Some tradional Pashtun dishes

[Toramana]

1. Warjalai...Rice and sag mixed togethor and cooked and then eaten with milk and socha ghwari....

2. Laitai...I don't know its recipe but I think it is wheat floor mixed with some sweet syrup, cooked and eaten with socha ghwari again

3. Maichai...Made using mangi until replaced by machine made maichai...boiled and taken with brown sugar and socha ghwari...

4. Paratai...bread fried ... nicest paratai made by women back home...tastiest paratai are those made from mixture of rice and wheat flour, which are very crunchy...

5. Shorwa...ghwakha (meat) boiled with no spice except enalai a herbal shrub...

6. Patira...It is a kind of bread made from mixture of wheat and maize flour...

[Laila]

Paratai is actually not traditional to us. I know many others eat it as breakfast, but traditionally we eat sweet bread, tea, and homemade cheese.

Most definitely shorwa though.

[Haris]

I only recognise shorwa (and paratha even though as Laila said that's not traditionally Pashtun) there.

Maybe you could post some pictures and that might jog my memory?

[Laila]

Yeah, i dont recognize those other things as well.

[Toramana]

Hi Laila and Haris, may be these are local names for the dishes.

But anyhow, warjalai is actually rice mixed with green leaves of certain shrubs like spinach, etc. and then cooked like plain rice. In our area, elderly women used to be expert in cooking this dish. It is taken with pure oil extracted from butter, and milk.

Laitai...Laitai is a kind of halwa (mulliano walla halwa) except that it is made from wheat flour instead of the common soji powder...It is consumed with dairy oil (butter) and brown sugar (i.e. gwara)...

Patira ... is a kind of bread but with butter oil mixed inside ...actually, wheat and maize flour is mixed and then other fruits and butter oil is mixed with it and then cooked...

Parata...I don't know whether it is an original Pashtun dish or whether we adopted it from others ...But one thing I can say for sure that the women in our area are one of the best parata maker specially when they make it from rice and wheat flour mixed...It is very crunchy and tasty and the cooking process requires careful timing (chai aghagali wra lahai rapraidi)....

As for maichai, it is common maichai found in stores except that the tradional maichai were hand-made...

Shorwa is very common thing...

[Toramana]

Is tsaplai (chapli) kabab also used in Afghanistan or is it purely a KPK dish? I guess it is not common in Afghanistan.

[Toramana]

I have only been to Jalalabad and Khost in Afghanistan and people do eat it there.

Ok, thanks for info KZ.

[faye]

parata is common in india, sometimes made with vegetable filling. yummy! toramana, this is not pashtun, but do you have puri? it is like a small flat bread fried in deep oil and it puffs up.
are you talking about ghee in those recipes above?

[Toramana]

parata is common in india, sometimes made with vegetable filling. yummy! toramana, this is not pashtun, but do you have puri? it is like a small flat bread fried in deep oil and it puffs up.
are you talking about ghee in those recipes above?

Yes faye, I was talking about ghee (i.e., dairy oil or butter oil). In our area, it is made differently from whole-wheat flour and on "tabakhai"...It is more tasty...

No there is no puri in our area and no vegetable filling...

[Laila]

Is tsaplai (chapli) kabab also used in Afghanistan or is it purely a KPK dish? I guess it is not common in Afghanistan.

Chapli kabab is well eaten all throughout Afghanistan. We sometimes eat it with chutney and bread, or sometimes with white rice.

[sal]

I LOVE warjili! My friends came round to my house and I fed them warjili which they've never had before (they're not afghan) and they loved it and wanted the recipe. I didnt cook it. I attempted to cook it a few weeks ago and it was a miserable attempt. It tasted awful But I still love it.

[emkhan]

I LOVE warjili! My friends came round to my house and I fed them warjili which they've never had before (they're not afghan) and they loved it and wanted the recipe. I didnt cook it. I attempted to cook it a few weeks ago and it was a miserable attempt. It tasted awful But I still love it.

Ahan "warjaley", its our term. Where did you get it from ?

[sal]

My mum's friend who is pashtun cooked some and gave a bowl of it to us. And my mum cooks it too.

[emkhan]

hmmm it means she is specifically from our area. this word is used in a very confined area

[sal]

hmmm it means she is specifically from our area. this word is used in a very confined area

What area would that be? What other words are used?