National Dish Night - Now with a date!

General
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Hi, hopefully it’s okay I made another post about a previously posted topic. I just didn’t want the date to get lost in the previous thread.
SO! I’m thinking Saturday July 20th I’ll hold the first National Dish Night starting at 1pm.

First country on the list is Afghanistan! Their national dish is Qabuli Pulao. It’s a really tasty rice baked rice dish cooked with meat, raisins and carrots. This is one of the National Dishes I’ve actually made when we attempted the list first time around.

http://www.afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe/qabuli-pulao-rice-pilaf-with-meat-raisin-carrots/
This is the recipe I used in the past. It calls for a shoulder of lamb, but I previously grabbed some chunks of lamb from Findlay Market and that worked great. Alternatively, beef can be used.

If anyone wants to volunteer to grab some of the ingredients, that would be lovely. If not, I can do so. I’ll at least take care of the basmati rice, since it has to soak overnight. Depending on how much interest there is, I may double the recipe. Obviously we want enough for everyone to have some. It may be a good idea to bring some containers for potential leftovers as well.

Afghanistan doesn’t have a national liquor, but they do have some interesting drinks! One not listed on the website below is Doogh; which is yogurt + water + mint. It would be fun to whip up one of these to accompany our meal.
http://www.afghankitchenrecipes.com/recipe-type/drinks/

Hope to see you there!

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Count me in!

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Mt. Olive Market on short vine has phenomenal lamb for peanuts. Halal butcher, slaughters animals Friday morning ~5am.
-Dave

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I'll have to check them out!

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This is Saturday, July 20th at 1 pm!
I think I’m going to change the name of this to Cooking the World, since it is not at night like my first thought haha.
Anyways. I have most of the ingredients already, the things still needed are:

  • 2 lb lamb leg/shoulder (alternatively, we can use beef)
  • 1 cup raisins

If we’re interested in making Doogh, the cucumber/mint yogurt drink that’s popular in Afghanistan (https://www.cookwithmanali.com/dough-afghan-yogurt-drink/), the only thing needed for that would be

  • 3.5 cups of whole milk yogurt.
  • 1/2 tsp black salt

I’d also like to get a head count by Thursday July 18th so I know if I need to up the ingredients at all.

Looking forward to seeing you there

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I am RSVPing for three. Myself, Kate (my wife), Sophia (13). We all love to cook and are all adventurous eaters. Let me know if I can bring anything. I could probably source the lamb and I have black salt (that is the stuff that is pink and tastes sulfury, right?) I could probably get all the remaining ingredients for that matter…

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Great! Sounds like we should be all set then! I'm excited that your family is participating!

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Yay! As I mentioned above I will bring the additional stuff you requested:

2 lbs lamb leg/shoulder
1 cup raisins
3.5 cups whole milk yogurt
1/2 tsp black salt (I think we still have this at home)

Should the lamb be whole, cubed, ground? I’m thinking I can get all of this at Findlay Market on Saturday morning. Between Kroeger & Sons Meats and Dean’s Mediterranean they should have us covered.

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The recipe calls for it to be cubed, but obviously we can do the cubing ourselves if necessary. I know that I’ve gotten lamb from one of the vendors in the farmers market area of Findlay before too. She’s always there but I don’t know her name. She’s the first booth on the left when you’re coming to that area from eckerlins and whatnot, if kroeger and sons falls through.

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I’m curious and interested, but need some more info. How long are you planning this event to last? We have evening plans.
Also what ingredients remain open?

THanks

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Hi Dave,
Sorry it took me a while to respond.
I think Dave Schwinn has taken care of the rest of the ingredients.
As for time, being the first one, I wasn’t totally sure how long it’ll take. I figure we’ll make the meal, eat it, and then from there it’s flexible. I imagine that it wouldn’t interfere with your evening plans.

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I AM planning on bringing the remaining ingredients. I plan to get down to Findlay either today or tomorrow morning.

Kate had the same question about time. My response was pretty much the same. I told her “This is the first time doing this so no one knows how long it will go on but assume around 3 hours”

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Are you prejudiced against lamb squares? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Very

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Thanks everyone for coming out! Our first Cooking the World was a success. I'm really happy with how things turned out
Overall, the food was pretty good! I'll post photos and suggestions for anyone who wants to make it at home a little later.
Looking forward to seeing people at the next one! Details coming soon!

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This is what we came up with! The qabuli palao itself needed more seasonings. More oomph. Which was surprising, because it smelled amazing. The raisins were the crowd favorite, as they had rehydrated into a plump little nuggets of delicious. Also, doubling the recipe was a mistake, as the ratios were thrown off. Overall, still a very tasty dish, and could be improved upon with small tweaks. The doogh, was something else. The cucumber & mint needed to be pre-blended so that you were drinking more of a drink and less of a tzatziki esque condiment.

Thanks again to everyone for coming out! I’ll keep you posted for the next one!