Parwana: Recipes and Stories from an Afghan Kitchen

Daughter-mother duo Durkhanai and Farida Ayubi intertwine history and food, and the personal and political, in this rich collection of Afghan recipes. “Of the millions of families displaced, mine was one,” she says of their flight in 1985 from Afghanistan, when “the aura of the nation had been scrambled.” Tying together the threads of their journey (they now own two restaurants in Australia) are family photos and an enticing array of dishes pictured in bold colors, with their recipes. Ayubi’s maternal grandfather cooked spicy coriander-scented lamb kebabs “over hot coals in the garden” to celebrate Eid, the end of Ramadan; intricate steamed dumplings (mantu) filled with cabbage and carrots and topped with tomato and lamb sauce capture “cross-cultural pollination” along the Silk Road. Recipes are loosely organized by theme; for example, the final chapter covers the author’s return to Afghanistan in 2012 and features foods said to represent the “bridging” of influences. Overall, the dishes, which include sweets such as semolina halwah with nuts, are traditional in flavor, but Ayubi doesn’t shy from modernity: many, such as one for the Afghan national dish Kabuli palaw, a platter of rice with chunks of lamb “buried beneath,” suggest using a pressure cooker for convenience. Parwana—the name of the family’s first restaurant—is Parsi for “butterfly,” and Ayubi’s family’s story is one of metamorphosis, elegantly told and deliciously accompanied. (Sept.)