Afghan hot pot

Afghanistan is not a shopper’s paradise. On week 4 of a 5-week assignment in Kabul I was being harassed by calls from home demanding antique jezails, Babrak Karmal-era communist memorabilia, Ahmed Shah Masud topis, and anything that might have fallen off a US army supply truck. Boys! Obsessed with war. I had seen an altogether more peaceful side of the country and I was not going to succumb to the pressure. A pressure cooker however is a different matter. This deeg-e-zoodpaz darja-e-yak or ‘Pressure cooker no. 1’ is of Persian provenance. Called a deeg-e-bukhar in dari, my friend  Hassina tells me “you can cook anything in it except aalwa but mind the time for pressuring.” I bought this beauty for $10 in Ghazni.