Common Available Ingredients in Afghanistan

I have been a bit frustrated with the everyday food here in Afghanistan, it seems to be an ongoing problem in many of the countries I have worked in (most notably Moldova [eastern Europe in general] and Kenya). I have been accused of being a bit finicky about the food I eat (if you call not wanting Rice garnished with Potatoes and a side of bread, or pressure cooker cooked cauliflower [mush] with oil and bread being finicky). Where I work/live (a normal setup for NGO life in Afghanistan) has a *very* basic kitchen (with questionable sanitation) and our breakfast/dinner cook is also the guard and the lunch cook doesn’t appear to be much more imaginative than the guard when preparing food.

As a result I have been trying to cook for myself and sometimes for the others staying here which has been quite a bit of a challenge between the rudimentary kitchen, limited ingredients, and many of the staff’s aversion to variety and vegtables. I thought I’d post on a cooking forum to see if anyone knew of a website that could give suggestions on recipes based on a list of ingredients. It turns out that there were some sites but one person also suggested I post available ingredients and they would brainstorm about it. I got a bit carried away with my response to them and thought it might make a good post on my blog so here it is:

Different foods are in season at different times but here is a run down of some of the foods available. It should be noted that an oven is not an option here and refrigeration is iffy so preparing large portions or baking (unless there is a trick I don’t know about, quite possible) are not really options here.

Cooking utensils are also sparse. Fortunately I am a (steel) wok kinda guy which is not hard to find here, I brought my own cutting board and “French chef” and paring knives which are the “must haves” for me. We have very large pots, some very large bowls, and that’s about it asides from a few plates, tons of soup bowls, forks and spoons. While I am sure they can be found at one of the expat stores where I am. Even at the expats stores finding things like thermometers, copper plated pans, whisk (usually use a fork), and even measuring things (cups, spoons) is usually difficult.
* Potatoes (lots of em)
* Okra
* Cauliflower
* Flatbread (ok, its not an ingredient but I found it makes a reasonable pseudo pizza crust)
* Something like cream cheese (not quite but close)
* Feta cheese (Iranian but quite cheap here)
* Rice, lots of rice (they are really big on starches here, its not uncommon to get a meal that consists of potatoes, rice, and bread).
* Pomegranates
* Mini-lemons. Tiny lemons, I thought they were funny at first but half of one of these lemons is perfect for sweet iced tea (which doesn’t happen here [strictly hot black or green tea] so I usually make it myself).
* Carrots
* Cabbage
* Beef (chunks and ground, they don’t really make a distinction between different cuts of meat here)
* Sheep
* Goat
* Chicken (kinda expensive here)
* Tomatoes (lots)
* Onion (lots)
* Eggs
* Black Pepper
* Red Pepper
* Curry
* Cumin (they only use it for rice here but I use it in chili)
* Beans (usually red)
* Chickpeas (I’ve been tempted to try hummus though I’ve never made it w/o a food processor before)
* Cucumbers
* Pasta
* A nut that is similar to pine nuts (but isn’t)(I’ve thought about trying to make pesto but haven’t tried yet)
* Dill
* Vegetable oil (usually sunflower)
* Sheep fat (just thought I’d throw that in. I like sheep and back home people occasionally cook with fat back [and I occasionally eat it when my heart/waistline are feeling up to it, can be quite tasty] so since pork is taboo here and they have a breed of sheep that has big fat deposits I thought I’d try cooking something with sheep fat… every time so far has been a mistake)
* Yogurt, not like Dannon brand yogurt you find in stores in the US, usually not as sour.

I can find lots of other ingredients here but usually that requires paying a ridiculous price, going to the stores for foreigners, or both: Things like mushrooms (always canned), bean sprouts, salami, green peppers, lettuce, and lots of other things I can’t think of at the moment.


The kind of things I have made that my (afghan) colleagues will eat (which really narrows it down) and I am not ashamed of making are:
* Omelets (kinda a pain for crowds but tolerable for 2-3 people)
* Quasi Italian/American Spaghetti
* Chili
* Beef stroganoff
* Semi-Spicy French fries (or chips depending on where you are coming from)

I have made some chef salads and quasi Greek/Russian salads as well but those didn’t go over very well here. I have also made various stir-frys which I thought wasn’t half bad but also was not well received. Another thing i attempted was a semi pizza but that didn't seem to work too well as i had to make it kind of like a grilled cheese in a pan (since i don't have an oven). I have also made grilled cheese (mixed in with some onion, wee bit of feta and mozzarella and sliced bread [the last two being very expensive here]. I just got my hands on some corn meal and it is okra season now so I will probably try fried okra which I think will go over well.

Things I have learned that Afghans don’t like (there are always exceptions) are lots of vegetables and spices. A few veggies and a smattering of spice is ok but if you start going Thai/Indian spicy/vegan on them they won’t touch it.

Ok, that’s about all I can think of at the moment any thoughts suggestions would really be appreciated!

Cheers

-Gaiko

Not so spicy spices

Not so spicy spices
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This was at the “restaurant” in Band-i Amir the first encounter I can recall with food condiments. I have since learned that Afghan’s (as a rule though there are plenty of exceptions) don’t particularly care for spicy stuff though the food (from the good cooks) here is not as devoid of taste/flavor as it was in parts of Eastern Europe. We were served boiled eggs, nan (afghan flat bread), tea, and if requested “Happy Cake” (a Iranian “Little Debbie” type company I guess) standard fare in Afghanistan (minus the cake). Not quite what I hoped for but I attempted to make do by garnishing my chunk of egg with some salt and pepper looking stuff. Since I like spicy stuff but not crave it I was fairly conservative in the amount of spice I used but once I tried the egg I discovered that whatever this spice was it was not particularly potent so I ended up drowning my egg in spice which, along with the happy cake and lots of tea (which when well with the happy cake) held me over for most of the day.

Watching the fishies…

Watching the fishies…
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Not much to say here. I was hiking up on a hill (more like a cliff), looked down, and noticed some Afghans (a steady stream of them) gawking at and feeding the fish. I guess feeding fish is a bit of a novelty here but I just found it amusing because later even some pretty old looking men came and tossed in a few scraps of nan (afghan flat bread).

Fishies!

Fishies!
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

These little guys are small enough that they don’t have to worry about being fished to death but that is the depressing part to me. These are in the Band-i Amir lake on of the natural wonders of Afghanistan located in the center of the country (one of the less accessible places I might add). It is still amusing to me that a land locked, dry country like Afghanistan would have such a taste for fish but they do, and as a result have (for the most part) depleted the edible supplies of fish in these chains of lakes (there is Band-I Amir, Band-I ??, and a few other Band-Is) yet another case of humans impact on delicate ecosystems. These little guys, I was told, aren’t particularly big and even less tasty so they have the run of the place. I do have to wonder though, how the hell any fish got into this lake, none of the tiny little streams that come from these lakes could (that I can imagine) traveled up and brining fish to this fairly isolated area would be no trivial task nowadays so before the days of cars (and 4 wheeled drive) it would seem to have been downright impossible.

Hay Grinder?

Hay Grinder?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Yup this is indeed a hay grinder (I have another picture of one that is a bit more colorful that I might post later if I find it) meant for, grinding up hay! It took me awhile to figure out what these things were for, I initially thought that maybe it was an old* corn chopper for making silage (they do have a lot of livestock here so it would kinda make sense) but now, most Afghans aren’t that far along enough yet (livestock nutrition is almost an afterthought at the moment). After seeing one of these things in action and then asking a few questions I found out that it is for grinding up hay (that is stalks from wheat, rye, and other grains). I had to ask, “What do you use gorund up hay for?” and apparently it is used in the mud stucco and mud bricks that you see everywhere here (some close up pictures of a wall made of their stucco later).

*I say “old” because most setups in the US now are a two in one deal where the corn is sucked up and ground up at the same time then spit out into a trailer of sorts but one of the farms I used to work on had some pretty antiquated machinery and one of them was a “chopper” (or so the boss called it) that we fed corn and corn stalks into and it chopped everything up and spit it out as unfermented silage.