Shola (Shole) is one of my favorite Afghan dishes! Its usually a sticky kind of rice with maash (mung beans)…and the stickiness depends on the amount of water used to make the dish. Kecheri Quroot (Kecheri Ghoroot) is a dish that still has Sholeh, but with ground beef and kashk (Ghoroot) on the rice as well.
Shole
Ingredients (4-6 people):
2 cups rice
1 cup maash
2 medium onion
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup chicken stock or 1 cube chicken bouillon
4 tablespoons tomato paste
salt/pepper
1 teaspoon cumin (zireh)
turmeric
ground red pepper (cayenne)
Ghoroot (Kashk)
1 lb ground meat
Directions For Shola (Sholeh):
Begin by washing the mung beans and soaking them for a few hours. To make sure they become soft faster I usually boil them in water for a bit prior to cooking Sholeh. If you boil them then drain them in a strainer and rinse them once more.
Chop up one of the onions finely and fry it in a medium or large pot (should be the same pot you make the Shola in) with some oil. Add the minced garlic to the pot after the onions have fried a bit and stir. Add 1.5 - 2 tablespoons of the tomato paste to the onion and garlic and stir the contents together. Add chicken stock, salt, pepper, and cumin at this time. Pour about 3 cups of water in the pot and add the mung beans to the pot. Set the pots temperature to medium and place a lid on the pot. Allow the mung beans to cook for 10 minutes.
Wash the rice then add it to the pot with the mung beans. Pour water over the rice, so that it stands at least 2 (or 3) centimeters above the rice. Allow the rice to cook and the water to evaporate. Note: the more water you use the softer (and stickier) the Shola becomes. When most of the water has evaporated you can place a towel or cloth over the lid of the pot and place it on top of the pot for it to cook an additional 30 minutes.
Directions for Kecheri Quroot:
You will make the Shola (Sholeh) as mentioned above.
Kichiri Ghoroot
Chop up the remaining onion and in a medium pot fry the onion in oil until it slightly turns golden. Add the ground meat to the pot and stir well. Add salt, pepper, ground red pepper, and turmeric to the meat. Once the meat has fried/cooked add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and stir the contents of the pot. Then add 1.5 to 2 cups of water to the pot and allow the meat to cook for at least 30 minutes on medium heat (cover the pot with the lid). Once most of the water is dried up the meat sauce should be ready.
For the Kashk, you can buy it from a store that carries Kashk (typically a Middle Eastern or Persian Grocery store will have Kashk). If you don’t want to use Kashk you can use plain yogurt in its place.
Once you are ready to serve the dish you will fill your serving platter with Shola and then if serving as Kecheri Quroot you wll add the Kashk in the center and sprinkle the meat sauce around the dish. You can even sprinkle some dried mint on the dish for added flavor.
If you like you can even make stew meat or meatballs to serve with the Shola.
