Armenian Food

[Jenise]

This week, as I am often wont to do when sitting on the couch within reach of most of my cookbooks, I grabbed one and announced "I am going to make something from this book." The book I grabbed was 'Armenian Cooking' by Alice Bezjian who was a revered cook/grocer in Los Angeles' Little Armenia way back when (my copy was probably printed in the early 70's). There are whole chapters on Kofte, Beureks and Dolmas, which are workhorses in the Armenian playbook, plus a zillion other recipes from other overlapping/similar nationalities plus stuff that Alice, obviously, just liked, like Beef Wellington.

Certain ingredients come up a lot. Lamb, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, spinach, garlic and onions, lemons lemons lemons, bulgur wheat, rice and white (bechamel) sauce recur constantly. There are also things that clearly, to her, are normal, but which the rest of us wouldn't find nearly so, like a recipe that calls for "8 small lamb tongues".

In her earnestness to prove that Armenian food can be elevated to haute cuisine (a claim contained in the forward of the book), she even includes a page of formal dinner menus orgranized by wine type. As I read thru those, I imagined all the hoots from you guys, like a menu for Chateauneuf du Pape that begins with 'Deluxe Fruit Salad'. All well-intentioned, just somewhat misdirected by today's standards--but at least she knew that CdP existed.

And so it was that I bought an eggplant yesterday, planning to make her eggplant/potato beurek for dinner. But when I saw the leftover bolognese (a fairly dry sauce, mostly meat held together by the reduced tomato essence and wine) from last week in the fridge, I realized I had a moussaka on my hands. All I'd need to do is add cloves and cinnamon to the meat sauce and cook it in a bit, brown the eggplant slices and top it with a quick white sauce into which a single beaten egg would be added for substance. I haven't made moussaka in 20 years, at least. The beurek will wait for another day.

Isn't moussaka Greek you might ask? Well, yes and no. A dish of that type is indigenous to most of the countries bordering the eastern Mediterranean, it's just that the Greek version is the most famous. Anyway, this was SO delicious, and maybe one of the cleverest ways I've ever repurposed leftover bolognese sauce.

One of the two Armenian foods I'd most like to make is Lah Mejeune: very thin flatbreads topped with an equally thin spicy lamb/tomato mixture. The recipe in Alice's book is a yeast bread and not at all, strangely, anything like the thin flat Mejeunes sold in Armenian markets all over L.A. The other is stewed chicken that cooks for hours with whole wheat berries and is served topped with butter and cinnamon. My Armenian roommate said this is the chicken soup of the Armenian soul, what his mom made for the kids when they got sick. Anyway, he taught me to make it back in the early 80's but the 'how' part has faded away. I did love it, though.

Neat stuff. I know very little about Armenia and might find it challenging as a pescetarian. But there is so much food and culture out there in the world for us to explore!

I guess the fruit salad was for red Chateauneuf? You might be able to work with a melon with ham or something of the sorts and white Chateauneuf as a starter, if there was a gun to your head.

[Jenise]

You're right, Rahsaan. Landlocked Armenia wouldn't have had much means of acquiring seafood, though throughout the diaspora much would have been adapted based on local availability. This book really only addresses one L.A. immigrant's perspective. But as it makes abundantly clear, vegetables and salads are a huge part of the Armenian diet. You might be especially interested in dolmas, wherein vegetables are stuffed with rice and other vegetables--the best known, stuffed grape leaves, are only a small part of that category.

Yes, I'm sure it's red CdP. The other categories were: Rose, Cabernet Sauvignon, Burgundy and--get this!--Mouton-Cadet Rouge.

Good on you, Jenise, for grabbing up that Armenian cookbook.

I have been collecting recipes - and even occasional ingredients! - for dishes from places we've visited but I just can't reconcile most of them with HWMBO's virulent dislike of onions. Real goulasch? Full of onions and chilis. Satsivi? I even bought fenugreek but its full of onion, cilantro (another no-go food), and chilis. And there are more.

I did talk to the pizzaiole at my favorite shop last week and he will sell me ready-to-use dough balls. That may mean khachapuri soon! Of course, I stand no chance of getting the right cheeses but I read that a mix of feta and havarti can pass muster.

...HWMBO's virulent dislike of onions...

Wow, that's a tough one. My condolences!

My wife is much more sensitive than I am to onions and garlic. So I use them much less than before I met her. Which is actually not a bad thing, because I had been using them both in everything I made.

In the local Med Market which makes flatbread and pide breads daily you can, if you time it right, get a sample of Lamacun which I suspect is the same as Jenise describes. A spicy lamb topped flat bread which is just terrific. I believe that they make it for their lunch break as it is not for sale as such. They sell the breads and the ground lamb and an incredible variety of spices and Middle East items for cooking. Anyone interested in tahini from 4 different countries, not USA ?
As a result of having a source for the foods my cook book library has expanded to a shelf of Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian, Moroccan, Georgian and Caucasis books. They float between my night stand and the pantry library. Pleasant dreams and planning exercises. I don't have any specifically Armenian books but will look into it.

[Jenise]

Christina, it does sound like they might be the same thing. The difference in spelling is, I'm sure, less material than the similar sounds. There were bakeries in L.A. devoted to nothing but these, and small Middle Eastern-oriented markets closer to where I lived would have bags of a dozen in their freezers. I'd be amazed if your market didn't sell them! We'd eat them plain, lightly crisped on a cookie sheet, but our favorite thing was to chiffonade romaine and toss it with O&V, salt and chili flakes to roll up inside like a burrito.

Oops--phone call. More in a bit....

[Jenise]

From afar, my understanding is that Turkish would be closest to Armenian. Certainly the Koftes and extensive use of bulgur wheat are identical.

What a treasure your market is. I ran into such a market in Kansas, I'm fairly certain it was; I was very surprised to find a thriving Middle Eastern community there, a little plaza with restaurants and markets. Of course, I ate and I shopped. We *do* have a Mediterranean market here owned/run by a pair of Lebanese sisters from which I replenish my pantry's bulgur wheat, oil cured olives and stuff like that but unfortunately there's no bakery. And I don't know of any in Seattle, but I should look around.

AND OH MY GOD! Just mentioned the Lebanese market, where they make the best falafel. In their wraps is always a crisp pink vegetable that looks like it was cut from something round. And yesterday, while reading my Armenian book again, I paused over a recipe for pickled beets and turnips which surprised me for including a yeast dough. Yes, you bloom yeast, mix it with a small amount of sugar and flour, knead, let it rise, then put some of the dough "in one or two jars" which you fill with a few beet slices and the rest turnips. "The turnips will be pink," she says, no surprise, but I love those pickles in the falafel sandwich and it's possible they're made like Alice Bezjian's. Have you ever run into this method of pickling?

Have never heard of a fermented pickle that uses bakers yeast if I am understanding it correctly. A quick internet screen didn't turn up anything but I am curious and will continue to look.
The falafel at the local Med Market is made fresh and sold by the pound. It is distinctively green and hands down the best falafel I've ever had. I cook patties in a bit of olive oil and put them into their pide bread with tomato and crunchy stuff - radish, crisp lettuces, cucumber and apply a liberal wash of tahini sauce or pomegranate tahini sauce that I make by adding pomegrante molasses and harissa to the tahini sauce [ lemon juice, garlic, salt ]if I want some heat. A real treat.

[Jenise]

I'll print up that recipe for you and all to ponder this afternoon. I've never heard of anything like it. Mr. Pickles, I mean Larry, might be interested too. Would be a good hangover cure.

[Jenise]

Christina et al, here's the turnip pickle recipe:

2 pounds turnips
2 medium beets
1/4 cup salt
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/2 c water
1 tblsp sugar
3 tblsp flour
water and salt to taste

The turnips are cut into slices, salted and left overnight. Next day, water is added to leach salt, and the turnips are handsqueezed to get rid or the water, yada yada. But here's the interesting part:

In a separate bowl sprinkle the yeast over the water, add the flour and sugar, mix well. Set aside to rise. Pour the yeast mixture into one or two jars set aside. [After squeezing as described above] arrange the turnips in the yeast filled jars. Peel and slice beets and drop them over the turnips...leave at room temp a few days...test for salt and refrigerate. These pickles will keep for months.

So there you have it, pickles with a runny yeast 'dough' mixture for fermentation.

Reading around... I can't find anything about traditional Middle Eastern turnip pickles (although I live in a M.E. neighborhood so maybe I could find someone to ask?) but I did discover a similar-sounding traditional Hungarian food, leavened cucumbers. It is a summer-only food, not sure why, but essentially it's cucumbers, brine, very little vinegar, and a slice of bread. Keep it all in a jar for three days then strain. The chemistry behind it appears to be a lactic acid fermentation, started by residual wee beasties in the bread.

Regarding Armenia and fish dishes - wouldn't they have some freshwater fish in their rivers and lakes, that would have given rise to traditional fish dishes? I'd be surprised if they didn't.

[Jenise]

Matilda, can't be sure. All I have is this book, and it represents the opinions of one Armenian woman in Los Angeles and the community she lived and worked in--it's not a global POV, if such a thing is even possible. There are a few fish recipes, but only one or two that seem to be authentically Armenian where most are along the lines of, for instance, "Hawaiian Sweet & Sour Halibut". Of the obviously Armenianish ones, I'm intrigued by one where she divides cooked sole, blends each half with fine bulgur wheat, then sandwiches those layers around a layer of onions that have been sweated seasoned and reduced. It's chilled and served cold or at room temperature.

[Jenise]

Jeff, that's really interesting and yes, seems to have a similar purpose. A slice of bread is certainly easier than mixing yeast, flour and sugar isn't it. Summer only--maybe because that's when cucumbers are available?

Jeff, that's really interesting and yes, seems to have a similar purpose. A slice of bread is certainly easier than mixing yeast, flour and sugar isn't it. Summer only--maybe because that's when cucumbers are available?

Yeah, that's my guess, too. I read a dozen recipes or so, all very similar, but they do disagree on one point: half of them say to keep the jar in full sunlight and the other half say to keep it in the shade.

[Jenise]

Do the sunlight recipes suggest that the pickles are ready in two weeks and the shady ones in two months, or something like that? Solar heat would speed up the process, but what else?

No idea. Both kinds said three days.

Solar ultraviolet light would be a factor, too. Just about every Indian achar (pickle) recipe I've seen says to leave the jars of new pickles out in bright sunlight for a few weeks.

-Paul W.