Methods to Inventory an Armenian Pantry

Armenian delicacies is historic, courting once more to a minimal of 400 BC. Historic Armenia was located every alongside one in all many Silk Freeway routes and one different busy commerce route between the Black and Caspian seas, allowing exchanges of culinary influences from afar. The world may also be the place quite a few key domesticated meals crops have flourished historically, along with wheat and barley, grapes, apricots, and peaches, and these meals are central to its delicacies. 

Armenians love meat, notably lamb, nonetheless relative poverty meant that meat was usually reserved for explicit occasions until fairly not too way back. The Kingdom of Armenia was the first to undertake Christianity nationwide inside the 4th century AD, and ecclesiastical restrictions on the consumption of meat meant that Armenia developed a sturdy vegetarian delicacies, embracing the utilization of beans, lentils, nuts, and dairy merchandise like yogurt and cheese.

Beneath, you’ll uncover a guidelines of the essential factor elements of Armenian delicacies, with concepts for his or her use and the place to look out them. Many are merely current in any grocery retailer, whereas others would require barely additional effort. Chances are you’ll uncover Armenian markets in metropolitan areas of the US and Canada the place there are essential Armenian populations, nonetheless plenty of the specialty elements utilized in Armenian cooking will be current in Arabic and Heart Japanese markets. In addition to, many on-line retailers, along with My Little Armenia and House of Lavash, promote Armenian merchandise. For top-quality spices, I wish to advocate every Burlap and Barrel and Curio Spice.

Dairy Merchandise

Butter

Butter is essential in Armenian cooking, the place it is used as a fat for lots of savory dishes, along with rice pilaf and harissa, and for sweets like gata and totally different desserts and cookies.  For example, copious portions of it are essential for making the fundamental Armenian Easter bread usually referred to as choreg.

Cheese

Armenians eat and prepare dinner dinner with every kind of cheeses, and dishes identical to the buttery, crisp, phyllo-wrapped turnovers often called borek attribute plenty of types of cheese. Nevertheless perhaps in all probability probably the most iconic is string cheese (tel banir), with out which no Armenian mezze platter is full. Not just like the shrink-wrapped sticks of string cheese favored by American schoolchildren, which is often an aged mild cheddar or mozzarella, Armenian string cheese is a current cheese preserved in a brine, identical to feta. It is made by heating cow’s milk curds, together with spices, then stretching and layering them into prolonged ropes, identical to how hand-pulled noodles are made. As quickly because the ropes are customary, they’re braided and submerged in brine.

Armenians moreover use tangy exhausting cow’s milk cheeses in dishes resembling boreks and su boreg. One of many essential modern types of these exhausting cheeses is called lori, a barely salty, tangy exhausting cheese identical to Muenster. Salty sheep’s milk cheeses like feta moreover decide prominently in Armenian delicacies.

Yogurt

Yogurt is ubiquitous on the Armenian desk, and is utilized in lots of Armenian dishes every savory and sweet. (Armenians launched yogurt to the broader American world, when Columbo Yogurt was primarily based in 1929 by Rose and Sarkis Colombosian, in Andover, Massachusetts.) Armenian yogurt is often plain, full-fat yogurt created from cow’s milk. It is used as a condiment—each plain or blended with barely minced garlic—for lots of savory dishes, along with manti and ganach lupia, and bowls of yogurt are  typically set on the desk as a standard condiment. It moreover serves as the underside of soups, along with tanabour, a grain-and-yogurt soup that is served every cold and warm, and the soup-like dip created from yogurt and cucumbers usually referred to as djadjekh. Skinny yogurt with water, and in addition you’ll get a cooling Armenian drink usually referred to as tan. Yogurt is usually used as a result of the liquid or dairy half in desserts and sweets, along with in gata, or Armenian espresso cake.

Some Armenians moreover use chortan, additionally known as khash, which is yogurt that has been dried down into brittle chunks to guard it. It might be rehydrated in water and used like yogurt in dishes.

Up to date Herbs and Greens

Herbs, every current and dried, are essential to Armenian savory cooking. Armenian meals is far much less reliant on spices for style than many various regional cuisines, with aromatic herbs doing the work as an alternative.

Up to date herbs like purple basil, scallions, dill, mint, flat-leaf parsley, cilantro, tarragon, and summer time season savory are used as a garnish (often collectively) for lots of dishes, each chopped high-quality, as in dishes like eetch, chi kofte, and vospov kofte, or left whole and served as a type of aspect salad. (The filling for jingalov hats, an unleavened flatbread from Artzakhis made using a finely chopped combination of these sorts of herbs, along with others collected from the wild.)

Purslane

One current inexperienced notably beloved by Armenians is purslane, or per per, which has a tart style and a crisp texture. Purslane is utilized in salads or chopped up and added to soups every cold and hot. Though the herb isn’t very well-known proper right here within the US besides you’re a forager, it grows as a weed in plenty of places. Purslane moreover grows like a weed—it makes so many seeds that it could be exhausting to eradicate as quickly because it reveals up, so you should do as many Armenians do and embrace it.

Dried Herbs

As for dried herbs, mint (spearmint, not the menthol-heavy peppermint used to make mint tea) is an important flavoring for lots of Armenian soups and stews. Totally different dried herbs utilized in Armenian delicacies embody za’atar (a wild herb inside the oregano family that may also be the concept of an herb and spice combine by the equivalent determine), savory, tarragon, sorrel, and thyme.

Nuts and Seeds

Nuts

Walnuts are the essential nut of Armenian delicacies. In savory dishes they’re used as a base, like inside the spicy dip muhammara, and as a component in fairly a couple of soups. Walnuts are moreover used as a result of the filling for a variety of sweets, along with many cookies, desserts like gata and nazook, and phyllo pastries resembling bourma, baklava, and kunafe. The Armenian “sweet sausage” often called rojik is made by tying walnuts plenty of inches apart on a string, which is then dipped again and again proper right into a molten pot of grape molasses and allowed to sit back, not not like how candles are customary. It’s sliced skinny and served as a mezze merchandise.

Almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts, and pine nuts are moreover typically utilized in Armenian delicacies, used whole as elements of pilafs and totally different rice dishes, and whole or flooring in sweets.

Tahini Paste

Tahini paste, created from roasted, flooring sesame seeds, is utilized in a variety of Armenian meals, every sweet and savory. It’s used inside the filling for a vegetarian potato-chickpea dumpling often called topik, and in every hummus and baba ganoush, two Heart Japanese dishes beloved by Armenians. In sweet functions, it appears in cookies and since the filling for tahinov hats, or Armenian tahini bread, a laminated flatbread.

Fruits

Dried Fruits

A go to to an Armenian grocery retailer will yield a panoply of dried fruits, along with raisins, mulberries, figs, dates, and two types of bitter cherries—an actual tart cherry, along with Cornelian cherries, which are actually the fruit of a Dogwood tree . Nevertheless the dried fruit Armenians love most is apricots, which originated inside the area (the species determine for apricots is Prunus armeniaca). They’re served as part of a mezze unfold, and as a component in fairly a couple of starch-thickened puddings, along with a normal New 12 months’s sweet porridge often called anoush abour, made with wheat berries, dried fruit, and nuts.

Grape, mulberry, and pomegranate molasses appear usually in Armenian delicacies, as souring brokers in dishes like muhammara and eetch, and since the bottom for rojik.

Armenians moreover make a variety of dried fruit leathers using apples, grapes, apricots, and plums; they’re usually referred to as bastegh or t’tu lavash (“bitter lavash”) a nod to their resemblance to the fundamental Armenian flatbread.

Up to date Fruits

Apricots, peaches, grapes, cherries, quince, and mulberries attribute carefully in Armenian delicacies and custom, nonetheless pomegranates are in all probability probably the most prized fruit. The pomegranate symbolizes eternity to Armenians and appears generally in work, woven rugs, and jewelry, every modern and historic. The seeds are eaten out of hand and as a garnish for diverse dishes every savory and sweet.

Dried Spices

Armenians use every kind of dried spices of their cooking, along with cumin, black pepper, dried garlic, paprika, cayenne, fenugreek, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Scorching purple pepper flakes like Aleppo pepper are generally used for his or her heat and fruity fragrance.

Chemen

One primary flooring spice combine utilized in Armenian delicacies is chemen, a mixture of cumin, black pepper, garlic powder, scorching purple pepper, paprika, fenugreek, and salt. It is used as a rub for basturma, a dry-cured beef, and to season soujouk, a dried beef sausage.

Mahlab

Mahlab is created from the tiny seeds of the St. Lucy’s cherry (Prunus mahaleb), a tree native to the Mediterranean, Iran, and parts of Central Asia. Because of the seeds are terribly exhausting, they’re always flooring proper right into a high-quality powder sooner than use. Along with nigella, it’s doubtless one of many two key flavoring elements for choreg, or Armenian Easter bread, and it is typically used to style Armenian string cheese. Its style is aromatic and complex, drawing comparisons to cherry, almond, vanilla, and rose.

The oils in mahlab are terribly quick to oxidize and swap rancid if uncovered to air, so it’s best to purchase whole mahlab, retailer them in a sealed container inside the freezer, and grind them in a spice mill or mortar and pestle merely sooner than use. If you happen to occur to can solely uncover flooring mahlab, use it shortly after purchase, and retailer the remaining inside the freezer. In my experience, the mahlab supplied in plenty of Heart Japanese grocery retailers is usually already rancid, so your best guess is to provide it from on-line service supplier; I like the mahlab from Curio Spice.

Nigella

Nigella is referred to variously as “black cumin,” “black caraway,” “onion seed,” “black sesame,” and even “fennel flower,” although it isn’t botanically related to any of those spices and greens. Nigella is splendidly sophisticated, and with its notes of citrus, pine, and menthol, it’s simple to see why it’s compared with so many various spices. Nigella may also be bitter, which is why it’s just about always left whole fairly than flooring proper right into a powder, so its aroma can infuse a dish with out the bitter style taking on. Nigella is utilized in choreg, and is added to Armenian string cheese. It is usually used to brighten breads and pastries, like boreks.

Sumac

Sumac is a drupe that grows on bushes, and is often supplied as a powdered spice. It lends meals a bitter style, and along with the herb za’atar and sesame seeds, is doubtless one of many key elements inside the za’atar spice combine, Sumac is usually sprinkled over a dish for profitable of tartness in Armenian delicacies, along with on sini manti and loads of salads.

Preserved Objects

Grape Leaves

Grape leaves are used as wrappers for sarma, or stuffed grape leaves, which is likely to be full of a spiced rice mixture and served at room temperature, or full of a combination of meat and rice to be served scorching. Grape leaves which had been preserved in brine are supplied in jars. They should be rinsed and patted dry sooner than use.

Purple Pepper Paste (Beghbeghi Tchur)

Along with tomato paste (with which it is typically combined), purple pepper paste created from purple bell or big purple chile peppers is doubtless one of the vital very important jarred elements utilized in Armenian delicacies. It’s utilized in every kind of dishes for savoriness and a gentle heat, along with lahmajun, khorovats, ganach lupia, and losh kebabs.

Legumes

Armenians use a variety of dried beans and legumes of their cooking, nonetheless the 2 most significant are purple lentils and chickpeas. Purple lentils are utilized in soups andvegetarian kofte often called vospov kofte, amongst totally different dishes.  Chickpeas attribute in soups and stews, salads, and the vegetarian dumplings often called topik.moreover essential in hummus, which isn’t utterly Armenian, nonetheless just about always appears on Armenian mezze spreads. Armenians moreover prepare dinner dinner with a small purple bean often called a Goris bean, which is similar to a cranberry bean (there’s moreover a purple-black variant), and it is the bottom for the filling in my lavash triangles recipe.

Grains, Pasta, and Wheat Merchandise

Armenians use every kind of dried grains of their cooking, along with barley, buckwheat, and hulled wheat berries, the ultimate of which is used to make the chicken-and-wheat porridge usually referred to as harissa. Along with wheat flour, semolina (a coarsely-ground durum flour) is often utilized in puddings, desserts, and cookies. Prolonged-grain white rice is used to make Armenian rice pilaf and to fill dolma (stuffed greens) and sarma (stuffed grape leaves).

Bulgur

Apart from rice,  maybe essential grain for Armenians is bulgur, which is par-boiled and dried cracked durum wheat. This quick-cooking whole grain is utilized in eetch, vospov kofte, tabbouleh (and totally different salads), as a starchy filler for a variety of meatballs (kofta), and is usually used to make pilaf. (Bulgur is quick to point out rancid when uncovered to oxygen, so it’s best saved inside the fridge or freezer.)

Lavash

Lavash is so central to Armenian custom that it was not too way back added to UNESCO’s Guide Guidelines of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. (It moreover appears individually on that guidelines as culturally very important to Armenia’s neighbors Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.) Lavash is used as a wrap for meats like losh kebab and khorovats and as an edible utensil for dishes like eetch, harissa, and dips resembling hummus and baba ganoush. It may be used somewhat than phyllo to make crammed turnovers like my lavash triangles. Totally different modern breads in Armenia embody pita, choreg, and matnakash.

Phyllo (Fillo) Dough

Phyllo dough, found inside the freezer a part of most grocery retailers, serves as a result of the wrapper for a variety of Armenian dishes, along with savory boreks and the sweet pastries baklava and bourma.

Vermicelli

Along with rice or bulgur, the other key ingredient in Armenian rice pilaf is a high-quality, long-stranded dried pasta like vermicelli or skinny spaghetti. Many Armenians use vermicelli nests, since they’re easy to portion out.