One of the peculiar features of Armenian cuisine lies in the complex heat treatment as one and the same dish can be subjected to roasting, boiling and stewing. For example, there is a popular Armenian recipe with a barbecue sauce which involves baking vegetables in the fire followed by slight roasting. Eleanora will make specifically this sauce for us today. And we will also discover a simple recipe for a national dessert.

 

In the kitchen

 

Today we will cook a sauce for shashlyk or kebab. In Armenian and is called Horovats.  We need to thread vegetables onto skewers.  Typically, this is what the men do. But today we will prove that women can thread vegetables too. It turns out that this process requires certain skills. It is probably best to position the skewer horizontally to prevent the vegetables from bursting while being cooked and left on the chargrill. We decided to thread tomatoes, peppers and aubergines on separate skewers because it is only the first stage of cooking the dressing.

 

We place it in the smoke, in the very fire.  For thirty minutes.  Armenian dishes are known for their specific spicy flavour and intensity. Pepper, garlic, cumin and various spicy greens are used as a condiment. It is estimated that Armenians use about 300 kinds of wild herbs and flowers to cook their dishes.

 

 We need to peel the vegetables. The skin is removed easily.  In general, people clean them in different ways. Some throw them in cold or salty water to make the skin peel off easily. Yes, as soon as we remove them from the roasting spit we peel them without resorting to water, to keep their natural juices.

 

The primary heat treatment on the fire gave the vegetables a specific taste and flavour. Vegetables cooked with this method can be conserved. However, if you do not store up the sauce for the future, then roast them altogether. Once all the vegetables are cleaned of their burnt skin and peppers from seed, we cut them into large chunks. The onions are slightly roasted first in a pan with oil then we carefully add the vegetables. We want to gently mix them and sprinkle salt on them as well as fresh cilantro. Any Armenian dinner should certainly end with a dessert. Perhaps the most famous Armenian dessert is called Gatá, which are a kind of pie usually with a sweet filling.

 

And now let’s get down to the dessert. This is one of my favourite desserts, Etchmiadzin-style Gata.  I’ll make the dough and you make the filling. We need walnuts for stuffing which we will crush finely. To make the dough, we need butter or margarine which is even more suitable. We should take it out of the refrigerator in advance so that it’s slightly melted. Then we add Georgian yoghurt called matsoni or sour milk and mix it with a fork to avoid clumping.  Well, it seems ready. Before adding flour, to make the dough more airy we mix half a teaspoon of baking soda in vinegar. Then, we take three cups of flour. It should be very soft and gentle. We are going to add flour in three stages to make it easier to stir.

 

For the filling, we mix crumbled nuts and sugar and add some vanilla. The filling will also have some flour and melted butter in it. However, we will add it to the pan.  We fry it for three minutes because the sugar melts quickly and it all starts to blend.  We can see that there are some clumps so it’s time to add the melted butter. Another feature of Armenian cuisine lies in using melted butter instead of fat as in the majority of Oriental cuisines. We let our mixture cool down and spread it on the dough.

 

We roll out the dough in thin and flat layers and spread the filling on top. Then, we want to carefully wrap it all in a roll. We put Gata on a greased baking sheet after cutting the roll into diamond-shaped pieces. Eleonara recommends smearing the dough with egg yolk to make it look good. Then we bake it in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

 

Recipe

 

“Khorovats” sauce:

3 aubergines

6 bell peppers

6 tomatoes

Several sprigs of coriander

Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Etchmiadzin Gata

Dough:

200g of margarine

200g of matsoni (Georgian yoghurt)

400g of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

 

Filling:

130g of flour

200g of sugar

2g of vanilla

120g of walnuts

100g of baked milk

Egg yolk for brushing