“A Gift For All” – AN AFGHAN FEAST HONORING BROTHERS

By Humaira

This was a post from May but I am reposting it since it fits so beautifully as followup to last week's post, "Are Muslims Barbarians?".

In Aprils I visited a monastery for a retreat. One generally doesn’t find Afghans frequenting monasteries but the Monastery of Christ In The Desert has had several Afghan visitors recently, well, mostly my family. My brother Farid lived here for the last 20 years among the contemplative Benedictine monks as a civilian caretaker of the monastery. He dedicated his life to serving the brothers and searching for the meaning of life.  He passed away on February 25, 2012.

Family reunion June 2010, from left Tamim, me, Zohra, Farid, Nabila and Wahee

His loss was a tragedy for my family since Farid was estranged from us for many years; he re-joined our family in June of 2010. As you can imagine, losing him has been heart breaking for all of us. Even though I went to the monastery shortly after Farid’s death, I decided to return there to mourn his loss.  I am grateful to the brothers at the monastery who accepted my brother 20 years ago despite the fact that he was raised as a Muslim and did not plan to become a monk. The brothers embraced him as part of their community and accepted him with love.

Mother Julianne, Rosy, Abbott Phili

This was my third visit to the monastery.  I have gotten to know the brothers well and I am on joking terms with a few of them.  We discuss life, love, acceptance, monastic life, Afghan culture, politics and of course Afghan food.  I never thought I would have so much to chat about with a monk.  The brothers were intrigued by my blog and asked me to cook an Afghan meal in honor of Farid on this trip.  I was honored but also terrified about cooking the Sunday dinner for 37 people. 

Monastery chapel

I was told that the brothers are very protective of their kitchen and rarely let outsiders cook for the community.  I was anxious but my 10 year old Sofia noted that if the dinner turned out bad they will never know the difference.  This was a very good point.

Four stoves, I was in heaven

The monastery is deep in New Mexico desert, tucked away in a canyon surrounded by gorgeous red cliffs.  To get there one has to drive 13 miles on a narrow dirt road far away from the rest of the world.  It is one of the most beautiful places in the world and I should know, I have been to 35 countries. 

View from my room when I visited in February

I quickly realized that the remoteness of the monastery called for good planning.  I made a meticulous list of ingredients, quadrupling my recipes.  I landed in Santa Fe with my suitcase stuffed with hard to find ingredients like 10 lbs of Afghan rice, various types of Afghan sweets and spices.  In Santa Fe I picked up 12 lbs. of frozen spinach, 4 very large winter squash, 5 lbs. of raisins, 3 lbs. of slivered almonds and various other ingredients, which the brothers didn’t have in their pantry. 

Two hours of chopping and dicing

The brothers cook in a professional kitchen that is fully stocked with huge pots, pans, four stoves, five refrigerators, several freezers and any kind of kitchen appliance one would need for a feast. The brothers take turns cooking for 35-40 people twice a day, but as the Abbott noted some are better at reading recipes than others. I have enjoyed every meal that I have had at the monastery.

My cooking assistants were the Prior, Father Joseph Gabriel, and brother Frances who are both accomplished cooks. We started peeling, chopping, and dicing at 6:45 am.  I also made one of the desserts, firnee, in the morning so it would have time to cool.  Unfortunately the Monastery only has powdered milk. Firnee calls for fresh milk. Thank goodness despite the powdered milk this dessert turned out creamy and delicious.

Brother Francis, me, Father Joseph Gabriel

Around 8:45am we took a break to eat breakfast, attend mass and join in the Sunday light meal. We resumed our cooking session at 12:45 pm.  I was nervous. The brothers eat Sunday dinner at 4:10pm on the dot. Everything had to go like clock work.

Carrots and chicken for the qabili palau

I had imagined that our cooking time would be a fun bonding time where we would chat and share stories. Instead, we rushed around madly to get everything ready on time.  During this rush Brother Frances cut his finger, I splattered hot oil on my eyelid and my hand and Father Joseph Gabriel was not only cooking but also frantically washing dirty pots. He kept repeating, “The brothers in charge of clean up will be horrified if they see this mess”.

Father Joseph Gabriel washing and Father Oscar striking a pose

Fortunately my brother’s sweetheart Rosy (who also lives in the monastery) popped in at the right time and started making dessert plates.  Rosy divvied up the firnee in small bowls, which were set on plates filled with rhot, noqul, khasta e shereen anddried mulberries with walnuts.  I wanted the brothers to try a variety of Afghan delights.

Rosy organizing the dessert platters

Firnee, noqul, khasta e shereen, and walnuts with dried mulberrie

We somehow got the qabilipalau, kadoo, sabzi and the salad ready by 4:10 pm.  I even managed to comb my hair and change my shirt. Sunday dinner is very special at the monastery. When I was seated on the side of the refectory with the brothers I felt honored.  As we ate in silence, I looked to the other side of the room where the guests of the monastery were seated. I felt very proud to be part of this wonderful community that has loved my brother for 20 years and now me and my family.

So, Farid if you can hear me, thank you for sharing this little peace of heaven with me, The Monastery of Christ In The Desert, where I can transcend religion, culture, gender and life style among loving people and love them back unconditionally.

Brother Bernard, me and brother Frances after the meal

Prayer before the meal

Father Joseph Gabriel, Abbot Phillip and brother James

Me and mother Julianne

Monastery of Christ In The Dessert 

Afghan Dinner

Sunday April 15, 2012

Menu

Main Course

Rice with Chicken, Carrots and Raisins, Qabili Palau

Braised Squash, Kadoo

Slow Cooked Spinach, Qorma e Sabzi

Afghan Salad, Salata

Flat Bread or Pita Bread

Dessert 

Afghan Delights Platter:

Sugar covered almonds and chickpeas (noqul)

Afghan sweet bread with nigella seeds (roht Fred’s favorite)

Homemade cardamom almond brittle (khasta e shereen)

Firnee

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AFGHAN COOKING 101

By Humaira

During my nine years of non-profit work in Afghanistan I have had the great fortune of meeting a myriad of amazing people one of whom happens to be our guest blogger, Stetson Sanders. I met Stetson in March of 2011 in the province of Ghazni and I was blown away by his dedication, hard work and respect for the Afghan people. When he returned home to Sacramento I wanted to have a dinner party for him. Instead, Stetson asked if we for a cooking session instead. As my Afghan reader know, we Afghans never allow our guests to even lift a plate let alone allow them in preparing a meal. However, I put my old fashioned hospitality behind and decided to do a cooking session just as my guest had requested.

By guest blogger: Stetson Sanders

I recently had the pleasure of spending 15 months living and working in provincial Afghanistan. Of all the adventures and excitement, the opportunity to enjoy and learn about Afghan cuisine was one of the highlights. There wasn't always a lot of variety to the food, but the fresh vegetables (cucumbers, tomatoes and assorted greens), and mouth-watering fruit (humongous and delicious watermelons) were always a treat. I found the main courses (palau and sabzi) to be filling but always fantastic and served with pride.  My favorite dishes were shola a kind of a risotto dish made with meat.  I had never heard of shola before Afghanistan. Mantoo is a meat dumpling mostly served at celebrations or events where were honored guests.  I have tried a similar dish in Central Asia; I found Tajiks and even Russians reluctantly attribute this dish to Uzbeks.

Stetson&HGcooking

After returning home from my assignment, I had the great fortune to join Humaira at her lovely home for a cooking session!  I'm not much of a cook and probably mostly a liability in the kitchen, so she designed a pretty straightforward menu (see below) for a novice cook like me. I was joined by a friend who is much more adept in the kitchen so she did all the heavy lifting.

All of the cooking was greatly aided by Humaira's prep work and equipment (food processor, etc.), which minimized the preparation that we had to do.   We started by preparing the sabzi, (braised spinach) which was pretty straightforward and turned out to be delicious!  Next, we used wonton dough to make aushak. Aushak is basically a dumpling filled with sautéed green onion then boiled for a few minutes. They are delicate so we had to be very fast on our feet when it came to removing the aushak from the water.  Aushak is served on a flat platter lightly coated with a garlic yogurt mixture, finished off with a generous amount of kofta a meat sauce. 

The final dish was kadoo made with winter squah. I only had kadoo once or twice in Afghanistan but over there they use pumpkin which is called kadoo in Dari. To end the evening, we enjoyed falooda, a homemade rosewater-infused ice cream on a bed of crushed ice and glass noodles, topped with chopped pistachios.  It might be attributable to the lack of cold storage capacity and limited electricity in rural Afghanistan, but I seldom ate desert.  My local counterparts usually finished meals with an apple, banana, or orange, so this was a nice introduction to a new treat that was light, but also sweet and satisfying.

The whole evening was fun, interesting, and empowering, as I now feel that I could prepare that meal for friends or family. Thanks, Humaira-jaan, for letting us in to you home...and to both Eva and Humaira for being patient while I learned the basics in an American kitchen!

StesonDinnerTable

Delicious spread

Afghan Cooking 101

Menu

Aushak, Afghan Dumplings

Sabzi, Braised Spinach

Kadoo, Slow Cooked Squash with Yogurt Sauce

Challaw, Afghan Baked White Rice

Salata

Dessert:

Falooda, Afghan Sundaes

StesonCookingFalloda

Falooda was the perfect ending to a wonderful meal

Recipes are on this blog, just follow the links

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PLANNING AN AFGHAN DINNER PARTY

By Katie

With the season of celebrations officially in full swing, I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about dinner parties.  Putting out a delicious spread of food isn’t just about cooking, it’s also about the tricky job of knowing what combination of dishes makes sense.  You must consider the flavors, textures, colors, richness and seasonality of all the various food in order to achieve balance on the plate.  I find it helpful to settle on a theme when it comes to pulling together a menu.  It can be a loose concept, say, “casual comfort food” or “Mediterranean appetizers”, or as is often true in my case, “Afghan”. 

A few months back, Humaira and I hosted an Afghan dinner party for 10 that was part of a fundraising effort for our childrens’ school.  Pulling together the menu took some forethought and more than a few emails back and forth to nail down just the right meal for the crowd, the season and the amount of time we wanted commit.   Here is what we ultimately came up with:

Appetizers

Spiced Cashews

Spicy Afghan Chickpeas

Luscious Layered Eggplant with Pita Toasts

Dinner

Tomato, Cucumber and Cilantro Salad

Braised Spinach with Lemon and Dill

Tender Lamb Kebab with Cinnamon

Chicken and Caramelized Carrot Palau

Fresh Nan

Dessert

Afghan Sundae

Coffee

Cardamom Almond Brittle

We divvied up the various dishes, each taking on a handful of responsibilities, and the meal went off without a hitch.  Plus, it was fun to do together.   You can access recipes for most of the menu by clicking on the dish.  Humaira will post the recipe for Chicken Palau next week.  It’s the perfect sort of thing to serve to a crowd for end-of-year celebrations.  Afghan-themed New Year’s Eve, anyone?   

Happy Holidays.

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