Nowroz 2019 – a great success

We celebrated Nowroz 1398 this year in great style and raised a much-needed $10k for our work in Afghanistan.

A warm welcome by AADO President, Sarina Greco

It was such a pleasure to see so many of our friends at the lunch. Our warmest thanks go to everyone who supported AADO’s work by coming along and by donating to our programs for village women. We are still hoping to reach our target of $12,000 os if you can help, please click here.

We are grateful to our hosts, Emily and Matthew, for again sharing their beautiful house for the function. Little Leo was delighted with his new Afghan shirt, spangles and all!  A great effort by the many volunteers who set up, served up and packed up so well and those who prepared the fantastic lunch, including the delicious Boulani.

A highlight was the Boulani demo by Nahid and Guly. Boulani is very popular in Afghanistan, especially for picnics. It is a very versatile pancake or flat bread stuffed with goodness that can be cooked on the BBQ hotplate – ideal for outdoors entertaining. See below for the recipe.

Book launch

A Future Worth Having – Nouria Salehi and AADO in Afghanistan by Sally Morrison was launched by former MP and Speaker in the House of Reps, Anna Burke. Sally and Anna are great supporters and friends of AADO.

The book is a compilation by Sally Morrison from her own and other writing to celebrate the extraordinary life of Dr Nouria Salehi on the award of her AM this year. The book starts with a brief history of tumultuous Afghanistan, maps Nouria’s emergence as very talented student and PhD in nuclear physics in medicine in France and, her return to Kabul and eventual journey to Australia to join her brother Aziz. She was signed up to work at the Royal Melbourne Hospital’s Dept of Nuclear Medicine almost immediately but, since they had no money to pay her, she worked 3 years in this role as a volunteer!

It also maps the beginnings of AADO and Nouria’s enormous commitment to her people, particularly the women of Afghanistan. It’s a great read!  The book is available for sale online here.

Boulani (Afghan pancake or flat bread) serves 12

Dough ingredients

    • 500g wholemeal flour
    • 500g white flour
    • 2 cups of water
    • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (and more oil for cooking)
    • a pinch of salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast

Mix all ingredients and knead well then leave for 1 hour in a lightly oiled bowl, covered, to prove. Tear into portions about the size of a lemon and using a little flour, shape into balls arranged on a cloth and cover to prove again for another hour.  Meanwhile prepare the stuffing.

Stuffing ingredients

    • 500g leek, finely chopped,
    • one tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil
    • black pepper, salt
    • fresh or dried coriander
    • fresh chilli or capsicum

Use a rolling pin to make balls of dough quite thin. Fill one side of the circle of dough with the stuffing and close to form a semicircle shape. Put a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan and brown both sides of the Boulani. Serve with chatni (chutney) or yogurt. The stuffing can be made from other vegetables like spinach (chopped), zucchini (grated), pumpkin (grated), and potato (cooked and mashed) mixed with spring onion and spices.