AUSHAK - AFGHAN RAVIOLI Recipe

To make the yogurt sauce: Mix all the ingredients together. Set aside. To make the tomato sauce: Heat oil in a pan set over medium heat. Add chopped onions, and sauté until translucent about 3 minutes. Add minced garlic, ginger and cumin and sauté, 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until seeds are browned and oil is fragrant. Add tomatoes, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, sumac, cayenne, salt, pepper and water. Simmer gently over low heat until sauce is redued by half and is thick. Stir in cooked split peas. Keep warm until aushaks are ready to serve. To make the aushak filling: Cut off the dark green hard leaves from the leek. Keeping the roots to hold the leeks together, halve lengthwise. Fan out the leeks and rinse under the faucet to remove sand. Slice finely cross, wise, discard the root. Microwave leeks until soft, about 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine leeks with salt, cilantro and let it cool. Folding the dumplings: On a clean surface lightly dusted with cornstarch, brush edges of the wonton wrapper with a little water (just slightly damp). Mound about 1 Tablespoon of the filling in the center of each wrapper. Bring opposite corners together to make a triangle and press to seal, making sure to remove any air from the filling. Make sure seams are well-sealed. Next bring the two corners along the long edge of the triangle to meet together and overlap them. Press the two corners together to fuse them. Place on a tray dusted with cornstarch. Cooking the dumplings: Bring a pot of water to boil. Drop in about 12 dumplings in at a time, give it a stir so that the dumplings do not stick to the bottom. Wait 2-3 minutes or until the dumplings floats up. Remove with a slotted spoon. Serving: Place dumplings in a plate, ladle over tomato sauce and drizzle with yogurt sauce. Garnish with mint.