Afghani Lamb
Kourmet (like Gourmet with a K)
As Shamayel Kargar from Haret, Afghanistan, taught Lindsay Sterling in Falmouth, Maine, July 2011
Serves 6-8
Cooking time: 30min-1 hr
Active time: 20 minutes
4 yellow onions sliced into crescent moons
3 pounds deboned lamb shoulder or leg, cut into 3" chunks
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp Doordooah spice*
1/2 cup water
2 tsp salt
6 oz. (one small can) tomato paste
2 tomatoes
*Doordooah (pronounced Door Do Ah) Spice
1 tsp black cardamom
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
Blend all Doordooah spices in a spice blender (a.k.a. coffee grinder). This makes more than you'll need for the kourmet (that's the name of the dish you're cooking). Store in spice jar in spice cabinet for making kourmet again. Also try putting a tsp in when making chicken broth, and use that chicken broth as your liquid for cooking rice. Chicken soup with doordooah is supposed to be extra healing.
Back to the kourmet - cut onions into crescent moons and put in soup pot. (If you have a pressure cooker, see below for instructions). Wash lamb with cold water and put in pot. Wash cutting board, hands, and knife and anything else that touched raw meat with soapy water. Add oil, tumeric, Doordooah spice, salt, and one half cup water. Cover and cook on medium high until onions have disintegrated into a thick stew and the lamb is tender. This will take about an hour for lamb leg, longer for shoulder meat. Shave tomato into thin wedges (she did this in her hands with a paring knife over a bowl) and add tomato pieces to pot. Stir in tomato paste, cover and cook another 5 minutes more. She said you can also add cooked chickpeas and potato chunks here if you like, but we both liked the dish just meat and sauce. Serve w/out silverware using bread to scoop up bites. Flatbreads like Tandor, Nan and Iraqi bread would be closest to what's served in Afghanistan.
If you have a pressure cooker this is a great dish for it. It takes a quarter of the cooking time to cook. Use the same recipe as above only you don't need any extra water and decrease the cooking time of the lamb and onions to about 20 minutes. Cook on high. Lock pressure cooker lid. Be sure to let the steam out of pressure cooker through valve before opening the lid.
Where to get....
Lamb. Try to find local lamb - it's much better. We were delighted to use North Star lamb. I visited the farm on open farm day and saw beautiful pasture lands, happy sheep, and two very conscientious, experienced owners. www.nsfarms.com. Whole Foods Portland (and perhaps all over New England) sells North Star lamb in the fresh meat case. The Market at Pineland Farms (15 Farmview Dr., New Gloucester, Maine) sells it frozen.
Black Cardamom: Black cardamon and green cardamon are different. Black pods are much larger (larger than a nutmeg nut) and have an outright campfire smokey flavor to them, while green pods are smaller (a little bigger than a sunflower seed) warmer, with no smokey component at all. And the black ones are black and the green ones are green. Both have a very strong menthol smell. I have not ever seen black cardamon in what I'd call a "normal" supermarket. I'm sure you can get it online. Around here, I bet I'll find it at Masala Mahal (Southside Plaza, 798 Main Street Route 1, South Portland, Maine), Al Sindbad (710 Forest Ave. Suite #3, Portland, Maine), and/or Ahram Halal Grocery (630 Forest Ave, Portland, Maine).
Pressure Cooker: She got hers at Macy's for $99. If you make a lot of stews and meats and soups, it'll take off 3/4 of your cooking times and save the electricity or gas it takes run your stovetop. "It's green energy!" Shamayel says. We also joked about the pressure cooker keeping the lamb steam in - as opposed to dripping down your kitchen walls. Seriously, nice perk!
copyright Lindsay Sterling 2011
