This week, the Petits Chefs were lucky enough to work with Shayma Saadat again. We’ve worked with Shayma a couple of times before; once when she taught the boys to make Afghan dumplings and last fall, when we made Saffron Potato Fritters which the boys LOVED (hello, fried potatoes!). Shayma is an internationally published food writer, cookery teacher, and public speaker among other things. On her blog, Spice Spoon, she shares family recipes from the countries of her heritage – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Shayma is a Pakistani-Afghan with Persian lineage who grew up all over the world. Her mission is to demystify the Silk Route cuisine and inspire people to make the food she grew up eating. This week we chose a simple recipe to make with the boys that Shayma grew up eating – potato “cutlets” in the Pakistani manner.
First we peeled and chopped potatoes…
And while they were cooking, we chopped onions and cilantro.
We also roasted some cumin seeds – the lab smelled amazing!
We prepared the lightly beaten egg to dip the “cutlets” (patties) in.
And when the potatoes were cooked (mostly, we had some issues with some of the pieces being larger than others so they were still a little too “crunchy” to mash!)..
Into the mashed potato mixture, we added the onion, cilantro, cumin, some salt and some red pepper flakes. Then we got to forming our patties…
And frying them…
The lab smelled SO good – people were poking their heads in non-stop to see what we were making and asking if there might be any leftovers!
The boys literally could not wait to try these…
So. So. Good!
We only have a small group of boys this term in club (typically Term 3 is busy with sports) but it’s always nice to actually have the time to chat as we cook. The boys enjoyed chatting to Shayma about cooking and their family food scene. Shayma, thank you so much for sharing your culture, food and stories with the boys, they loved working with you. Also, these patties? Most of them didn’t even make it out of the lab. High praise!
Get Shayma’s recipe for Aloo tiki here!