Chihilsetoon Palace

 Written by: Wajiha Sayar

Fawad and Tamana are going to the castle to visit Lalo Mama. Along the way, they are talking about the picture of Fawad's notebook. Tamana considers it a picture of a garden in Jalalabad, but Fawad says that it is a picture of a palace in Herat. Meanwhile, Lalo Mama comes and after greeting, Tamana asks about the mentioned picture from Lalo Mama. 

Lalo Mama takes them inside the castle and there he says that this is the picture of Chihilsetoon palace in Kabul city.

The guests want more information about this palace. Lalo Mama opens a window about it.

Window:

In the window, Hakim Baba has taken Hashmat and Sara to  Chihilsetoon palace. Hashmat asks about the location of the palace. Hakim Baba says, “ Chihilsetoon is located in the south of Kabul city and it’s built by Shah Zaman on a hill in 12-hectare lands about more than 200 years ago inside a green garden. 

In the beginning, this castle was used as an official guest house and usually, foreign kings and guests were living there in the mentioned castle.

Later residents of Kabul city were celebrating Eid days; Nowruz and Fridays in the garden of this castle.

The palace was also called Jahan Numa palace; Hindki and Takht-e-Rustam garden.  

Some people say that this palace had 40 pillars so that they had called it 40 Pillars palace ( Chihilsetoon Palace).

There was a big pigeon house and about 100 thousand pigeons had been keeping in it. This castle was destroyed in 40 years war in Afghanistan and recently it’s rebuilt.”

Lalo Mama closes the window.

Fawad and Tamana say to Lalo Mama that they are hungry. Lalo Mama presents them Samosa. (a special Afghani food). They eat and praise it. Lalo Mama says that it beef Samosa. Tamana asks about the ingredients and cooking of it. Lalo Mama opens another window for their information.

Window:

In the window, Zahra goes to Mursal’s home and wants her to teach her how to cook beef Samosa. Zahra says that in the beginning, we take a teaspoonful of yeast; four glasses of flour; a glass of milk; half of a glass of cooking oil, and one egg and then mix them for about 30 minutes and then we leave it for about one hour.

We fry the slices of two onions in the oil in a frying pan and then we add ground beef to it and we also add red pepper, cumin, and garlic to it and leave them for 10 minutes on a little fire, and then we add green pepper to it.

Now the ingredients are ready for use.

Divide the dough into eight equal portions. You can use a measuring cup, but it's easier to just eyeball it.

 Roll in each round into chapattis. A chapatti is a thin, flat circular bread or dough. In this case, each one should be about 6 inches. Use a rolling pin or press the chapattis into shape with your fingers. Cut each chapatti into two halves. Use a knife to slice each one in half.

 Stuff and fold the samosas. put 2 teaspoons mixture of filling into the center of a piece of dough, then bring the edges together to form a cone shape. Seal the edges carefully using a little water.

Use your fingers to press the edges of each samosa into place.

 As you finish filling each one, set it aside on a plate or a baking sheet. 

 Heat the oil. Pour several inches of oil into a large dutch oven or a high-sided frying pan. Heat the oil.  

 Fry the samosas. Place 3 to 4 samosas in the pot to fry. Deep fry them for about 10 minutes, until both sides are golden brown. Don't try to crowd the pot with too many at once, or they may fall apart instead of cooking properly."

Lalo Mama closes this window too.