Exotic Food!

Today me and Rayesa and Malik made homeade noodles for an exotic and comforting noodle soup dish. It is called "Aush" and originated from Afghanistan. I even found out that pasta originated from this region, not Italy. I found that on an afghani website.

This dish reminds me of a homeade noodle soup that I had more than 10 years ago in the mountains of Kazakhstan. Perhaps since these are neighboring countries-someone shared the recipe with another?!? Also, when I was pregnant with either Rayesa or Zayne, Sohail took me to a famous afghani restaurant in Houston. The next time I wanted it, the place had shut down. I was so sad!

I haven't had the dish in over 5 years, so I decided to make it. I found 5 online recipes and meshed them together to make Aush the way I remembered it! The hand rolled noodles (made with just flour and water) turned out nicely! I think I was successful! It looks beautiful and tastes great! And-most importantly, I made a new memory for me and my kids!

Ingredients:

Flour and warm water (for homeade noodles) or buy Chinese, spaghetti or egg noodles, instead
1/2 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small chopped onion
2 tsp. minced garlic
1/2 can of tomato paste (1/4 cup)
1 can kidney beans
1 can garbanzo beans
2-3 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
Chicken broth (this is the soup base-I used about 3-4 cups)
Fresh mint leaves
1-2 tsp Yogurt per bowl of soup

Andrea's Afghani Aush Soup Recipe:

Step 1 Noodles: make dough with flour and warm water ( to be consistency of pizza dough). Roll into a ball by sprinkling on flour (to take away the stickiness). Put in a ziplock bag-pressing out all the air, and put in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Take out and pull off a small quarter size ball of dough. Roll it in your hand like your making a play-dough snake. Lay it out on a tray. Let dry out for about 30 minutes.

Step 2- Sauté onion & garlic in olive oil, on low heat, until transparent. Then add ground beef and sauté. When cooked, add tomato paste, garlic, salt, pepper and coriander. Set aside.

Step 3- bring chicken broth to a boil. Add 1/2 of the meat mixture and ginger. Get the noodles and cut into 1-2 inch pieces. Let boil for about 5-10 minutes. Add remaining meat mixture, all the drained beans and mint leaves. Boil for 5-10 minutes. Turn off and cover. Let sit for about 15 minutes.

Step 4- place soup in bowl. Add the yogurt on top and a mint leaf. Enjoy!