warm sauce will neutralize the yogurt so it won’t curdle when it is added to the pot.  Add strained capers and yogurt to the sauté pan; stir well so the yogurt is distributed evenly. 

Simmer for five minutes without the lid until the sauce is fully heated. Even after rinsing and soaking, the capers retain much of it’s salt. I felt the dish was seasoned perfectly without additional salt.  You may add some salt to your taste.

Serves 4-6

Serve with challaw rice and a freshly made Afghan salata.

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

AFGHAN INSPIRED MUSTARD CHICKEN

By Humaira

Ok, so this dish does not have an Afghan name since it’s not a traditional Afghan dish. Mustard Chicken, as my family fondly calls it, was created by a friend of a friend who is an accomplished Afghan cook. Although it is not an authentically Afghan dish, it uses a lot of the traditional spices. At first I was not sure if this recipe should become a blog post. But after my friend’s son, David Rupright (age 12), declared it “Afghan enough” I decided to share.

Over the years I have noticed Afghan ladies such as my mom and her friends not only adapt their cooking to their American kitchens but they have integrated ingredients they have found in the U.S. to their cooking.This is the natural evolution of food and cooking so it should be honored.

Mustard Chicken is a low-fat and very flavorful dish.I’ve experimented with different kinds of mustard but came to the conclusion that your basic, inexpensive yellow mustard works best.I like to serve it with warm pita and a simple salad.It reminds me a little bit of Mexican fajitas, only with Afghan seasonings and pita instead of tortillas.We hope you enjoy this dish.

Afghan Mustard Chicken

2 lbs. skinless, boneless, chicken breast

14 oz. yellow mustard

½ tbsp. ground coriander

1 tsp. cumin

½ tsp. black pepper

1 tsp. Kosher salt

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin

1 medium green bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin

1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin

After washing and drying, cut chicken in thin long strips, similar to fajita meat. Combine the chicken, mustard, coriander, cumin, pepper and salt in a bowl. Mix well, until all pieces of chicken are coated with mustard. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate for 1 hour. This dish can be marinated for many hours or overnight if you like.

Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Add the chicken, stir well so it doesn’t stick and drop the temperature to medium high. Cooking, stirring regularly, until just cooked through, around 10 minutes. A thick sauce will form. Add the onions and peppers to the pan and stir fry in the sauce for 5 minutes or until they are slightly tender. If you like your veggies softer,you can cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with pita bread and a nice crispy salad.

Serves 4-6

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

FLAVORFUL, COLORFUL AFGHAN FRITATTA

By Katie

There are a lot of Afghan words I struggle to pronounce. I’m not even quite sure I’ve got Humaira’s name exactly right and we’ve been friends for seven years now. This is just one little reason I like this dish so much; its name is a breeze: kuku. Plus, it’s sort of fun to say. Far more important, though, the dish is seriously delicious.

Kuku is Afghanistan’s answer to the Spanish tortilla and the Italian frittata. Eggs are beaten, mixed with vegetables and cooked either on the stove top or in the oven, or a combination of the two, until the eggs are just tender. Seasoned Afghan cooks prepare the dish entirely on the stovetop, flipping it part way through. However, this can be tricky. The method I offer here is a bit more forgiving.

As you might expect, the seasonings for the Afghan version are, well, distinctively Afghan. This particularly kuku is flavored with an abundance of cilantro and turmeric, along with potato, spinach and scallions. The result is a brightly colored and boldly flavored egg dish suitable for a brunch or lunch or light supper. It can certainly hold its own against even the best from Spain and Italy.

Afghan Frittata

Kuku

1 Russet potato (about 8 ozs.), peeled and quartered

Salt

8 eggs

1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed, finely chopped

1 bunch scallions, white and light green parts, finely chopped

4 ozs. spinach, chopped

1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced

1 tsp. ground turmeric

1 ½ tsp. Kosher salt

½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp. olive oil

Immerse the potato in a small pot of cold, salty water.Bring to a boil and cook until tender. Drain and mash with a fork.

Turn your oven on to broil.

Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and beat them with a whisk.Be sure the herbs, scallions and spinach are thoroughly dry (a salad spinner can help with this).Add the mashed potato, cilantro, scallions, spinach, jalapeño, turmeric, salt and pepper to the eggs and whip until combined.

Drizzle the olive oil in a 10-inch, non-stick skillet and set over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook for 6 to 8 minutes until the outside browns lightly and the eggs begins to set in the middle.It will still be quite runny across the top.

Set the skillet under the broiler until the eggs are firm, though still tender.Remove the skillet and allow it to cool for a few minutes.You can cut wedges directly from the pan or run a knife around the edge, put a dinner plate over the top of the skillet and quickly invert the kuku onto the plate.Serve warm or cold.

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The kuku cooking in the pan as the eggs are just beginning to set around the edge

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