Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
Aushak is an Afghan dish. Seasoned scallion-filled dumplings are boiled and topped with two sauces; one is a tomato meat sauce, the other a garlicky yogurt sauce. Before being served, aushak is sprinkled with dried mint. YUM! It's the first Afghan dish I learned to make since it's my husband's favorite... I wouldn't describe it as difficult, but filling the dumplings is time-consuming. Usually I prepare and freeze them so I can make aushak easily later on.
In Afghanistan, gandana is used instead of green onions or leeks. Some Asian stores will carry gandana (marketed as Asian leeks) here in the U.S. However, my mother-in-law uses green onions so I do as well. I have heard of methods to make the leeks taste more like gandana... But in effort to keep the post simple, I'm just going to include a few pictures of what you need to do before filling the dumplings, inshAllah...
What You'll Need for the prep:
*Salt
*4 bunches of scallions
*Chili powder
*1 package of wonton wrappers (I'm way too busy with a baby and toddler to make them from scratch)
*One plastic zip-lock baggie (optional)
*Salt
*4 bunches of scallions
*Chili powder
*1 package of wonton wrappers (I'm way too busy with a baby and toddler to make them from scratch)
*One plastic zip-lock baggie (optional)
What You'll Need for the Entire Dish (in addition to the above):
*Pepper *Cumin *Garlic powder *Onion Powder *Ground coriander seed
*1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
*8 oz tomato sauce
*1 lb ground beef
*Oil... for cooking the ground beef
*Plain yogurt
*Minced garlic (for seasoning the yogurt and meat sauces)
*Dried mint (to top the yogurt)
Pic of the wontons I use (other ones I've tried suck):
I season to taste, so here's a pic of the chopped & seasoned scallions below. If it tastes too salty for my taste here I just don't add any salt in the meat/yogurt sauces. Only chili powder and salt season the filling.
Above is what you should start to see after mixing the filling (juices). I leave it overnight in the fridge. If you don't wanna wait, use your knuckles to soften the seasoned scallions until they are wilted... It's less messy in the bag. I keep a few whites of the scallions in the mix b/c I like it. 
Above is what you should start to see after mixing the filling (juices). I leave it overnight in the fridge. If you don't wanna wait, use your knuckles to soften the seasoned scallions until they are wilted... It's less messy in the bag. I keep a few whites of the scallions in the mix b/c I like it. Four bunches of scallions makes this much (above). In this pic, the filling has only been mixed, not rested overnight.
6 comments:
Oh wow! I love this stuff! My mom makes this on random days but I love it!
Are you afghan by the way?
no, my husband is though... his fam is from helmand, afghanistan. i decided to start sharing some afghan recipes bc there is a place here called unaabi... anyway LOL it markets itself as afghan but its pakistanis doign their representation of it. which is ok with me but certain stuff, like aushak, is waay off. i got annoyed and decided to share how my mil and i make it to offer the real version for others inshAllah
That is cool! Well, where I live there is an afghan resturant that is good and is the right representation of afghan food! Also, that is nice that your husband is from helmand.
lOVELY! we make something like this in lebanon called shishbarak its filled with ground beef onion mixture in a yogurt garlic/cilantro sauce :P i will deff have to try it with the green onion.
I love all afghan foods. This one is my fav. Love your blog,sis .
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