Recipe Source: Saberi, Helen. Afghan Food & Cookery. Hippocrene Books, New York, 2000 pp. 84 - 6.
This is a recipe that completely failed to impress me until I tasted the finished product. I'm someone who likes to taste as she cooks. It's my quality control method. If something doesn't taste quite right I can fix it before it affects the flavor of the final dish. Well, I tasted the dough for the pasta. It was okay. Not exciting, but okay. I tasted the leeks. Again, okay. Not exciting. I tasted the sauce. Distinctly unexciting. But when I put everything together, all the different components combined to make a dish that honestly did knock my socks right off. Be warned, though: the raw garlic in the yogurt gives this dish an unexpected degree of heat that wasn't unpleasant to us, but might be a little jarring to others. Feel free to reduce the garlic.
I didn't make a whole lot of changes to this recipe, although there were some. I increased the amount of red pepper in the leeks. I also increased the garlic, and I substituted ground coriander for ground mint because my husband is allergic to mint. When it came to the sauce, I decreased the amount of oil. The author said that to be truly authentic it should be very oily, but neither my husband nor I would have been able to eat it that way. I also served all of the meat with the pasta, while normally you'd just sprinkle a bit on top and pass the rest of it on the side like in a traditional Italian-American gravy.
On a similar note: according to the author, many Afghans will substitute commercially available wonton wrappers for the homemade pasta. While pasta-making is messy and kind of a pain, I think it was definitely worth it in this dish. You should have seen my husband's eyes light up. "You're making your own?" he said in a voice bordering on adoration. And really, while it may seem a little intimidating to make the pasta yourself here, it really wasn't all that bad. It was actually kind of fun. You could get your kids into the act if you have them; they'd probably get a kick out of it. I know my nephew would. But if your hands or wrists or the size of your kitchen really won't allow you to roll out and make your own pasta by hand here, there is absolutely no shame in using store-bought wonton wrappers.
Ashak (serves 4; approx. $2.90/serving)
1 lb flour
4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb. finely chopped leeks
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
16 ounces Greek fat-free yogurt
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 cup tomato juice
Kosher salt and black pepper
Equipment:
- 2 large bowls
- Pint glass or biscuit cutter
- Rolling pin
- Large wok or saute pan
- Pot of boiling water (to cook the pasta)
- Sift the flour and 1 teaspoon salt into the bowl. Make a well in the center and add the egg and 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Slowly add 1/2 cup water. Knead thoroughly to form a smooth dough.
- Divide the dough into two balls, cover with a damp cloth and let sit 1 hour.
- Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in the wok. Add the onions and cook until golden, about 5 minutes.
- Add the meat. Cook until the meat is brown.
- Add the tomato juice, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer until the sauce is thick and oily. This should be between half and one hour.
- Meanwhile, make the filling. Combine the leeks, 1 teaspoon salt and the cayenne. Knead until the leeks begin to soften and add another tablespoon oil.
- Roll out one of the dough balls on a lightly floured surface to 1/16" or as close as you can get. (The author warns that thicker dough will be tough; I did not find this to be the case, even though my dough was far from perfectly thin.)
- Using the pint glass (or biscuit cutter, if you have such a thing), cut rounds of the dough out. Put 1 - 2 teaspoons of the leeks on one half of the round, then fold the other half on top of it and pinch closed.
- Repeat until you've used up all the dough. I will advise against re-rolling the scraps more than once; that does make the dough tough.
- Is your pasta water boiling? Good. Add the vinegar, 1 teaspoon salt and pasta to the pot and boil 8 - 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix the yogurt with the garlic and the last teaspoon of salt.
- Spread half the yogurt onto the bottom of your serving vessel.
- When the ravioli are done, use the slotted spoon to remove them and put them on top of the yogurt.
- Top with the rest of the yogurt and sprinkle with the ground coriander.
- Use the slotted spoon to evacuate the meat to the top of the yogurt. Serve and enjoy!