Afghanistan – the most dangerous and the poorest country on the planet. For country we regularly listen to in the news because of the numerous and protracted wars and terrorism. There are no tourist trips to Afghanistan. With all lawlessness and lack of security, it is difficult to talk about any economic development. And in another black statistics, the state is a leader – in the production of opium. I have read some books about life stories in Afghanistan. Perhaps the most thrilling was “Thousand bright suns”. It is true that it is not documentary, but the description of life, human relationships, devastating traces of wars, and life in the Asian state can not leave you indifferent. Personally, I very much wept on her. I cried for all the women who are forced to live in this way. And I was grateful that I was born in another place. Very thankful.
The typical Afghan landscape is uniform, mountainous, stony, beige or brown in color, with no vegetation. Here are some of the most barren and harsh lands not only in Asia but also in the world. A large part of the Afghanistan area is occupied by the barren Ghazni-Kandahar Plateau. The state is very poor in water, and only 2% of its area is forests. Too little. The climate is very unfavorable – the summers are hot and the winters are terribly cold. Rain almost does not rain. People have no access to medical care, to education, and the average life expectancy is very low – only 45 years. Extremely high is the infant mortality rate.
I don’t want to write any more about that. I am getting sad. I’ll go straight to the cake I found pretty hard to prepare. In fact, the recipe is inspired by Afghan biscuits and the author calls it “Jordan Rondel’s Afghan Cake”. It is clear why there are no abundance of cake recipes in all this deficiency, underdeveloped agriculture and lack of any natural resources. Despite not entity present at every Afghan table, the inspiration for its preparation comes from traditional biscuits from this country.
About cake:
180 grams of black chocolate
180 grams of butter
180 grams of sugar
5 eggs
50 grams of ground almonds
70 grams of coconut sawdust
pinch of salt
100 grams of roasted, chopped walnuts
About ganash:
3/4 cup of cream
190 grams of black chocolate
For decoration:
1 tea cup of cornflakes
roasted, chopped walnuts
1/4 teaspoon of salt on flakes
Heat the oven at 180 ° C. Melt the chocolate and butter on a weak cooker. Cool lightly and add sugar. Beat to homogeneity. Add the eggs one by one by stopping to mixture every time. Finally, add almonds, coconut, walnuts and salt in the mixture.
In two trays of 22 cm diameter, covered with baking paper, spread the mixture equally. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a wooden stick has dried out of the baking dish. Allow the marshes to cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the trays on a grid.
Meanwhile, prepare the ganash.
Heat the cream of a hot plate until it starts making small bubbles on the surface. Pour it onto the pieces of black chocolate. Wait 2-3 minutes and stir with a spatula until a thick and shiny creamy ganache is obtained.
When it’s cooled, it’s time to assemble the cake. On first cake, pour half the ganash, and half of the corn flakes on it. Put the second cake, and on it again, you also put ganash and cornflakes. Add roasted walnuts and salt to flakes.
The cake is rich in flavor. But there is something in it that made me sad. I do not know why.Chocolate should make us happy. But while I was preparing it, I was not able to shake off what I knew about the lives of women in Afghanistan. They, like me, may want to do something like this for their children, their relatives, but few of them have that chance. I want people in the world not to starve, children do not die in wars, women and others are not treated as inferior creatures. Not much – we just need to be human. But life has so far shown that it is impossible.
Pity…
Next destination – Bangladesh.
