Great Armenian Recipes & a bit of history!

Armenian cuisine is not so much a static set of traditional recipes as it is an attitude and approach to food and to cooking. Partly, this has to do with the fact that a standard mixture of seasonings - known as **chaimen- flavors most prepared dishes.

Besides the **chaimen, garlic, onions, peppers, lemons, cinnamon, oregano, mint, tahine (tahini, a sesame seed paste), mahleb (ground cherry pits, available in Middle Eastern specialty stores) and olive oil round out the rest of the Armenian seasoning cupboard.

While vegetables, fruits and grains tend to take center stage in a meal, lamb is also a basic ingredient, with its unique flavor forming the basis for hearty soups and stews (abours), as well as a wide variety of other dishes.

Armenian Yogurt
And then there is yogurt - not the mild or heavily sugared concoctions known in America, but a rich and pungent custard made from scratch. The thing about yogurt is that it takes yogurt to make yogurt. That’s not so much of a problem today, when plain yogurt purchased from the supermarket provides the necessary bacterial starter. But that wasn’t always the case.

Being an organic substance, getting the first yogurt starters into the United States in the 19th century was no easy task. There was absolutely no way for the immigrants to simply bring their needed starter through American customs. But American customs agents greatly underestimated Armenian ingenuity.

The essential ingredient for turning milk into yogurt is a complex set of bacteria that basically takes over the medium (milk) and transforms it. The bacteria can live for a period of time under less than ideal circumstances. This bit of information is essential because, knowing it, savvy Armenian émigrés would dip some fresh white handkerchiefs into a mixture of water and yogurt before they sailed for America. The handkerchiefs were then line dried and neatly folded into their luggage. Once they were safely through Customs and settled into their new homes, they would simply soak the linen in some warm milk, reactivating the culture, and make their yogurt!

The History of the Food
Armenia is a very ancient culture that originated in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers thousands of years ago, settling eventually high in the Caucus Mountains, bordered by the Black, Caspian and Mediterranean seas., as well as in the Cilicia region of modern day Turkey. While traditionally not nearly as nomadic as many Middle Eastern tribes, Armenians have long been wanderers of the world. Wherever they have found themselves, Armenians have tended to maintain a strong ethnic identity.

So, in Armenian kitchens throughout the world, spring means picking young, tender wild grape leaves and rolling them into platters of sarmas coming out of the kitchen, cooked when the wild grape leaves used to wrap the fragrant rice and lamb filling were at their very best.

As the tomatoes, peppers and zucchini ripen in the backyard garden, the dolma season comes next. Dolmas taste best when the vegetables used for stuffing the lamb/rice mixture are right off the vine... ripe.... but not as large as the produce becomes further into the season. Whole meals are constructed from dolmas, served warm with dollops of cold, fresh madzoon (yogurt), Armenian flatbread, and maybe a salad of tomatoes or cucumbers on the side.




**Chaimen is a unique spice blend that gives Armenian meats, vegetable dishes and casseroles their unmistakable flavor. It’s a simple mix to prepare and can be stored, tightly sealed, for months in your spice cupboard.

The basic dry mix consists of :
1 part Allspice
1 part Cayenne Pepper
1 part Fenugreek
1 part Cumin
2 parts Paprika
1 part cinnamon (optional)
When preparing Armenian meat dishes, the dry spice mix is added to crushed garlic cloves, parsley, and tomato paste and then thinned to the consistency of a thick cream, either with olive oil or plain yoghurt.

The mixture to then rubbed on lamb or chicken and allowed to marinate for at least an hour before grilling or roasting.

For vegetable dishes or casseroles, (often using eggplant or green beans), add the spice mix (to taste – but remember, it’s strongly flavored), along with chopped garlic, parsley and tomato paste and stew, covered, on top of the stove. Onions added to such dishes prior to the cooking process is also very traditional.


A Traditional Armenian Lamb Roast, using Chaimen
One leg of lamb, approximately 3 – 5 pounds.

Chaimen mix, with the crushed garlic, parsley, tomato paste and either olive oil or plain yoghurt (prepare approximately half a cup of the mixture.

6 small potatoes (whole) or 3 – 4 large ones, quartered
6 small onions (whole) or 3 – 4 large ones, quartered
1, 1 - 2 pound eggplant, cut into approximately 2 “ pieces
1 pound of whole, fresh green beans
1, 1 - 2 pound green or yellow squash, cut into approximately 2” pieces
Method:
With your hands, thoroughly rub about ¼ cup of the Chaimen mixture into eh leg of lamb, taking care to rub the mixture into every part of the meat.
In a large bowl, mix the remaining ¼ cup of the Chaimen thoroughly with the vegetables .
Place the lamb in the center of a roasting pan and then mound the vegetables around it.
Seal the pan, either with a tight fitting cover or with aluminum foil.
Marinate the dish, by letting it sit in the refrigerator for at least a hour, and up to overnight
Bake in an oven set at 350 degrees (F) for around 2 hours – or until the lamb is tender and cooked through, and the vegetables are soft, but not mushy. The meat and vegetable juices, together with the Chaimen mixture, will provide a nice sauce for spooning over the meat at the table.
Serve warm from the oven.

Serves about 4 – 6 people

Please note: Chicken may be substituted for the lamb and is also a delightful roasted dish.

Hope you enjoyed this bit of my culture now if you'll excuse me it's almost time for me to go pick young, tender wild grape leaves!!