Afghanistan - Borani Kadoo

This is the first installment in my quest to cook one dish from every nation on Earth, a project which will run me until approximately 2047. It won't necessarily be the "national dish" of each country, but I do want to make something that at least would be recognizable to someone born and raised in that country - not gonna roll out Orange Chicken and Fortune Cookies and call it Chinese food over here. Where I can, I want to get suggestions directly from someone hailing from that country, and definitely open if you've got ideas of dishes I should try. I'll post each dish here with photos and the recipe I used for your savage critiquing as I make them.

The first contestant is a dish called Borani Kadoo from Afghanistan. I've only had Afghan food once, from the gone but not forgotten Afghan Grill here in North Dallas (RIP), but I liked the contrasts of gentle warm spices and creamy yogurt that are defining characteristics of the cuisine. Most Afghan dishes aren't extremely spicy from what I can tell, relying more heavily on the flavors provided by the spices rather than the heat, similar to what you'd see in northern India.

The dish is a stew consisting of cubes of squash in a sauce of pureed onion, garlic, tomato paste, and spices topped with a garlic-spiked yogurt. I used a recipe from the San Francisco Chronicle, see the ingredients and technique below. I had to make a couple modifications to the base recipe due to availability. I used butternut squash as the main ingredient, because the kind of pumpkins normally used in this dish aren't available in the US and most of the widely available ones here taste like melancholy feels. Also, I didn't have ground turmeric, so I used a mix of ground cumin, ground ginger, and curry powder (a turmeric-heavy blend).

Ingredients

The Squash

• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and quartered

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 lbs butternut squash (or equivalent in pumpkin)

• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced

• 1 small jalapeno pepper, halved, seeded and diced

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric

• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and diced

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 1/2 to 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

The Yogurt Sauce

• 1 cup yogurt

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• Pinch salt

Instructions

Puree the onion in a food processor. Heat the oil in a 14-inch saute pan or large casserole over medium heat. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 10 minutes.

While the onion is cooking, cut the squash into 1-inch chunks and set aside.

Once the onion is tender, add the garlic, jalapeno, tomato paste, spices, ginger, sugar, salt and 1 1/2 cups of broth. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Once the mixture boils, turn the heat to low and add the squash pieces to the pan. Every few minutes, move the squash around so all the pieces cook evenly in the sauce and the bottoms don't burn. Add more liquid if the pan gets dry. Cook until the squash is fork-tender but doesn't lose its shape (about 30-45 minutes).

While the squash is cooking, combine the yogurt, garlic and salt in a small bowl.

To serve, spoon the yogurt over the squash and pour any remaining yogurt around the outside edges of the pumpkin. Serve with warm pita or naan bread.

Review

The spice flavor was good, but not quite enough to balance out the sweetness. I'm thinking this recipe needs less sugar, more spice flavor, and more heat. The squash did take longer than the original recipe called for, closer to 50 minutes versus the 30 called for. Overall, this is something I'd make again with some minor modifications.

Next up: Albanian Tave Kosi.