Stew and Pilaf and Salad

The first Armenian meal was a stew called Bozbash.

I originally decided to make Bozbash after coming across praise for it in a book about Eastern European cuisine. This book, and several websites, identified Bozbash as an Armenian dish. I found several recipes for so-called Armenian Bozbash also. I also came across this article, containing a conjecture that Bozbash is not Armenian, but Azeri. I have no idea, and I had already made the thing, so to keep things simple this is my totally inauthentic, veganised version of the Azeri/Armenian/generally Central Asian dish.

For the record it was warm, hearty, but a little boring. I forgot the vinegar though, and this may have made the difference. No doubt the meaty version is less bland, but you can only get so much juice out of soy sausages.

Pilaf and Bozbash

I adapted it from these recipes: http://beyondborscht.tumblr.com/, Lamb Soup with Chestnuts, and Bozbash Yerevan.

Vegan Bozbash

Serves 3

• olive oil
• 2 Fry’s burgers
• Medium brown onion, small dice
• 1 tbs margarine
• 2 carrots, chopped into rounds
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3 cups vegan “beef” stock, 1 cup water
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 leek, diced
• pepper
• 2 potatoes, big dice
• 1 large tomato, peeled and diced
• 1 can chickpeas (400g), drained
• 1/2 cup fresh peas
• 4 semi dried prunes
• Leaves of 2 sprigs flat leaf parsley
• Leaves of 2 sprigs coriander
• a little vinegar, to serve

My method was mostly like the Beyond Borscht recipe, with a few deviations.

1. In a large saucepan fry the diced burhers in a little oil until they brown. Remove from an and put aside.
2. In the same pan, fry the onion in some margarine, until brown. Stir so it doesn’t burn too much ( a little is ok).
3. Add the carrot and continue to fry over medium heat until beginning to brown, stirring to avoid burning. Remove carrot and onion but don’t clean the pot.
4. Add the bay leef, thyme, water and beef stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off.
5. Put the carrot and onion back in the pan, and add the leek, garlic and pepper. Put the lid on and simmer for about 45 minutes. Check occassionally to ensure yours doesn’t go dry. (mine didn’t).
6. Remove from heat but let it sit with the lid on, for 1 hour or more. (If you need to let it sit overnight or for a few hours, sit it in the fridge after it cools, to avoid nasties building up).
7. In a separate pot boil the potatoes until tender, but not falling apart. Once done, set aside.
8. To peel the tomato: Cut a small, very shallow cross on the bottom of the tomato, and remove the core in a small cone shape. The tomato should still be in one piece after this. Then put the tomato into boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Remove and allow to cool a bit. Once cool enough to touch, the skin should come off easily. Then dice the tomato and set aside.
9. When you are ready to eat, put the soup together. Pull out the bay leaf and discard. Add the burgers, tomato, chickpeas, peas and potatoes to the carrot/leek/stock mixture and heat to your serving temperature.
10. Dived the prunes and the solids of the soup into three bowls, pour the soup over. Garnish with parsley and coriander, and a little squirt of vinegar.

I served it up with a lentil pilaf, and an eggplant salad.

For the pilaf I used this recipe I found on CeltNet, although I used half rice and half bulgur.

Eggplant Salad

Eggplant Salad (based on this recipe from Little Armenia)

serves 2

• 1 medium eggplant
• 1 spring onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbs Sun dried tomatoes, small dice
• 3 Tbs red capsicum, small dice
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp sumac
• lemon juice from 1/4 lemon
• salt to taste
• 2 Tbs chopped parsley

1. In a very hot oven, roast the eggplant, turning 3 times so all side brown and the eggplant deflates a bit. Takes about 20 minutes.
2. Let the eggplant cool enough to handle. Open the eggplant and scrape the flesh and seeds into a bowl. Discard the skin.
3. Mash the eggplant with a fork, then add the onion, garlic, tomato, capsicum, oil, spices, and lemon juice, and mix together.
4. Add salt to taste if desired.
5. Put the mix in a serving bowl and sprinkle with parsley. I like it best if it sits for 30 minutes or more before eating.

Eggplant salad and bozbash

 

 

 

 

Tapas

In the end I had two tapas nights: one at my mum’s house, and one in our new place. There were so many things I wanted to try, but I have to say, I had mixed results.

Tapas 1

The first night featured gazpacho, croquettes, salads, mini tortilla, stuffed mushrooms, tomatoes with sausages, and olives. Instead of setting things out on little plates I plated each thing up onto mixed plates, to save washing up and not overwhelm everyone

The tapas table, kinda

 

Gazpacho

 

Mini tortilla

 

salad and tomatoes with sausage

 

I followed a recipe for Tortilla which I can’t find now, which unlike the wrapping for burritos is actually a sort of thick fritter made of caramelised potato and onion. I had sort of success here. They were tasty, but looked nothing like they should have.

I made salads of fried sausage pieces and cherry tomatoes,  and raw zucchini, cucumber and baby spinach. I stuffed the mushrooms with a mix of minced mushroom stalk, parsley, pine nuts, bread crumbs and walnuts, with a generous amount of nooch and sage mixed in, and baked them until squishy.

I used my own generic gazpacho recipe as well, blending tomatoes, cucumber, celery, red capsicum and a teensy bit of garlic and chilli, in deference to a table of chilli and garlic haters (other than me). I added some tinned tomatoes because the raw ones weren’t ripe enough.

Up until this point everything went pretty well. Tasty, warm, filling etc. There was of course, one exception to my success – the croquettes.

Croquettes, sort of

I should have known I was overreaching a little when I decided to make a vegan and gluten free version of something which is in effect just deep fried white sauce, without access to a deep fryer, the time to let the sauce sit overnight as required, good gf bread crumbs or a very detail-oriented personality.

I made my usual white sauce, but let it thicken past my usual end point, and let it sit and cool for about two hours. I use a mixture of rice flour, nooch and hand-made crumbs to coat it, and decided to bake half and fry half, to see what would work. In the end I baked the fried stuff as well, because it melted everywhere without crispying up.

Fried-then-Baked White Sauce Mush

Of course the shapes didn’t hold in either method, because of my refusal to follow a recipe and let the mix stand overnight, or to use egg (obviously). The fried method resulted in very tasty, melty, kind of gross oily white sauce mush, while the baked method resulted in less tasty (but still good), less oily, but still kinda gross white sauce mush. The fried-then-baked version melted all over the tray, but developed a better crunch than the just baked version.

 

Tapas 2

Tapas 2 featured chilled almond soup, bravas in tomato sauce, tomato salad, cheese bread and garlic bread, marinated mushrooms, and olives.

Chilled Almond Soup and Tomato Salad

Patatas Bravas

Bread, Olives and Mushrooms

 

I got the chilled almond soup recipe from the book, Mediterranean Food. It was good, but not my cup of tea. I threw some fried sausages, cherry tomatoes and herbs together for the salad, which was brilliant, and has become a recurring item here at chez Keira and Mr. The olives came from a jar (gasp!), and the bread was just chopped and toasted.

I marinated the mushrooms using my short-term method: cook mushrooms in and small saucepan with olive oil and water, add garlic, dried thyme, fresh parsley, and salt, until they are dark brown and squishy. Let cool.

The real star of the show were the bravas. I’ve never eaten authentic bravas, so I have nothing to compare these to, but they were fab, hot, spicy, crispy and served with tangy tomato sauce.

To make them I fried the chopped potatoes until crispy and cooked through in a non-stick pan (which took ages), and tossed them with garlic, garlic powder, pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, cumin and olive oil. I served them up with a tomato sauce made of onion garlic, tinned tomatoes, sriracha chilli sauce, sugar, salt and a little vinegar.

I think the second night worked out better than the first, but this was probably because I didn’t reach as far, and was able to use gluten and garlic with abandon. The bravas and tomato salad will join the mushrooms and olives on my “make again” list, by I think I’ll be leaving the croquettes and tortillas and almond soup to the experts.

 

More beans, more eggplant, more potatoes and more walnuts (of course)

I’m convinced that at some point in the distant past, some wrote a book (in Georgian – one of the oldest living written languages) about the wonders of walnuts, and how to make sure you eat them at every single meal. It must have been a best-seller, because really and truly, walnuts are in everything here.

But enough about walnuts.

Tonight I had another go at Lobio, or red beans, although this time I followed a recipe for a cooked version. This version is a sort of soup/stew/dip, made of onion, garlic, kidney beans, herbs and spices. I used suneli (a special Georgian spice made from the flowers of the fenugreek plant), dried mint, coriander seed, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, fresh coriander and fresh parsley. The recipe said to use raw garlic and onion, but MR is a bit of an alliumphobe, so I used roasted garlic and red onion.

Lobio

It was warm and filling, but to be honest it just didn’t push my buttons like the salad version did. As kidney beans are the main source of vegetarian protein here in Tbilisi, I’ll probably try to make this again, though next time I think I’ll use raw garlic, and add more salt, more clove, and track down some fresh mint and dare I say it… dill.

I used two recipes conflated, which you can find here, and here. They are already vegan, hooray!

The second part of tonight’s menu was stuffed eggplant. The main feature that separated this Georgian versionto all the other kinds of stuffed eggplant was the method of cooking – the eggplant with stuffing got simmered in a skillet for about 45 minutes, instead of being baked.

Stuffed Eggplant

Sadly, this dish was also a little bland to my tastes, and I missed the oily, baked goodness I’m used to. The blandness could be because I only had kinda crappy tomatoes, or because I’m a salt-fiend. In any case if I make this again I will be using a little more salt, and maybe some nooch and lemon juice.

The saviour of the evening was the potatoes with walnuts, which is a very simple dish of boiled chopped potatoes, tossed with walnuts and fresh herbs. The original uses butter, I subbed olive oil. If you’re playing along at home, I would recommend using a butter substitute like vegan margarine for the flavour, although the olive oil was good.

Potatoes with Walnuts

I am a big fan of potato salads without mayo, so this was a winner for me.

On a tangent, I am very happy to say that as Christmas approaches, the shops have more and more “lenten” or “fasting” foods. Today I scored vegan cake slices, which we had for afternoon tea. At one lari a pop (about 70 cents), I’m looking forward to eating lots of these in future.

Georgian Cherry Cake

Georgian Chocolate cake

 

 

 

 

 

One disaster, a few thngs that didn’t quite work, and salad

When we first arrived in Tbilisi we were cold, tired and hungry as a result of a long flight and very little sleep the night before. We stayed with a couple we met through couch surfing, and Natalia, our host, made us a really tasty dish, which she said would probably be called something like “Potatoes on the family way”. She said it usually gets made with meat, but as a vegetarian she makes it with mushrooms.

Mr and I both loved it, so as soon as we were settled into our own place, its the first thing I tried to cook.

Unfortunately, my version didn’t match the golden, crispy texture her’s had, so I wont be posting the recipe yet. For now, you get a photo of what my version-that-didn’t-quite-work looked like. I added chickpeas for protein, too.

I didn’t get a photo of Natalia’s version, because I had just met her, and felt like a dork.

Potatoes that didn't quite work

The next dish I tried, again without success, was Eggplant with Walnut Sauce. I’ve seen photos on the net, and a number of recipes, and it looked fabulous. Unfortunately, I don’t actually have any blending/crushing/grinding implements in this kitchen, so my walnut sauce was more like walnut gravel, and I added too much vinegar, and my walnuts didn’t taste good, so the result was gritty, bitter and sour nastiness. I served it up with a pilaf that turned gluggy and a salad that tasted of slightly bitter cabbage and too much vinegar.

Even the photo sucks

All in all, not my greatest kitchen success.

I don’t think I’ll try to make this again, as I don’t have the right gadgets, and the version of the sauce I can buy is fantastic and affordable. If you want to have a go at it, check out these recipes: Nami Nami’s recipe, Ashbury’s Aubergines, Sisauri’s version, and Tsai.

Happily, not everything has been a disaster. We have been enjoying a lot of really nice salads and soups made with my home made stock. At the moment, the vegetables we can get are limited to cucumber, cabbage, potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, eggplant, cauliflower, the occasional capsicum, and some not-too-good tomatoes. We can always find a lot of fresh herbs, including parsley, coriander, mint, dill, spring onions, and tarragon.

Purple and green salad

My favourite salad at the moment is cabbage and cucumber, or Purple and Green Salad.

Purple and Green Salad

• 1/3 head of red cabbage, shredded finely
• 1 cucumber, sliced thinly
• 1 handful chopped mint
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander
• 1 small red onion, sliced very fine
• 1 tsp sugar
• pepper
• 1 tsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tsp olive oil

In a large bowl, mix the cabbage, cucumber, onion, half the mint, and all of the coriander.

In a small bowl beat together the remaining mint, sugar, vinegar, pepper and oil

Combine. Easy peasy.

If you don’t like the onion flavour you can leave it out or try this trick- before peeling or chopping, boil the whole onion for about 5 minutes. Cool, then slice as usual. It takes away some of the bite. I’m always boiling something, so I just pop it in with the pasta, potatoes or what have you.

Carrot and Cabbage

My second favourite salad at the moment is Carrot and Cabbage.

Carrot and Cabbage Salad

• 1/3 head of green cabbage, thinly shredded
• 1 carrot, grated
• 1 red capsicum, thinly sliced
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons sultanas
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a salad bowl.

Cabbage soup

The soup has been mostly a Russian cabbage soup or a Turkish red lentil soup both of which I’ll post about when I get to the Russian and Turkish weeks.