Afghanistan - At the Table: Food and Family around the World - Ken Albala

At the Table: Food and Family around the World - Ken Albala (2016)

Afghanistan

Helen Saberi

Afghanistan is a landlocked country situated at the very heart of Asia, at the meeting place of four major cultural areas: the Middle East, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and the Far East. Afghanistan’s turbulent history is perhaps better known than that of its food and cooking. It is this history as well as the diversity of Afghanistan’s geography, climate, and ethnic groups that has given rise to a rich and varied food culture.

Although many people in Afghanistan are poor and their diet is generally very basic, most eat three meals a day, albeit often very simple food. Bread (nan) is the staple and is eaten with most meals. The midday meal (nan-e-chosht) usually consists of a main dish such as soup, noodles, or rice. The evening meal (nan-e-shab) might consist of leftovers from lunch, but for many families it is the main meal of the day, and as with the midday meal, dishes such as a soup, a pilau, or rice with korma will be prepared.

Ali and Rabia live in a small two-bed apartment in southwest Kabul. They have five children—two boys and three girls—ranging in age from 10 to 19 years. Ali works as a chauffeur. Rabia’s sister and two of her children are coming for dinner, so for this occasion a more elaborate dinner is prepared. Rabia decides to make mantu to be followed by ketcheree quroot and kofta. Mantu in Afghanistan is a sort of dumpling stuffed with chopped meat and onion, flavored with spices, and steamed. Variations of mantu are found in countries all along the Silk Road, from the steamed bread of China to the stuffed manti of Turkey. The mantu will be followed by ketcheree quroot, a sticky rice and lentil dish very similar to kichri, popular in India. It is served in a mound on a large platter. A hollow or well is made in the rice and then is filled with a yogurt sauce. Rabia will serve this with small meatballs (kofta) in a rich sauce, although some families make a meat korma to go with it. She will also make a salad (salata). Grapes from the north of Kabul will be served after the meal followed by tea.

Shopping used to be the responsibility of men, but recently this role has been taken on by women or children. Many women when they go out cover up under a full burka or chadri, as it is known locally. Rabia prefers to wear a chador, a sort of open cloak, or sometimes just a veil or scarf to cover her hair. Sometimes she takes one of her children shopping with her to help carry the purchases. To shop for the dinner, she sets off early in the morning to the local bazaar to buy fresh meat from the butcher for her meatballs. She buys lamb, which is the most popular meat for Afghans. At the same bazaar she also purchases onions and ingredients for a salad from a vegetable stall. Staples such as rice, flour, pulses, and cooking oil are normally bought in large quantities once a month and stored at home.

Albala

An Afghan family in Kabul, Afghanistan, eating their evening meal in the traditional style and sitting on cushions and sharing the food communally. (Courtesy of Nasir Saberi)

Preparation and cooking of many Afghan dishes can be laborious, and for this meal it will take about three hours even though she will be helped by her sister and one of her daughters. This is the time-honored way young girls learn how to cook from their mothers. Recipes and techniques are learned through practice and experience.

Rabia has a small basic kitchen. She, like many Afghans, does not have an oven. She cooks on a couple of burners fueled by bottled gas. Although refrigerators are still rare throughout the country and food is traditionally kept fresh and cool in a range of clay pots and containers, Rabia is lucky enough to have a small refrigerator.

Like most Afghans, she does not have sophisticated equipment such as an electric mixer but does have a range of pans in different sizes, some quite large, for cooking rice and a steamer for making mantu. She has a pressure cooker that speeds up the cooking of any meat that may be tough. She also has a hand mincer for mincing meat and onions. Families who do not own one get the butcher to perform this task. All Afghan homes have an awang (pestle and mortar), an essential piece of equipment for crushing garlic, onions, and herbs and for grinding spices. Most will also have a large slotted spoon called a kafgeer, used for stirring dishes and dishing up rice. Most families also have at least one colander for washing and draining vegetables and also for draining rice. They will also have a rolling pin (aush gaz) to roll out dough for noodle dishes such as mantu. Afghans rarely measure their ingredients, although they usually have a range of pots with handles called malaqa that are used as measuring aids, as are ordinary cups, glasses, and spoons.

Rabia starts preparing the meal by making in advance the meatballs to be served with the ketcheree quroot (see the recipe below). Meanwhile, her sister makes the yogurt sauce by reconstituting quroot. Quroot is dried yogurt made by adding salt to strained yogurt (called chaka), which is then dried and formed into round balls that harden and resemble grayish-white pebbles. For use in cooking, the quroot is reconstituted with water in a special bowl with a rough bottom surface called a taghora-e-qurooti. The yogurt is then flavored with plenty of crushed garlic.

Next, together with her sister and daughter, Rabia prepares the mantu. First of all she makes the dough with flour, water, and a little salt and kneads it until smooth and shiny. The dough is formed into balls and covered with a damp cloth for about an hour. The lamb meat is then cut up finely and mixed with finely chopped onions, chopped chilies, black pepper, cumin, and salt and all mixed together thoroughly.

Rabia rolls out the dough very thinly on a clean, lightly floured surface. Her sister cuts out four-inch (10-centimeter) squares, while her daughter places a spoonful of the chopped meat mixture into the center of the square and then deftly nips together the dough, not sealing completely so that the steam can penetrate and cook the filling. The shelves of the steamer are thoroughly greased to prevent the mantu from sticking. The mantu are then placed on the shelves, ready to be steamed later.

They then prepare the rice and mung beans for the ketcheree quroot and start cooking it. Meanwhile, Rabia’s daughter prepares a mixed salad of finely sliced onions with chopped cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, and fresh coriander and tosses it all with some salt and lemon juice. All the while the three of them chat and gossip about all sorts of things, such as marriage (the daughter has just gotten engaged) and about their dreams and aspirations.

The mantu is put on to steam for about an hour before serving. Meanwhile, one of the sons goes to the local bakery to buy fresh nan, as the family does not have its own tandoor for baking bread.

The traditional mode of eating in Afghanistan is on the floor, although in major cities some Afghans sit at a table, Western style. Everyone sits on large colorful cushions called toshak, with large pillows (bolesht) behind for support. Just before the food is ready to be served, one of the children lays out a large cloth or thin mat called a disterkhan (sometimes called a sofreh) on the carpet. Hands are washed before eating. Sometimes especially for guests, a special jug and bowl called haftawa-wa-lagan is brought. Water is poured from the jug over the hands, the bowl being used to catch the water. Rabia and her family wear their ordinary day clothes for family meals. The boys wear jeans and T-shirts, and the girls and women a dress over long trousers. Sometimes they wear a veil covering their hair if there are male guests present. Shoes are not worn. Indeed, shoes are taken off when entering the flat. Sometimes slippers or socks may be worn, especially during the cold winter months. No one changes for dinner unless it is a special occasion and there are many guests, in which case everyone wears their best clothes.

Eating on the Floor

In many cultures, especially in the Middle East and India, people eat seated on the floor on a rug. The food might also be placed on the floor and eaten from common trays or might be served at a squat table as in Japan, where people kneel on tatami mats. It takes a lot of practice, and Westerners often find it difficult to sit and eat without getting fidgety or having their legs fall asleep. In some places the men will eat first, and then the women and children eat afterward. These varieties in practices are merely a useful reminder that eating at a table is very much a modern Western phenomenon, though it is spreading around the world.

All the dishes are served at the same time. There is no formal sequence of courses, although any dessert or fresh fruit will usually be eaten after the savory dishes. Many Afghans share the food communally. Three or four people eat from one large platter of rice with smaller side dishes of korma, salad, chutneys, pickles, and so on, but Rabia and her family prefer to eat off their own individual plates. Bread is passed around for everyone to tear off a piece.

Guests are offered food first. If the father is present he will then take his food, followed by his wife and children. Guests are encouraged to take second helpings. In some large extended families in Afghanistan the men sometimes eat separately from the women and children, who eat when the men have finished.

The traditional way of eating for most Afghans is with the right hand using no cutlery, but many people do use a spoon and sometimes a fork. Bread (either nan or chapatti) is used by many instead to scoop up food, which is then popped into the mouth. Rice is scooped up with the right hand and formed dexterously into a small ball, which is then popped into the mouth. Spoons are used for eating soups and some desserts such as firni, and teaspoons are used for stirring tea. Rabia and her family sometimes eat with their hands, but when there are guests they eat with a spoon.

Most people in Afghanistan are very poor, so any kind of cutlery, crockery, pots, and pans are treasured items. Today most of these articles are mass-produced, and most come from China. Paper serviettes or napkins are sometimes used, especially for guests, but in many households, including Rabia’s, a box of tissues is placed on the disterkhan for people to help themselves and wipe their hands and mouths as necessary.

Everyone is polite when sitting and eating, even the children, although young children sometimes fidget and play with their food. They are usually tolerated, even by the father if he is present. They are often so hungry that they will just get on with eating anything they are given, but believe it or not, even in Afghanistan some young children are picky and have to be coaxed into eating. Sometimes they get bored, especially if they have finished eating, and leave the table. Some even fall asleep while eating, as dinner is sometimes served late. Rabia and her family at the meal talk a lot. They talk about the children and their studies, problems, and the news of the day, especially about politics. At this meal the talk centered around the small kiosk the boys have bought for selling phone cards, cigarettes, bottled water, and so on. Rabia and her family have a TV but do not watch it while eating their meals, nor do they talk or play on their mobile phones. Should someone call, however, the phone will be answered.

The family does not have any pets, and their flat, by Western standards, is quite bare. In the room where they eat there is no furniture nor are there pictures on the walls, but they do have a traditional Afghan carpet on the floor and cushions to sit on. Most families in Afghanistan do not have lamps or lampshades, just bare lightbulbs for lighting (when they have electricity, that is). Electricity is not available 24 hours a day, so eating meals has to be finely timed to fit in with this. Sometimes the electricity goes off suddenly and unexpectedly, and candles will be lit.

Often, especially if there are guests, some snacks are served before the food. A bowl of nuts such as almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, and pistachios and dried fruits such as red and green raisins might be provided. Other predinner popular snacks are roasted chickpeas and a snack called seemian (sev in India). Seemian are small pieces of crunchy noodles made from chickpea flour paste, which is seasoned with turmeric and red pepper before being deep-fried in oil.

When the food is ready Rabia, her sister, and her daughter will dish up the food in the kitchen. Although all the dishes are placed on the disterkhan at the same time, traditionally mantu is eaten first as an appetizer. Rabia is serving her mantu with yogurt and a sprinkling of fresh coriander, although some families serve it with a carrot korma or a tomato sauce. It is the most traditional of all Uzbek dishes popular all over Afghanistan, especially for guests and special occasions such as engagements and weddings.

After the mantu everyone will have some ketcheree quroot and kofta with some salad on the side.

Desserts are a luxury and are usually only made for special occasions, such as feast days and parties. However, fresh fruit in season is served at the end of every meal. In the winter oranges and bananas are available, but in the summer and autumn the variety of fruit is staggering—cherries, pomegranates, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, melons, watermelon, and grapes. There are many varieties of grapes grown all over Afghanistan, and for this meal a friend gave Rabia four different kinds of grapes from his land in Deh Sabz (often called the “Vineyard of Kabul”) just north of Kabul. He sent small, sweet white ones called kishmishi; round, green plump ones called ghola don;long, very sweet green ones called Husseini; and oval reddish-purple ones called Kandahari.

No alcohol is served. Afghanistan is a Muslim country, and the dietary laws forbid the consumption of alcohol. Rabia and her family drink bottled water poured into glasses with their meal. Fizzy drinks such as locally produced Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite are only served for very special occasions.

When everyone has finished eating, the plates, glasses, etc., are cleared away by the two daughters. Leftovers are put in the fridge to be eaten the following day. They also make the tea. They make green tea (although sometimes they make black tea). The tea is made in a teapot and poured into little glasses called istekhan. They sprinkle the tea with a little bit of ground cardamom, as this is considered to aid digestion. Sugar is provided for those who want it. Some people soak sugar cubes (called qand) in the hot tea, then hold the cubes in their mouth while sipping the hot tea. Milk is not added. Recently a new trend of tea drinking has emerged. Saffron has always been used to color and flavor many desserts in Afghanistan, but now tea is sometimes flavored with this exotic spice for special occasions. Farmers are being encouraged to cultivate saffron instead of poppies. This has brought down the price of saffron, which used to be imported from Iran and was very expensive.

When everyone has finished drinking their tea, the two daughters clear away the tea dishes and ingredients. They wipe the disterkhan with a damp cloth and fold it up, ready for use the next day. Together they do the washing up in the kitchen while the others continue chatting or watch TV.

Ketcheree Quroot

Serves 4

Many Afghans, for quickness, often substitute strained yogurt, as in this recipe.

For the rice:

1 cup (8 oz.) short grain rice

¼ cup mung beans (or green split peas)

salt

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1¾ cup strained yogurt

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 teaspoons dried mint

red pepper

For the meatballs:

1 pound minced beef or lamb

1 medium onion, minced or ground

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 egg

2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon garam masala

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

For the sauce:

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon tomato puree

water

salt

red or black pepper

1.Wash the rice and mung beans. Boil the latter in plenty of water until soft, then add the rice and enough water to cover by about 2 inches.

2.Add the oil and a teaspoonful of salt; stir; bring to a boil; cover with a lid, slightly ajar; and cook gently over a medium-low heat until the rice is soft and the water has evaporated (about ½ to 1 hour). Turn the heat to low and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes, stirring from time to time. The rice should have a thick, sticky consistency.

3.While the rice is cooking, prepare the meatballs and sauce. Combine and mix together all the ingredients for the meatballs and knead the mixture with the hands until it becomes smooth and sticky. It is essential that the mixture should be really well mixed and kneaded to give the meatballs their characteristic smooth texture and also to prevent them from breaking up while being cooked.

4.Shape into balls about 1-2 inches in diameter. It is best to use wet hands to form the balls into smooth shapes by dipping them from time to time into a little salted water. Some Afghans use egg white to smooth the balls into shape. This also helps prevent the meatballs from breaking up.

5.To make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan over a medium to high heat.

6.Add the chopped onions and fry, stirring continuously until they are reddish-brown.

7.Add the tomato puree and stir and fry briskly until the sauce turns brownish. Stir in a little water. Add salt and pepper according to taste.

8.Bring to the boiling point and then add the meatballs, one at a time, in a single layer. Add more water as necessary to just cover the meatballs.

9.Now cover with a lid, leaving it slightly ajar. Turn down the heat to low and simmer gently for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the meatballs and sauce are brown and the sauce is thick.

10.Combine the strained yogurt with the garlic, a little salt, and red pepper to taste.

11.When all is ready, mound the rice on a large dish and shape it with the back of a spoon. Make a well in the top and fill this with the strained yogurt, reserving some to serve separately. A little of the sauce from the meatballs can be spooned over the rice. Finally, sprinkle with dried mint, and serve the meatballs with their sauce separately.

FURTHER READING

Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973.

Richards, Caroline, and Juls Stewart, comps. Afghanistan Revealed. London: Frontline Books, 2013.

Saberi, Helen. Afghan Food and Cookery. New York: Hippocrene, 2000.