Afghanistan - Shorwa-E-Gosht

Afghanistan

Salaam Aalaikum!

And welcome to the inaugural post of Soup Adventurer, where I hope to explore the remarkably awe-inspiring cultures of our world, one bowl at a time!

But why soup? Well the easy answer to that is that in all its versatility and possibilities, soup is one of my all0time favorite food groups. Yes, It is a food group in my world! It is not uncommon to plan Soup Dates with my girlfriends, or guy friends, or acquaintances, or really anybody that will tolerate this fascination of mine. And for somebody like me, a former Washingtonian trapped in terribly sunny and bright Los Angeles, soup means cozying up on the couch with a blanket, the fireplace and a rainstorm outside – an occurrence that happens not nearly as often as ideal in this land of supposedly perfect weather.

But digging deeper, there is something about soup that, to me, is culturally expansive. 
I think back to the earliest days of our cooking ancestors and think that soup was probably in the very earliest versions of their dreadfully bland and slightly disgusting cookbooks. After all, the most primitive peoples and civilizations could only thrive around water sources and it is a known fact that water-heavy sustenance has a tendency to fill you up faster and for much longer than say, dried up twigs and leaves. It’s not hard to imagine soup evolving century to century, culture

All Ingredients used for Shorwa-E-Gosht

to culture from what was probably those same dried up twigs and leaves boiled in water (maybe to include a recent mammoth hunting victory on good day) to the classics of French Onion and the inexplicably adored Chicken Noodle to the sometimes appallingly grotesque modern day concoctions that saturate Pinterest on any given day. (This brief history of soup, of course, is purely speculation and speculation I choose to standby until more evidence becomes available.) In this millennia long evolutionary path Soup becomes synonymous with Life.

So join me today as we explore this first stop on this Soup Journey of Life, Afghanistan – an appropriate choice not only alphabetically but also because of its rich history spanning 5,000 years or more! Our recipe can be found here and comes from blogger Hamaira Ghilzai of the Afghan food and culture blog Afghan Culture Unveiled – more on her later! The soup is a beef and bean concoction that goes by the name Shorwa-E-Gosht, Shorwa meaning Soup – a bit of knowledge acquired in my recent explorations.

Shorwa-E-Gosht

Ingredients

One large red onion, roughly chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 2 tbsp. olive oil 2 lbs beef stew or steak tips cut into 1-inch pieces 3 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped 1 tbsp. tomato paste 1 tbsp. ground coriander ½ tbsp. ground turmeric

1 tbsp. Kosher salt ½ tsp. black pepper 8 cups water 1 medium russet potato, cut into ½-inch cubes 1 15 oz. can red kidney beans, rinsed 1 15 oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed 1 cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro

Steps

1. Add Olive Oil to Stock Pot, heated on High. Add Onion, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
2. Add Beef and Garlic. Cook for about 10 minutes, or until meat is cooked and covered in a thick brown coating.
3. Add tomatoes, turmeric, coriander, salt, paper, tomato paste and water. Heat on High for 30-40 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to medium for 20 minutes.
5. Add beans potatoes and cilantro. Cook 10-20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Onions, Beef and Garlic.

This soup was so easy to make and while I don’t have a pressure cooker as the original recipe called for, I figured I would “wing it” and see what happens. After all, this soup was probably made for centuries without pressure cookers, amirite? This soup is perhaps relatively inexpensive to make, especially if you have some of the more expensive ingredients on hand, most notably turmeric and ground coriander as well as the 2 pounds of beef tips needed. I, however, had none of the above which brought my total checkout amount at Vons to just under $40. Another factor into the cost – of not only this soup, but all the other soups I hope to make – is the fact that I want to keep things as authentic as possible at all times. It was almost painful searching for an authentic recipe for Afghan soup seeing as how that particular cuisine has yet to skyrocket into the forefront! However, another ingredient I threw a couple bucks towards was purchasing Kosher Salt. Sure I, like most others, have a giant blue tub of Morton’s salt in my spice cabinet (Oh, how I envy that girl’s need for a raincoat and umbrella!) but a promise is a promise and Kosher salt it was! Another factor that may have helped in lowering the cost would be to shop at an ethnic market. While I don’t eat enough meat to vouch for beef prices at a “normal” grocer as opposed to the many ethnic markets in the Los Angeles area I am going to go ahead and describe produce as “dirt cheap.” If you can handle the hectic, jam-packed and sometimes panic-inducing environments, I recommend this route. I usually cannot handle the chaos and opt for the more peaceful mainstream grocers.

Potatoes and Cilantro Roughly Chopped, Beans Rinsed

After getting home and unpacking my stash, I was finally able to begin the soup making process. I had been researching for weeks, dragging my feet even longer and was finally about to take the plunge! After heating the olive oil and onion in my Ikea stock pot for the time it took to carefully unpacked my precut “beef for stewing” I thanked the universe for the convenience of not having to touch raw meat! (It is going to be a looong journey, isn’t it?)  I dumped the beef into the container along with the garlic. Stirring occasionally in the 10 minutes it took to cook and develop a thick, viscous coating I was able to chop the tomatoes and measure out the next ingredients: turmeric, coriander, salt, paper, tomato paste and water.

Here is where I officially began winging it. While the recipe called for the High setting on your pressure cooker for 10-15 minutes, I quite unscientifically decided that that was surely equal to heating on high on my gas range for about a half hour or so. Why? Probably because I hate cooking with exact measurements and this was the only creative thing I was able to do, in part because this was the only part where I had no clue what I was doing! After the half hour or so was up, I put it on medium heat for about 20 minutes, following the same very scientific Pressure Cooker to Stock-Pot-On-Gas-Range conversion rate as before. In these 20 minutes or so, I was able to rinse my beans, chop my cilantro and cut up my potato (who’s skin amusingly enough had absorbed all the moisture this soup was pumping into my little apartment)! After all that high heat/low heat, pressure cooker vs. stock pot bewilderment, it was finally time to get back on track with those exact measurements, which at this point in this unfamiliar journey I had started to miss!As I was chopping, I was starting to get a little worried; I like meat on occasion – I certainly have no objections to it – but the smell of unseasoned beef cooking is probably among the worst things I can think of. Being honest, I was beginning to not look forward to having to eat and

All Ingredients in Pot

document this soup! But, seeing as how my vegetarian roommate didn’t seem so phased, I may be a little overly sensitive to this. After the meat had cooked and that coating had developed it was time to add the tomatoes, spices, tomato paste and water.

Now, I had learned that this soup is typically served with naan, a flat, doughy bread popular in many nearby countries like Indian, Pakistan and – I learned – Afghanistan! Well…I forgot about Naan. And sometime when my soup was simmering I decided to order naan – and lots of it! – from a local Indian eatery. (There are seriously, like 20 that deliver to my house! It’s one of the nicer perks of living in such a culturally diverse metropolis.) Now, I am willing to bet that Indian naan differs in some way from Afghan naan, but seeing as how my emphasis is on authentic soup, I figured I could let this one slide.Opening the lid to add the beans, potatoes and cilantro, a wonderfully unfamiliar scent filled my little apartment! What a relief to smell the ingredients fuse together in a way I couldn’t imagine when it was just beef, onions and olive oil! I boiled my concoction for another 10 minutes or so and when the potatoes were soft, it was game time!

I must say that this soup was so amazingly good! I had two bowls the first night and on days when I couldn’t bring it to work due to other lunch obligations, I – I’m going to say it – I actually missed my soup. It would come to mind at a random point in my work day and I would think: Man, I can’t wait ‘til I could go home and have some of that soup! My coworkers loved it! I loved it! I have half a mind to abort this whole mission and just keep making Shorwa-E-Gosht for the years it is going to take me to finish this project instead! But alas I must push through. For every stupid bowl of Chicken Noodle, there is another Shorwa-E-Gosht waiting to be discovered. Which brings us to our next adventure: Albania! Khoda hafiz!

My first tiny bowl of delicious Shorwa-E-Gosht!

The first day you meet, you are friends.  The next day you meet, you are brothers. - Afghan Proverb

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This blog post would not have been possible without the resources and recipe provided by Ms. Hamaira Ghilzai of the Afghan Food and Culture Blog, Afghan Culture Unveiled: Rich Culture, Delicious Food, Stories from Afghanistan. What initially began as a quest to find the best tasting, most authentic recipe for an Afghan soup turned quickly into respect and admiration of Ms. Ghilzai’s quest to bring to light what I believe is one of the most misunderstood cultures of our modern times. I encourage you to take a tour of her website, and witness firsthand her efforts in “uniting people across a culture.”