Ashak

Ingredients

• Flour400 g
• Water180 ml
• Spring onions500 g
• Minced beef400 g
• Onion1
• Yoghurt — thick500 ml
• Garlic5 clove
• Tomato paste2 tbsp
• Dried mint2 tbsp
• Chilli flakes1 tsp
• Vegetable oil60 ml
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Knead a dough from the flour, water and salt and rest it forty minutes under film.

   45 min

2. 2

   Chop the spring onion very fine, salt it and wring it out in a cloth.

   22 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion with the mince, add the tomato paste and stew it twenty minutes.

   25 min

4. 4

   Whisk the yoghurt with crushed garlic and salt and leave it at room temperature.

   8 min

5. 5

   Roll the dough thin and cut eight-centimetre rounds.

   25 min

6. 6

   Add the leek filling, fold each into a half-moon and crimp the edge tight.

   30 min

7. 7

   Boil the dumplings five minutes, lay them on the yoghurt, spoon the sauce over and dust with mint and chilli.

   15 min

About the dish

The filling is spring onion or gandana, not meat. The meat comes as a sauce on top, and confusing the two means cooking mantu instead.

The garlic yoghurt goes onto the platter first, under the dumplings. It has to be at room temperature or it splits under the hot food.

Dried mint on top is obligatory. It is not a garnish: its sharpness cuts the fat of the sauce and the acidity of the yoghurt at once.

Worth knowing

• — Wring the leek out thoroughly. Left wet it releases water into the dough and the dumplings come apart before they reach the pot.
• — Do not warm the yoghurt. Warm, it splits; straight from the fridge it chills the dumplings instantly — room temperature is what is wanted.
• — Assemble the dish immediately before serving. Left standing, ashak soaks up the yoghurt and the dough turns gluey.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

58 g

More from Afghanistan

• Kabuli pulao — Rice with lamb under a layer of caramelised carrot, raisins and almonds. Afghanistan's national dish.
• Afghan mantu — Steamed dumplings of beef and onion under garlic yoghurt and a yellow split pea sauce.
• Bolani — An Afghan flatbread with a potato or leek filling, cooked on a dry pan.