Kabuli pulao

Ingredients

• Lamb on the bone1 kg
• Basmati rice700 g
• Carrots — in fine matchsticks500 g
• Raisins150 g
• Almonds — slivered80 g
• Pistachios50 g
• Onions2
• Sugar4 tbsp
• Char masala2 tsp
• Cumin seed1 tsp
• Cardamom6
• Vegetable oil150 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

   Soak the rice in salted water for two hours and rinse it until the water runs clear.

   15 min

2. 2

   Fry the onion in oil until deep gold, add the meat and brown it.

   20 min

3. 3

   Add a litre of water, the cardamom and salt and simmer an hour, until the meat is tender. Strain the broth.

   65 min

4. 4

   Melt two spoons of sugar in a dry pan to a dark caramel and let it down carefully with a ladle of broth.

   8 min

5. 5

   Fry the carrot with the rest of the sugar for five minutes until glossy, add the raisins and nuts and take it off.

   10 min

6. 6

   Parboil the rice for five minutes and drain it.

   10 min

7. 7

   Layer the rice over the meat in the pot, spoon over the caramel broth, dust with char masala, pierce to the bottom and hold covered thirty minutes on a low heat. Serve with the carrot and raisins on top.

   35 min

About the dish

The colour of the rice comes from caramel rather than spice: sugar is burned dark and let down with broth. No turmeric is used, which is what separates kabuli from Iranian and Indian rice.

The carrot and raisins are fried separately in sugar and laid on top at serving rather than stirred through. The layer has to read separately from the rice.

The rice is parboiled in water, drained and finished in steam over the broth. Two-stage cooking gives separate, long grains — what a pulao is judged by in Kabul.

Worth knowing

• — Caramel burns easily: the moment the sugar darkens to the colour of strong tea, take it off. Burnt, it makes the whole pot bitter.
• — Cut the carrot into fine matchsticks by hand. Grated, it dissolves in the sugar and there is no layer.
• — Char masala is the Afghan blend of cinnamon, clove, cardamom and cumin. Garam masala is close but noticeably sharper.

Nutrition

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

Calories

820 kcal

Protein

38 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

96 g

More from Afghanistan

• Afghan mantu — Steamed dumplings of beef and onion under garlic yoghurt and a yellow split pea sauce.