Culinary escapades in the waning Kabul Days

It has been a busy week not only for us, but for our taste buds as well as we eat our way through multiple farewells and favorites before the pending departure from Kabul.  We have been extremely fortunate to hang out with so many of our amazing friends in these last few days and weeks in Kabul.  Here are a few favorite Foodie photos of recent antics.  Today the farewells continue as I have a traditional  Afghan meal at my office with all my staff, and tonight we have two separate social engagements with friends.

# 1 Swedish delight!

Swedish dinner with our lovely friends.  The first course comprised of pickled herring and eel served with Aquavit, but not until you sing a traditional Swedish song!

Second course was traditional Swedish meatballs!

#2 Amazing traditional Afghan cuisine at the home of our favorite family in Kabul. 

Highlights include my favorite Afghan dish, Shola, a slow-cooked rice dish which I refer to as "Afghan risotto", Mantu - small pockets of dough filled with meat topped with yogurt, grilled pumpkin, naan, mixed salad, daal, and a green-colored Pilau called Emerald Pilau, colored with spinach and topped with nuts.

The evening was completed with traditional Afgan music.

#3 Chocolate Fondue at the local Lebanese restaurant

After all, who would not expect chocolate fondue at a Lebanese place, in Kabul? Decadent.

#4 - Raclette at the L'Atmosphere French Restaurant

A plate of cold cuts, chopped peppers, pickles, and a boiled potato - all topped with perfectly melted gooey cheese, what's not to love! 

#5

Grilling the perfect meat for our chocolate chili.

We made our 'award winning' (as in the dish that won 'Popular Choice' at the 2009 US Embassy chili cook-off) for my colleagues the other night.  The whole process started off with much more attention to grilling the meat perfectly, than previously attempted - it was definitely worth it. 

Most Memorable Meals #1: La Taverna di San Guiseppe, Sienna Italy

One of the greatest things in our life together is that Chris and I have had the incredible privilege of traveling to some of the most amazing places on earth.  Not surprisingly, we have a slight tendency to plan our trips around, yes you guessed it: Food.  As such, we have learned to cook Thai food at the Blue Elephant Cooking School in Thailand, ate at Michelin Star restaurants from San Francisco to Bath in the UK.  But most of all, we like to travel to quant places that offer a window into the ‘real’ food that make someplace special.  More often than not, this does not involve a fancy restaurant (although I will be featuring a few of our favorite splashes as part of this series as well) but rather a mom and pop shop or local village lunch spot.

I would like to start of this series with a write-up of a restaurant Chris and I dined at in the beautiful town of Sienna, Italy in 2006.  This is the good thing about being an incessant note-taker, and frequent mover – put the two of those together and you re-discover old notebooks and diaries in your scramble to pack out your house for the impending move; as was just the case again last week when we went through our study in preparation of the shippers to come on Sunday.

A little bit of background…

In 2006, Chris and I were living and working for the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in Baghdad, Iraq.  We lived in the ‘Green Zone’ (later renamed the ‘International Zone’ or simply ‘IZ’).  We were fortunate to have our own small kitchen (you may recall mentions of dinners, including Thanksgiving for a couple dozen folks).  It is in this kitchen that we crafted our love of baking and many other culinary firsts.  As such, for one of our shorter Rest & Recuperation (R&R) breaks, we decided that we simply had to visit Italy.  Oh boy, where to go.  I had been to Italy as a child, but only to Rome, Chris had never been.  We did some research and on a ‘responsible travel’ website came across a 13^th Century Agriturismo Estate that produces all its own vegetables, dairy, and some meat.  We were sold.  Situated on the hillside outside Sienna, the romantic city with the magnificent square, Tenuta di Spannocchia was everything and more.  We stayed in a simple room furnished with antique beds, and a window overlooking a courtyard.  Meals are served family style, which means you are always intermingling with wonderfully interesting and very like-minded folk.  Breakfast consist of fresh yogurt, freshly laid eggs, freshly baked breads, you get my point.  Lunches we usually took our bicycles (that we had delivered by a local bike shop) and rode for hours to various small cafes and wineries.  Dinner was once again a family affair with the full Italian four-course meal of pasta, salad, main and dessert – served with home made organic (read: no sulfates, so no headache!) red and white wine – all for 18 Euros (back then).

Okay, getting off topic here, back to the memorable meal…one of the guest groups at the estate was lead by the Audubon society tour leader who had been coming to Spannocchia for years.  We mentioned that we were looking to go out to dinner – this is what we found:

Inscription from my notebook…it says:

28 October, 2006

Dinner

La Taverna di San Guiseppe

Via Giovanni Duprè 132
53100 - Siena - Italy

Tel. +39 0577 42286

Recommended by the Audubon Society tour leader this unpretentious restaurant located at the top of Via Giovanni Dupre in Sienna.  For starters a pumpkin croustini sent by the chef while Chris studies the wine list and I try to decided what to have for an antipasto, first course (generally risotto or pasta) and main course.  After visiting the wine cellar and studying the menu closely, our waiter appears and explains the specials.  The service is efficient, though hospitable.  Chris has the wild boar cooked in milk, bay leaves, sage and rosemary.  Susan has the pork medallions in grappa.  The boar is described as “butter having sex with bacon”.  To top the night off, the wine we enjoyed, a Fossacolle Brunnello di Montalcino 2001 is now simply known as “the best we’ve ever had”.

[Photos from: http://www.tavernasangiuseppe.it/]

***

The restaurant dates back to the 1100s and it says of the wine cellar:  "The wine cellar is situated in an inner 'suggestiva' Etruscan house, which after the Middle Ages, became a family church. It is sculpted and carved by hand, and offers an immense choice of local and national wines of more than 500 lables: from the Brunellos of Montalcino, to the reds of Montepulciano and the best vintages."

I pasted the label of the wine we drank into my notebook and made a note below that said – ‘write to Evan Kleiman at Good Food’ (probably because she does food tours to Italy annually) and that the red was “very big red – like a Napa cab”.

The next day we promptly drove to Montalcino to taste more of these amazing Brunellos.  We ended up buying about 2 cases now stuck in California because we cannot figure out how to ship them to South Africa due to import restrictions.

Apart from this dinner, there were many others we enjoyed in Tuscany.  If you ever plan to visit, just follow your heart and your nose and you are surely bound to end up someplace unforgettable.  

A frenzy of farewells

After hosting so many farewells for so many friends, it is hard to come to grips with the fact that we are on our own 'farewell stretch' here in Kabul.  After three years, we have finally firmed up our departure date to be - March 14.  That leaves us exactly 12 days to accomplish what seems to be the near impossible, but that does not mean there aren't a number of dinners planned.  My absence since last time has been due purely to the enormous workload and logistical challenges of trying to move from Kabul to both Cape Town and Dili, Timor Leste.  That being said, I had the immense honor the other night of having dinner at the home of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commissioner for Transitional Justice, along with a number of experts in the field (all contributers to my dissertation research which I am also trying to fit in alongside the rest of our life).

Last night Chris and I hosted both of our country directors for our respective organizations, along with the Mission Director for the US Agency for International Development, the largest donor to both our organizations, and an Afghan legend, Ms. Nancy DuPree, who at "almost 83" (she says) "just wrote my first blog the other day".  (She is an avid reader of Foodie in a Warzone, she assured me last night).

Dinner was preceded by drinks and some hors d'oeuvres.  First course was a simple Vegan Carrot Soup served with fresh whole wheat bread from the French Bakery, a Kabul institution located in the Karte Se district of Kabul .  The main was an aromatic Roasted Leg of Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic   from our favorite butcher in Kabul, T-Bones Meat Market, that is served on a bed of thinly sliced potatoes (note: the recipe calls for a mandolin to thinly slice the potatoes, Chris now has the carpal tunnel to show for our lack of a mandolin), served with sautéed spinach and mint sauce.    

Dessert was a selection of cherry, apple and apricot pies, courtesy of the French Bakery.

Stay tuned for further posts as we try and mobilize our lives out of here.

Tonight we pack for tomorrow we shall cook!

How to cook a 3-Star Dinner

No, I don’t mean a Michelin 3-star dinner (but thanks for the compliment!) I mean a 3-Star as in a Lieutenant General in the US Army.  Such was the case at Chez Marx-Serjak the other night as we co-hosted a dinner to bring together folks from various walks of Kabul life to discuss matter relating to Reconciliation and Reintegration.  It all started over dinner with my good friend and Senior Analyst for International Crisis Group who thought it would be a good idea to bring together some of the military analysts and non-profit and civil society organizations to discuss the hot topic of the day.  She took a long look at me with wide eyes until I said, “wow, what a great idea, would you like me to host?”  To which she exclaimed, “Oh! How nice of you to offer!” and the idea was born, and was certainly one of the most amazing experiences of my time in Afghanistan - a rather appropriate manner to end our 3-year tour here.

After a slew of military advance teams to scout our location, and a few extra tables, chairs and dinner wear delivered to the house, the cooking commenced with a planning meeting on Wednesday, followed by first round of cooking on Thursday night, followed by all-day preparations on Friday and Saturday.

Photo: Susan with LTG William (Bill) Caldwell 

The guest list added up to twenty-two individuals including the Lieutenant General in charge of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan, his civilian counterpart and a US Captain.  Our NATO contingent was augmented by the attendance of the Senior NATO Civilian Representative in Afghanistan, a former UK Ambassador to Afghanistan.  Our military contingent was rounded off with the addition of a very nice Australian Lieutenant Colonel who serves as the Deputy for the Counterinsurgency (COIN) Academy in Kabul.  From the Embassy side, we had representatives from the Dutch, US and British contingents and from Civil Society analysts, founders and experts from the US Institute for Peace (USIP), Turquoise Mountain Foundation, Development Humanitarian Services for Afghanistan, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), the Afghanistan Analysts’ Network (AAN) and the Commissioner for Transitional Justice with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC).

Now, since this is a food blog, and not a political or programmatic blog – I will focus on the menu and the planning for the event, instead of the content.  (I will add the recipes as soon as I have some time)

Starter:

Roasted tomato and garlic soup

Salad

Green and red cabbage salad with walnuts, blue cheese and a home-made mustard vinaigrette.

Main:

·         Fennel and Rosemary beef roast – served medium rare (except for the good General, who politely asked for well-done) - with a creamy mustard sauce

·         Roasted garlic mashed potatoes – the secret is in roasting the garlic before stirring into the potato

·         Maple-glazed carrots – not your low-calorie option here – butter, maple syrup and sugar

·         Steamed broccoli with fresh lemon juice – key is to steam the broccoli right before serving to avoid overcooking

Dessert

·         Apple pie – courtesy of my co-host

·         Pecan pie – courtesy of my co-host

·         Marble cheese cake – I used the “cheese cake squares” recipe in a pie pan and a spring form pan and it worked brilliantly – I may just have found the easiest baked cheese cake recipe ever!

The dinner was a tremendous success.  Our military contingent in particular was stunned that there are those of us who live a more ‘normal’ life in Kabul.  The discussion was immensely informing and timely and it appears that a number of important linkages were made between members of various stakeholder groups in Kabul – and all over a hearty home-cooked meal.

Countdown to dinner

Today is Wednesday which means dinner planning day with my co-host of a power-dinner on Saturday.  Can't reveal any details yet - but it's going to be good.  Menu will include:

Roasted Tomato Soup with Garlic
**
Roasted garlic mashed potato
Oven baked rosemary tenderloin
Orange-glaze carrots
Lemon and black pepper steamed green beans
**
Chocolate marble cheesecake
Apple pie
Pecan pie
**

Stay tuned for the guest list.

Always a show-stopper

I had a couple of colleagues over for dinner, one is vegetarian.  I made the always-popular, delectably delicious Roasted Butternut Squash, Rosemary and Garlic Lasagna.  While any lasagna that involves making your own bechemal is not a 'quick recipe' - this one is worth the extra effort for the wonderful rosemary infused flavor.  I do not have a microwave, so I simply infuse the milk on the stove in a pot, careful not to burn the milk. Also, I find that once I added the 'slurry' (mixture of milk and flour) it takes me longer to get it to thicken than the recipe says.

If you like pumpkin, you will love this recipe!  It is also great the next day to take for lunch, so try it on the weekend, let me know how it goes.

Valentine's 2010 - a different kind of anniversary

Valentine's is not a holiday that Chris and I normally celebrate in the normal sense of the word - especially not those we spend apart!  Yet, I cannot help but reminisce about this most Hallmark of days that takes me back exactly ten years ago to our tiny apartment at 2000 Alberta Ave, Venice Beach, California.

For it was on this particular Day of Love in the year 2000, after mere months of, as yet, very experimental marriage, that a pivotal part of our relationship was born.  With the fourteenth day of the second month of our first year of marriage looming large, we instinctively felt compelled to do something, uh-hum - romantic.  A few phone calls later to some of the restaurants we had overheard our somewhat older, DINK (dual-income no kids) friends talk about,  it quickly dawned on the both of us...date nights in West Los Angeles were an expensive undertaking for most, let alone a new immigrant and her single-income, first 'real job' sponsor.

Right, so unless we wanted a 5:30 seating, with an 8pm clear-out in a restaurant with two set-menu options at $100 a head, not including wine or gratuity (emphasis here), it was either Denny's (which I am sure had a wait list as well) or we were on our own.

Enter my stubborn nature.  Fine.  Who needs a fancy restaurant on Valentine's anyway.  I am sure I can make a romantic dinner for two (doubtful look to self in mirror added here).  So I set about searching recipes that include a majority of ingredients I have actually heard of before...enter our affair with Cooking Light magazine.  I searched for recipes that were both 'fancy' enough to be considered 'romantic' while doable for a complete kitchen novice.  Here's how novice I was - I chose a menu that included both phyllo dough and meringues as a central part of my first ever semi-gourmet cooking attempt.  Things didn't start to go wrong though until about an hour into my search for Cream of Tartar.  How on EARTH was I supposed to know it involved neither cream nor tartar - I mean, what is WRONG with these foodie people??

Long story short, after two hours in the local Albertson's on Venice and Lincoln, I finally locate the elusive white powdery substance known as Cream of Tartar in the SPICE section - not the refrigerator along with every other rendition of either cream or tartar (as in 'sauce').  Okay, now that I am two hours late for starting dinner - let me call Chris first and tell him to come up with something else exciting that Environmentalists do to give me more time

On the way home, I get a queasy feeling that perhaps this was not the smartest thing to do...

Alas, at home in our kitchen so small that if one of us had to open the door to the refrigerator, the other had to leave the room, filled with kitchen paraphernalia at least as old as Chris was, courtesy of a rather substantial home remodel by my in-laws the year before, I set to the task.  First course was a Crustillant of Crab with Blackberry Chutney, picked (I am sure) purely out of my love of Chutney (it's a South African thing).  Costco provided the Phyllo dough, and Trader Joe's the liquid courage.

Having no idea what kitchen time management entailed, multiple dishes in the oven, more than one course - I was a wreck - but we soldiered on.  Next up was to be the show-stopper - the dish that involved the dreaded Cream (not!) of Tartar (double not!) - a Strawberry-Chocolate Meringue Torte  complete with home-made meringue...what was I thinking.

With the starter and dessert so overwhelming, it is almost not worth mentioning that I prepared a very respectable seafood paella as a main.  No recipe involved that I can recall - though by that point I was probably hanging on by a string.

And so, ladies and gentlemen - started what would become a tradition in the early years of the Marx-Serjak household - forget overpriced,  under-inspired Valentine's dinners - let's rather cook for one another and see who can outdo who.


Dinner was a huge success, and a huge part of our relationship and our future endeavors were born that night.

(Postscript: I would like to point out that I have never, ever used the cream of tartar again - I am sure it made the move from Venice, to Culver City, to New Haven and now resides in a storage container in Boston - so anyone on the east coast considering Meringues for St. Patrick's Day - look me up).