MANDAK!!!

This is one of my favorite herbs, growing in Armenia. Here Vahe Martirosyan writes about more than 250 kinds of herbs, that we eat  in Armenia  http://vahemart.livejournal.com/192727.html
You can buy Mandak in every corner here. Wash it, boil it in water, then fry it with eggs, add salt and pepper.

Pasuc Tolma!!!

Well, there is a variety of recipes for fasting tolma (which should, of course, be without meat). This tolma was made by my mother, but I also cook it myself. It is a good dish to be served both hot and cold.

The recipe is really easy. Fry 2 middle size or one big onion in the oil, add rice and grey lentil (keep lentil in cold water for at least half  day or better full night), add 2 spoons of tomato paste, salt and pepper, herbs that you prefer (dried rehan is a good choice). Fry all this for a 5 minutes while, then wrap into grape leaves and cook as usual. It is amazingly tasty.

Krchik - soup from Northern Armenia

Here is the promised post about Krchik Քրճիկ: a pickle soup popular in Northern Armenia.
The ingredients are a few: cabbage, pickle cabbage/carrot mix, tomato paste, onions, potatoes and hachar, which I do not really know how to translate in English (հաճար).

So, wash the vegetables and cut them, fry the onion, then add the potatoes, tomato paste and pickle mix. And then, finally, add hachar. I will take quite a time for the soup to be ready, cause hachar needs pretty much time to boil.
One important reminder: wash the hachar in advance.

To be frank, my husband was not very happy about this soup, but I love anything, which has pickles inside.
This is how Wikipedia defines the soup
Krchik – soup made from sauerkraut, hulled wheat, potatoes, and tomato purée.^[19]
When making the soup, I understood there is something common with Russian Shchi (simply because of too much cabbage in both) and when googling it here is what I saw: http://gotovlyu.com/en/recept/krchik.html
So, bon appetit!!!

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.