Bowl full of lamb and tomato stew

Karahi Lamb (Karahi Gosht)

Karahi lamb, like my Karahi Chicken recipe, are stews partially named for the pot they’re cooked in ~ a karahi (or kadai) (link) ~ which is something between a wok and a dutch oven or chef’s pot. There are probably…

Meat and vegetable soup

Afghan Showra-E-Tarkari (Meat and Vegetable Soup)

So, “shorwa” is “soup” in Pashto. In other Arabic regions, shorba, sharba, chorba, etc. “Takari” more or less means “greens”, but contextually vegetables.  And this one has a little bit of everything, with a hearty feel that doesn’t sit too…

Bowl of Djibouti Skoudehkaris lamb and rice

Skoudehkaris (Djibouti Lamb and Rice)

Yay! Another one-pot meal. This one’s from Djibouti, a small country right where the Gulf of Aden meets the Red Sea. It was a French colony by treaty from 1883-1977, so there’s a fair amount of influence on the food. …

Libyan green peppers stuffed with lamb, rice, and tomatoes

Lybian Mahshi (Stuffed Vegetables)

So “mahshi” means “stuffed” in Arabic. You can stuff a lot of vegetables like zucchini or eggplant if you really want to. I don’t want to, so I’m sticking with green peppers. At 48, I’m allowed to make these choices….

Keema Matar Curry

Sharba (Libyan Soup)

More home cookin’, Libyan style. This soup is lamb, chickpeas, and orzo on a tomato base. The main seasoning is ‘bzaar’, whose flavor has some nice high aromas without smothering the ingredients, and is accented by fresh cilantro and mint….

Sabzi Chalau

Afghan Sabzi Chalau with Lamb (stew)

So, the Afghan sabzi chalau is another one of those sort of ‘generic’ names for dishes, in that it literally means “spinach and rice”. This variant is on the stove top, but some are in the oven, with (or without)…

Afgha Dumplings

Afghani Dumplings (Aushak)

This is almost a universal recipe based on my pokings (everyone does more or less the same thing), and basically consists of dumplings, a yogurt sauce, and a meat sauce. It can take anywhere from 1-3 hours to do*, but…

Kofta Kebabs with roasted vegetables and naan

Kofta Kebabs

…well, mostly anyway.  To date, I haven’t been able to keep them on the sticks.  I think it’s a combination of not kneading the meat mix enough and not waiting  long enough before turning.  Fortunately this makes for nice finger-food…