I still really like the idea of cooking the world. Getting waylaid by the broken foot put a damper on the idea and then I just got distracted by other things. So I'm trying again. Since my random globe trot lacked focus, I decided to start at the beginning with Afghanistan. Mostly. By that I mean, there was a little move away from 100% authenticity but I'm ok with that.
The bread and the meat portion of the meal were from Flatbreads & Flavours, a book I've had for many, many, many years and rarely cooked from.
The bread ... Afghan Home-Style Naan was very good. It tasted like most whole wheat flatbreads so wouldn't say it distinguished itself in any way. But it was good. And looked fancy with the cuts in the centre of the dough. The downside ... there were sesame seeds everywhere and, despite best efforts to clean them up, I'm confident we'll be finding them around the kitchen for a while yet.
The chicken ... Chicken Street Kebabs with Mint and Yogurt Sauce. Very tasty. One of the things that kick started me back into this project was that a number of recipes I was finding in various cusines made use of the grill. Since warmer weather is here, somewhat, the grill is getting a good workout and I'm always looking for ideas that depart from the same old tried and true recipes.
Finally, I turned to Global Table Adventure (which I don't want to copy in this project but am going to use as a resource and possible source of some ideas ... why let all of her hard work go to waste!), for Burani Bonjon, or Spicy Braised Eggplant, a very tasty eggplant and tomato combination. While I enjoyed the whole meal, I would have to say that this was my favourite part.
At this point, a little bit of cheating happened in my Afghan menu. At around 5, I got worried that I didn't have enough food. Since our friends were arriving at 6:30, I didn't have a lot of time to research another recipe and get to the store to buy the ingredients. So honey roasted carrots came to the rescue. I rationalized that carrots and honey are part of cuisines the world over and found both in google searches of Afghan recipes. Also, for dessert, I couldn't pass up the fact the rhubarb is in season, is sprouting in my garden and grows in Afghanistan. So Rhubarb Crisp it was!
So while not 100% authentic, most of the meal was as close to "real" as possible. It tasted great and I'll be making both the chicken and the eggplant again.
