Afghan Spinach Recipe?

[DianeR]

I went to an Afghan restaurant the other night and had spinach over rice. Nothing fancy, but the spinach was about the best I've ever tasted.

I have searched and searched, but I can't find any recipe like this on the internet. (Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the dish). There is nothing identifiable in it other than spinach, which eliminates all the Afghan spinach recipes I could find. I have repeatedly run across a simple one with yogurt in it, but what I had definitely didn't have that.

I know it had garlic in it, but some other seasoning was making it so good. I hope it wasn't oil

[groundhogg]

We'll have to try to find the time today to pull up Afghan restaurants' menus on the net and see if we can figure out the name of it...then come up with recipes.

I know some people from Pakistan...wonder if they would know of such a dish, or similar one?

[groundhogg]

Could it have been called Zamarud Pilau, ya think?

Here is a link to a recipe...calls for chicken, I think (I didn't really look at it yet, but will as soon as I get the time...)...but somebody could substitute something else for that...chick*n-style seasoning from Healing Heart site...and possibly either just leave out anything in place of the chicken or put in tofu or shiitake mushrooms...I'm gonna look at this recipe later...hmmm ...could this be supper tonight at the Groudnhog(g)s?

http://fairtradecookbook.org.uk/recipes ... _pilau.htm

[DianeR]

That name doesn't ring a bell and the stuff I had contained no visible onions or leeks. However, this recipe does look good. Interesting seasoning combo -- I wonder if this was what I had? Worth trying, certainly.

The restaurant I went to doesn't have a web presence. Looking at the menus of those that do, I think the name was sabzi (sabzee) chalow (challow). Only it seems the two words just mean spinach and rice. I've found some recipes but they differ. One calls for preserved lemon and a couple call for different kinds of beans -- definitely not what I had. I've seen on menus references to "herbs" and "Afghan seasoning," not very useful.

I think I'll try the seasoning from the recipe you found and see how that goes. Or the next time I go to this restaurant I'll try to get them to 'fess up what seasoning they use!

If all else fails, I have a good excuse not to cook and to go out to eat ...

Thanks for searching. You're a furry little sweetheart

[groundhogg]

Since it's written in "European," I did a little groundhog(g) figgerin' to try to make American sense outta that recipe...

Here are some thoguhts...it says 300 gms of rice...1 cup of rice is approx. 240 grams.

10 ml ground coriander was mentioned...I come up with =2 tsps.

As to their masala recipe they link to...
3 cm stick of cinnamon...I get 1/2 tsp. if you use ground

15 ml both whole cloves and cumin seeds...I get 1 Tablespoon equvalent...

Also...I will grind the cumin seeds (or use already ground if I'm in a big hurry and starving)...and if you translated the cloves into ground...I'd GUESS (big fat groundhog(g) GUESS 1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves). As to the whole cardamom pods...I'd guess if you used ground that would be equivalent to 3/4 tsp. ground cardamom.

Then you put this all together to make the masala, and then use 10 ml, or 2 tsps. of that stuff in the spinach recipe.

Did that cover all the European measures????? Oh, one more thing...they had gasmark 5, didn't they? I think that's 375 F degrees.

I don't think I'd bake the thing I plan to try from this idea...i think I'd make the rice and saute the onions in water with the spices and then throw in the spinach with that and maybe throw in either mushrooms, tofu (dont' think I have any on hand...so probaby not) or shiitake mushrooms...oh did I already say that///?? I meant, maybe cauliflower or something liek that...not sure.

I'll have to think about this idea and see if I can make it work.

Okay...'nuff thinkin' aloud here

[DianeR]

OK -- I'll let you experiment and let me know how it goes!

[groundhogg]

How i murdered this recipe just a few minutes ago

I wouldn't have tried this except that groundhubby works late on Wednesdays, so I'm responsible only for feeding myself (and critters!)...

I cooked one cup of rice in the usual way.

Chopped up two onions and sauted them in a little water with 1 TBSP. chick*n-style seasoning, 2 tsps. ground coriander, 2 TBSPS. lemon juice, and 2 tsps. of the masala (which I made from 1 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsps. ground cloves, 2 tsps. ground cumin, and 3/4 tsp. ground caradmom).

I added a 10 oz. box of frozen spinach,

added 1 tsp. kosher salt, 1/2 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper, and 1/2 tsp. dried red pepper.

I didn't have leeks, and the recipe I pulled off the net, which wasn't what you had eaten, but anyway, just something I found...called for chick*n, which of course I wouldn't have and don't want...so i didn't have tofu to sub for that and decided a can of chickpeas would suffice.

Okay...I put this stuff over the cooked rice...now...the horribly scary part is that I didn't know what I thought of it as I ate it...this is usually a BAD sign and when it happens, I normally never make that dish again ( I think most of us McDougallers have been there/done that a few times before )...but I thought this was different...I MIGHT make this idea, but different.

I've eaten lots of Ethiopian food, known across the continent of Africa as the best African food...and arguably the best or close to the best tasting food in the world...and I know this was supposedly based on some Afghan recipe...I mean according to the web site I got the basic ideas from...but it really tasted decidedly Ethiopian to me...which made it taste WRONG with rice...I mean, I wanted to wrap this stuff in Injera bread...a flat bread made of teff flour in Ethiopian cooking. And, the other wrong thing to me with this recipe I murdered tonight which wasn't anything like what you had and I just stumbled onto on the web , was that the greens seemed to have should have been collard greens...and I noticed that I really do think I've had something very similar to this made with collard greens and eaten with injera bread at Ethiopian restuarants. Whenever I've looked THAT particular Ethiopian recipe up on the web (can't remember the name of that now), I came up with stuff that just dind't taste anywhere near the collard greens in the Ethiopian restuarants. So...well ...maybe I've stumbled onto something similar enough to the Ethiopian collard greens in my efforts to find something from Afghanistan that wasn't anywhere near what you had , that I could use this for that... , except that my attempts to make the Ethiopian injera bread companion to the Ethiopian collard greens have been nothing better than garbage can material in the past...and I FEAR trying THAT again .

So...there ya go . If you decide to try THIS particular stuff...I say...not really worth the effort, at least not THIS way that the groundhog(g) (g)garbled it up. But it does give me hope of future successes with Ehtiopian syle stuff, however twisted and desultory this thinking might seem .

As far as Afghanistan goes...I guess this just isn't close to what you had and thus groundhog(g) has at least ruled out something(g), among(g) the possible 65,000 or so hits you might run across on the net if you ever get the notion to go lookin' for it . Whew!

[DianeR]

Sorry for your experience.

Yes, I love Ethiopean collard greens too. Another recipe I want to figure out sometime.

Perhaps I need to go to the Borders and find some ethnic cookbooks and see what I can find. My favorite greens recipes seem to be at restaurants (Thai watercress, Ethiopean collards, Afghan spinach).

[groundhogg]

I need to find someone from each of these countries and get them into my kitchen for a big lesson!!!!

I've gotten ethnic recipes off the web, bought books, but the real "secrets" are never in there.

I went through this with Indian food until I managed to squeeze out a few essentials from some people from India...then i got much better at cooking SOME Indian foods.

It's all a big, closely guarded secret...making this yummy stuff !

[DianeR]

I hope the "essentials" of Indian cooking don't involve ghee ... I've seen the stuff in Whole Foods. Looks disgusting!

I have a low fat Indian cookbook, but nothing tastes like it does in restaurants. I also have a comprehensive, thick Indian vegetarian cookbook, but I never make anything from it because the recipes all seem far from low fat

[groundhogg]

I have a veggie curry recipe and an aloo choley recipe that I sort of adapted after talking with some of groundhoggie's friends from India.

Those taste authentic...I did have to substitute something for the yogurt that they said was essential. I have used everything from plain soy yogurt (hard to find in my area...they have the fruit ones, but not the plain soy yogurt too much ), to coconut milk (which I LOVE , but most McDougallers don't want to use coconut milk, even though it's fat in its whole form, not like oils, still, understandably, most McDougallers are also trying to control even whole fats) and have even used soy or almond milk subs that I thickened up with cornstarch and added a little vinegar to give the yogurt taste. Other than the issue of substituting the yogurt, which isn't a big part of the thing anywya, these two recipes taste pretty authentic to me.

The ones I've made from books or the internet just don't jive the way they should. I'm convinced there are culinary secrets the rest of the world is keeping hidden from us Westerners .

by the way...I packed my lunch this morning and included the spinach / chickpea over rice stuff i made last night...decided to lick the spoon out of curiosity (really hurt the doggie's feelings...normally spoon-licking is HIS domain ) and was surprised it tasted much better to me this morning than it did last night ...so I'm curious as to how I'll like it with lunch later on today .

[DianeR]

Oooh, have you ever posted those two recipes? Sounds yummy ... or were you sworn to secrecy before they would impart the true knowledge?

Plain soy yogurt seems to be a sometimes thing for availability around here. I swear, everytime I go to Whole Foods I discover something else they used to have is no longer there.

I like coconut milk, but I use the reduced fat stuff. I have a recipe for coconut ginger rice using it and ginger root -- it is great. I haven't tried to make mango sticky rice. I seem to have a complete inability to tell when mangoes are ripe and I also end up with a pulpy mess when I try to cut them. It doesn't matter how many explanations I've read of the process. Oh well ... I probably don't want to know the stats on the sticky rice And if I made it at home hubby and I would eat the entire batch, rather than the bit you get on the dessert plate at a restaurant.