Chalkashovi (rice and lentil garnish)

I promised to follow-up my last post with Krchik soup, but it a garnish called Chalkashovi appears to be presented in this post. This is a rice and lentil garnish "quite" popular in Armenia. I remember my grand mother making it quite often. This is rather easy-to-do dish for a new housewife. 

Several simple steps:

1. you cook rice and lentil separately. BUT keep in mind, these products should not be well cooked/boiled.

2. fry onions in oil, add the rice and the lentil together and add a little bit water, so that it covers the content of the pot.

You can escape step 2, by the way. I do that usually.

One important note: this garnish should be cooked with brown lentil and not red.

Here is a photo.

Gapama!!!

My first post!!!

This is my first post, so I will tell why I decided to run this blog. It is also important to say who and what motivated me:)
My inspiration was a small group in Facebook, where people share "forgotten", "unappreciated" or "not appreciated enough" recipes. The members of this group share mainly Armenian recipes. So I decided to cook different things myself and share it online through this blog.  I really do not like that people associate Armenia with barbecue or kebabs, while there are many other things, which are truly sophisticated (at least to me).
I was also inspired by my Georgian friend Nino (I still do not know how to tag her here), who decided to write 5 things she loves about Georgia. Cuisine was among those top 5 Nino indicated. Another Georgian colleague of mine made Gapama for New Year party and I felt really pleased and proud:)

So here I start with Gapama (pumpkin with rise inside), which is to me "not appreciated enough".
This is an extremely easy recipe. All you need is a nice pumpkin, long rice, dried apricot, dried plum, walnuts and raising.
Step 1: cut the pumpkin, so you can then add rice inside.
Step 2: cook the rice for some 15 minutes. it should not be well cooked, when it goes inside the pumpkin.
Step 3: fry the dried fruits, walnuts and raisin with butter and then mix it with rice.
Step 4: put all this inside the pumpkin.
It needs 1,5 or 2 hours to stay in the oven.
Yes!!! And don't forget to put slices of butter over the rice, before you put the pumpkin in the oven.

Enjoy guys!!! Next dish is Krchik - a soup from Northern Armenia.