Aush (?)

[RonC]

Several years ago, my wife and I used to frequent an Afgan restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of our favorite there was a soup that, as my falling memory recalls, was called aush. I'm sure someone can correct me about its name and, hopefully, provide a recipe.

Thanks,

Sidecar Ron

[touaregsand]

I know of a dish called Aush that has noodles, meat sauce and yoghurt sauce.

Do you remember any of the ingredients in the Aush soup you had?

[Pan]

touregsand, where I've been, the dish you're thinking of is called aushak, but a web search on "aush +recipe" immediately turns up a main dish like you described but also including pulses (see here, but be warned about the possibility that you will be assaulted by very annoying ads).

Aush, in my experience, is a very black-peppery soup with noodles, yogurt, and several kinds of bean. Here's a soup recipe which came up second in my search, however.

[touaregsand]

I did a little research.

Aush and Aushak turn up similar recipes. Some recipes for Aush are soups like the one you mentioned. Inspired by the link you provided I looked up Ashe. Lots of results for Persian and Afghani soups. Ashe apparently means soup in Persian. An online menu for an Afghani restaurant describeds Ashe as "traditional soup with or without meat." Ashak is described as "steamed scallion dumplings topped with yoghurt sauce, with or without meat."

So I looked up Ashak and found a few dumpling, yoghurt, with or without meat recipes. Some of the ashe recipes have noodles and vegetables in a soup, meat sauce as a garnish of sorts and a mint relish.

Afghan is another country who's cuisine is little known. The Afghani people I've known have been ethnically diverse. I'm fascinated on the basis of location alone. "Afghan Food & Cookery? by Helen Saberi, published by Hippocrene Books is the only one I've heard of.

NOTE: I play around with the possible English spellings when I research foreign dishes.

[RonC]

Thanks folks. The recipe doesn't sound too much like our memory. As we recall, the soup from our past included some ground lamb and had yogurt on top, but no beans. Sounds like aush is a pretty generic term, so I'm sure it must cover a whole host of different soups.

Sidecar Ron

Edited April 3, 2005 by RonC (log)

[SwatiC]

I know of a dish called Aush that has noodles, meat sauce and yoghurt sauce.

Do you remember any of the ingredients in the Aush soup you had?

←

The Aush that you describes sounds like Aush-e-Reshteh, the Persian noodle soup with reconstituted whey (kashk), fried onions and fried mint on top. Am I way off the mark here? Aush in Persian means "soup" so there are several kinds of soups in Persian cuisine, including Aush-e-Jo (barley soup) and Aush-e-Aab Leemoo (Lemon soup) etc.

[RonC]

Ahhh, the memories are coming back. Gotta try our hands at making some. Thanks.

Sidecare Ron