Kausar Ahmed is a chef, author and cooking instructor who serves as the resident chef at Edmonds PCC Community Market. She is an expert in the South Asian culinary arts, author of her own cookbook called The Karachi Kitchen and co-founder with her daughter Sadaf of her food brand called Karachi Kitchen Foods.
Karachi Kitchen Foods specializes in fresh, small-batch Pakistani chutneys and spice blends inspired by family recipes. Having tasted many of their products, I can tell that they are made from scratch using high-quality whole spices and locally sourced produce. They are manufactured by hand by Kausar and Sadaf in a commercial kitchen using traditional techniques, family recipes and no artificial preservatives or additives to capture the authentic taste of Pakistani home cooking.
Chef Kausar’s mother has the final approval for every recipe that they develop — since most of the chutneys and spice blends come directly from her family home in Karachi. We are so lucky to have Karachi Kitchen spices and chutneys readily available at our local Edmonds PCC Community Market.
Chef Kausar is the founder of Kitchen Craft, a nonprofit organization that offers free nutrition and cooking workshops to women and youth (boys and girls) in high-risk communities in her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan. When she moved to the United States to live closer to her adult children, she continued providing culinary education as the chef-instructor at Project Feast, which provides professional kitchen training to immigrant and refugee women.
Currently Chef Kausar works as the resident chef-instructor in Edmonds for the PCC Cooks Program. She prefers to call herself an educator because she believes that to cook good food, you need to learn more than just technique. She wants her students to understand the origins of the cuisine as well as the way to use and balance the ingredients and flavors of each cuisine. She is a master storyteller and cooking for her is much more than just following a recipe.
While her specialty is Pakistani food, Chef Kaussr is adept at teaching cuisines from around the world. I encourage you to sign up for a cooking class at PCC with Chef Kausar to explore the world of French, Italian, Mexican, Pakistani, Japanese, Indian, British, German, Thai, Mediterranean and Regional American cuisines — just to name a few of the offerings. The very popular summer camps for kids are currently online and available for registration. The summer camps and date night classes sell out quickly, so I encourage you register early for those classes. Spending time with a partner or friend learning to cook a favorite cuisine is a wonderful way to spend time together.
Here is a wonderful video of Chef Kausar in action that gives you a taste of her teaching and passion for sharing her love of food. I am fortunate to be an assistant for Chef Kausar’s cooking classes in Edmonds. Recently we had a class called “Vegan Flavors of Pakistan” that featured some of Chef Kausar’s favorite dishes. She has graciously shared one of her favorites here.
This is a recipe that she learned from her grandmother back in Karachi when she was just starting to learn to cook. While the list of ingredients makes it look complicated, it is not difficult. It just takes time (and love, as Chef Kausar would say) to make it. I am sure that it will become a family favorite. All of the ingredients, including the spices, are available at PCC (in the bulk section so that you don’t have to purchase more than you need) and some of them, such as the garam masala, are part of the Karachi Kitchen spice blends. Once you make this recipe, I am sure that it will become part of your dinner lineup. The smells of this quintessential Pakastani dish will make you think that you have traveled to Karachi! “Aaram se khaayein”
Lentil and Rice Pilaf
Serves: 6 to 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 whole star anise
1 or 2 whole cinnamon sticks
2 green cardamom pods, 1 black cardamom pod
3 to 4 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 8 to 10 black peppercorns
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger root
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground garam masala
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups water, divided
1 cup black lentils, sorted of debris and rinsed
1 cup long-grain white basmati rice, rinsed 3 to 4 times
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, soaked in 1 teaspoon water, optional
To garnish:
1/4 cup cilantro chopped
2 green chiles such as Anaheim, serrano or jalapeno, seeds removed and sliced lengthwise
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced and fried until brown and crispy
1 small cucumber, chopped
Instructions
– Heat oil in a large pot over medium.
– Add the onions, stirring often until golden-brown and crispy. If you are going to serve with additional fried onions, make them now; divide in half and set aside before adding the whole spices.
– Add the star anise, cinnamon sticks, green and black cardamom pods, cloves, cumin seeds and black peppercorns.
– Add the garlic and ginger, stirring to combine.
– Add the tomatoes and stir to combine, followed by the ground cumin, chili powder, turmeric, coriander and garam masala.
– Add the lentils, salt and 2 cups of water.
– Cover and cook until the lentils are half-tender to the bite, 15 to 20 minutes.
– Stir in the basmati rice, cilantro and green chiles, saffron mixture and remaining 2 cups of water.
– Raise heat to high and bring to a boil.
– Reduce heat and simmer gently, stirring from the sides, until rice is tender to the bite and liquid has absorbed, 13 to 15 minutes.
– Add the saffron mixture and cover.
– Let simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with fried onions and serve with chopped cucumber.
Deborah Binder lives in Edmonds with her family. She loves to cook from scratch using produce from the gardens she created with her husband. She attended culinary school and worked for restaurants, caterers and culinary schools. Her current interest in food is learning to eat for health and wellness, while at the same time enjoying the pleasures of the table. Deborah loves experimenting and developing new recipes. As Julia Child once said, “Everything in moderation including moderation.” Deborah can be contacted at jaideborah@yahoo.com.
