Dandeegeen

wife, runner, eater

[dandeegeen]

Turshu (Pickles)

Some of you know that Gregg has been spending a lot of time away from home for work. This means I need to find things to fill my free time. One day I got it in my head that I was going to make turshu (pickled veggies). I bought mason jars. I consulted with my mother and a cookbook, and I got to work.

I've since made four batches of pickles. And now I have my recipe down (but making larger batches gets tricky). The tricky part is figuring out how much brine to make for the jars. Each jar gets filled a little differently so the amount of water that will fit changes. When Gregg was helping me do math he would estimate that the water needs to be half of the total ounces of jar space. (I remembered that when I did my third batch I had some extra brine, so for the fourth batch I removed two cups of water. I was left with enough brine to make one extra 64 oz jar!).

I've been using various jars that range between 24-64 ounces. My first two batches I did 4 - 24 oz. jars. My third batch was 7 jars ranging in sizes. My fourth batch was 11 jars (plus one extra that wasn't originally planned) ranging in sizes. For the fourth batch I had help from Oriort Claudia and Oriort Heghine.

Turshu Brine (4 - 24 oz jars) - this seemed to be a fine amount of brine. I think using uniform sized jars might help.

6 cups of water

1.5 cups of lemon juice

5 tablespoons of salt

5 dried chickpeas

2 large garlic cloves sliced in half

Jalapenos for spice in each jar (optional, but highly recommended)

Decide on veggies to pickle. Prep them to your liking. 

Sterilize jars! 

This can be done in an Instant Pot if you have one and your jars fit. Fill the pot with one cup of water and the handheld trivet. Place the jars and lids in making sure they don't touch the water. Close the lid and put it on sterilize mode for 5 minutes. Remove the jars carefully (they will be hot) and place them on a clean towel to dry.

I also recently did this in the oven because my jars were too big for the Instant Pot. Wash the jars with warm soapy water. Place the jars on a tray (not touching) and turn the oven to 275 degrees. I left them in for 20 minutes. I sterilized the lids in the Instant Pot. You can also put water in a pot and once it's boiling place the lids in for 10 minutes.

Juice lemons. 

Combine lemon juice, water and salt in a pot. Heat the mixture on medium heat until salt dissolves. 

NOW the fun part! Add 5 dried chickpeas and the garlic (jalapenos if you want) to each jar. Fill each jar with veggies.  Pour the brine mixture into each jar until it covers the veggies (make sure to stir it in the pot to make sure it's evenly mixed before you fill each jar). Seal the jar. 

Store the jars in a cool and dark place (covered with a towel) for 2 weeks before enjoying. Once you open the jar refrigerate the pickles (if you even have any leftovers)!

You can save brine in the fridge and continue to add veggies. I recommend not eating the garlic or chickpeas if you decide to do this. 

I like making my own turshu because I don’t like vinegar. It’s also a fun gift! I made turshu as gifts to co-workers, they were all thrilled and asking for more. 

Until next time, Pari Akhorjak. 

[dandeegeen]

Cinco de Baklava

A couple of months ago I was asked when I was free to try my hand at Baklava with some childhood friends. We kept trying to plan and life kept getting in the way. Finally, this weekend we had a Cinco de Baklava Party. 

I some how became in charge of getting the recipe so I googled, called my mother-in-law, and called my mother. I went over the recipe from Google with my mother-in-law (since she makes Baklava all the time) she gave me some helpful tips and tricks. I was told by my mother-in-law and my mom that "You can't mess it up. Just be careful not to burn it."

Saturday the big day was here. I missed the clarifying of the butter but I'm guessing it wasn't very exciting. You can read about it on Vicky's blog if she writes about it. The process wasn't hard but it was time consuming.

We (I guess, I, since I was in charge of recipe) decided to make pistachio Baklava. I rode a CitiBike on Tuesday to Costco and back and picked up shelled Pistachios. Our first step was pulsing the pistachios in the food processor. We ended up with big chunks (I recommend doing it in small batches). We put all the pistachios in a giant Ziploc and had fun smashing it with a rolling pin.

Once it was in the oven kept checking to make sure it wasn’t burning. We don’t know how long the whole cooking process took but we sure did have fun and made delicious Baklava. 

Ingredients:

2 1lb Phyllo Dough Packs [each pack should be 18-21 sheets, this means they are the thinness we want (Apollo is brand my MIL likes but she said they're kind of all the same)].

4 cups of crushed pistachios (I just bought shelled Pistachios at Costco for this purpose)

1lb of sweet butter (salted means you have to clarify it, my mom says it's annoying, MIL says she only does clarified salted when she wants a longer shelf life on the Baklava. Ghee probably works fine, too.)

2 tablespoons sugar

Syrup:

3 cups sugars

1 1/2 cups water

1 tablespoon lemon

Things you need:

Baklava Tray 12 by 17

Food processor or a hammer? Lol.

Pastry brush

Small saucepan

Steps:

Use the food processor to coarsely grind the pistachios. Do it little by little to avoid large chunks.

Melt the sweet butter. Or clarify the salad butter.

Using a pastry brush coat the tray with butter

Place two sheets of phyllo, then coat them with butter. Repeat until the first pack is finished.

Mix ground pistachios with two tablespoons of sugar and place them evenly across the phyllo.

Repeat the phyllo butter step.

Cut the baklava into squares or diamonds (make sure you get through all the layers). Remaining butter can be poured over.

Bake at 350 degrees. Check at 20 minutes, it could take as long as an hour. Then keep checking every 10-15 minutes until it’s done. 

Combine 3 cups of sugar with 1 1/2 cups of water, bring to a boil, stir in 1 table of lemon juice.

Cool syrup goes on warm baklava, this makes sure it's crisp.

Until next time, Pari Akorjak.

[dandeegeen]

Pirasa (Armenian Style Leeks)

My mom used to make this leek dish for us during lent. Once Trader Joe's started selling cleaned and sliced leeks in the frozen section my mom and I would always check for them and make sure to grab a bunch of bags if they were available. Washing the dirt out of leeks isn't an easy task and you'll want make sure you don't have dirt left in your leeks because who wants that sandy texture, no one. I was lucky that these leeks were given to me washed and cut.

It's a fairly simple recipe. And it was very tasty.

Ingredients

4 leeks, washed well and chopped in 1/3 inch rounds (cut in half moons if you want) (or two bags of Trader Joe's washed and sliced)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 carrots, chopped in rounds or half moons (optional)

1/4 cup rice

1/3 cup olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1 can tomato sauce (15 oz)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

Achki chap salt (literal translation to an eye measuring of salt)

Achki chap black pepper

Achki chap cayenne

Steps

Heat olive oil in a pot (I used a 4 quart pot) on low, add onions and raise the temperature to medium cook until slightly caramelized

Add in the carrots and stir, allow to sit for a minute

Add in the leeks and stir, allow to sit for a minute

Add tomato sauce, salt, black pepper and cayenne, stir and allow to boil

Once it’s boiled add rice and lemon juice, stir and cover, allow to boil for another 2 minutes

Add the cinnamon, change the heat to low and allow to sit covered until the rice is cooked

Serve with sukhtor madzoon

This can also be eaten cold, I prefer it hot.

Until next time, Pari Akorjak.

[dandeegeen]

Sini Kofte Surprise!

Sini means pan and kofte means meatball. So it literally translates to pan meatball, it's basically a meat casserole. The first time I had this dish that I can remember was a few years ago when my mother-in-law made it.

This is considered the easy version of another dish called Pohrov Kofte (stuffed meatballs), which is the kofte for Madzoon Kofte Aboor. While it is considered the easy version by no means is it easy. Sure I imagine it's easier than making meatballs, but I won't know until I try the meatballs in the future.

My husband was away so I decided to make him a surprise for when he came home. I had asked my mother-in-law a while ago for her recipe. She shared with me two recipes from cook books that she uses. One was from a church cookbook and the other was from Alice Bezjian's (who apparently is a distant relative of my mother-in-law) cookbook.

The feedback I got was it was moist and delicious. Below is the recipe I wrote out for myself. 

Outer Layer

2 cups fine bulgur

1 onion minced

1 ½ cups water

1.5 lbs of ground meat

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Walnuts to go on top

Filling

1lb ground meat

2 onions minced

⅛ teaspoon black pepper

Salt to taste

⅛ teaspoon cayenne

Steps

Add bulgur to a bowl with 1 cup of water to soak for at least 15-20 minutes (aka while you're doing everything else)

Cook the meat for the filling in a large skillet and break up clumps with a fork. Once cooked add the minced onions. Add seasonings and remove from heat.

Mix in raw meat into bulgur, onions, cayenne, salt, pepper. Knead for 10-15 minutes adding water as necessary. Should be smooth.

Set oven to 400.

Butter/grease (I used steak fat from a delicious steak we ate) large pan (9 by 13 is probably best, mine was bigger and I couldn't get it filled to the edge). Put half the outer layer mixture into the pan and flatten it out. Cold water helps you smooth it out.  Add the filling mixture. Put the remaining mixture on top evenly. I recommend trying to flatten the mixture in the bowl as much as possible first, it makes it a little easier to layer it.

Slice into diamonds and add a pat of butter (vegan or regular) on each diamond.

Cook for 15 minutes and then add walnuts to each diamond (or almonds or nothing)

Cook for an additional 10 minutes

Make a salad (or sukhtor madzoon)

Eat up!

Until next time, Pari Akhorjak.

[dandeegeen]

Zeytinli Boreg

I am finally a real Dandeegeen (as of July 1, 2017). Last weekend we had had guests so I decided to test out Zeytinli Böreg. For all that know my husband you know he loves zeytouns (olives), it's no surprise that that he does because his family was originally from Antep.

I had only had Zeytinli Böreg from Krichian's in Patterson, NJ. It's an Antep specialty and my family is Bolsahye. I could not find a recipe in any of my own cook books. My mother took it upon herself to google and found me a few recipes in Turkish which we used for ideas.

This recipe is a work in progress, but I was told it was delicious.

Ingredients

1 package phyllo dough

1 Pint of mixed olives (I used green, black, and two kinds of marinated olives)

2 chopped onions

1 cup finely crushed walnuts

1 egg beaten to wash the böreg

Mazola oil to cook the onions

Olive oil/butter to coat the phyllo sheets

I cooked them at 350 for 15 minutes (or until golden brown).

The most difficult part was oiling each layer of phyllo dough and using the dough before it cracked. I was making rolls so first I tried layer 5 sheets together and cutting it to size for the rolls.  I tried making triangles, but I didn’t really know what I was doing and the dough cracked.  Then I started just using one sheet for each roll and that was much easier.  I’d like to try this filling with a yufka or a puff pastry dough to see how it does. 

I also made Peach Double Nectarine Pie (because we needed dessert).

My Amousin made a lovely dinner of coffee rubbed steak, sautéed mushrooms and a big salad (If it was a regular salad I wouldn’t have said anything. But you had to have the big salad.).  We shared our dinner with our friends and enjoyed a game of Apples-to-Apples.

Until next time, Pari Akhorjak.  

[dandeegeen]

Oatmeal Mess

I decided I wanted an oatmeal cookie. But I didn’t want to make cookies. I tried to adapt a microwave cookie recipe, it didn’t really work. 

Ingredients

1/3 cup instant rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon cocoa powder

2 pinches of coconut flakes

1 teaspoon flour

A little bit of coffee

I melted the coconut oil in microwave for 30 seconds. Poured it on top of the mixture of dry ingredients and then added some coffee. I should have added more coffee. Then put that mixture into the microwave for 1 minute. I topped the Oatmeal Mess with honey. It was too dry, if I had a banana or more coffee or more coconut oil, maybe it would have been better. 

[dandeegeen]

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week I've really been missing chocolate chip cookie dough. 

I found a recipe online by Gimme Some Oven, it looked simple enough so I decided to try it.

YIELD: ABOUT 12 COOKIES

COCONUT OIL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These coconut oil chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy, soft, chocolate-y, and absolutely delicious!

PREP: 15 MINS COOK: 10 MINS TOTAL: 25 MINS

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup coconut oil, softened but not melted

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the softened coconut oil, sugars, egg, and vanilla extract on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, and beat on medium-low speed until combined. Fold in (stir in) the chocolate chips by hand until just combined.

Use a large cookie scoop (equivalent to 3 tablespoons) or a spoon to shape the dough into balls, and place them on a large plate. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough balls for at least 2 hours.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place chilled dough balls at least 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (Or a baking sheet that has been covered with a Silpat, or greased with cooking spray.)

Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are just set. The centers may look slightly undercooked. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Serve immediately or store in a sealed container for up to 1 week. You can also freeze the cookies for up to 3-4 months.

Adapted from Leelalicious http://leelalicious.com/coconut-oil-chocolate-chip-cookies-tropical-traditions-coconut-oil-giveaway/.

DIFFICULTY: EASY INGREDIENTS: BAKING SODA, BROWN SUGAR, COCONUT OIL, CORNSTARCH, EGG, FLOUR,GRANULATED SUGAR, SEMISWEET CHOCOLATE CHIPS, VANILLA EXTRACT

I followed the recipe completely. Next time I would add less chocolate chips (or use mini ones), they were difficult to mix into the dough. I would also smush down the cookies before I put them in the oven, they didn't spread well.  

BUT THEY WERE DELICIOUS. 

[dandeegeen]

Non-Dairy Butternut Squash and Bean Sauce with Pasta

So being most dairy intolerant is not fun. I miss mac and cheese the most. A friend made some mac and "cheese” with a butternut squash cashew sauce and it looked amazing. I searched around and found a recipe online which I’ve adapted. I don’t like vegan cheeses because I don’t like the nutritional yeast flavor. 

To prepare the squash:

4 cups cubed butternut squash

5 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

couple pinches fine sea salt

couple pinches freshly ground black pepper

For the pasta:

16 ounces macaroni

To make the cheese sauce:

1 batch (4 cups) roasted & seasoned butternut squash cubes

one 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1½ cups plain homemade cashew milk or other non-dairy milk

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

fine grain sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the chopped squash, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to the baking sheet and toss to coat. Roast the squash for about 40 minutes, or until tender.

Once the squash has been in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, begin cooking your pasta according to the package directions.

Once the squash is tender, add it to a blender along with the cannellini beans, cashew milk (or other non-dairy milk), cayenne, and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper, then blend until fully mixed.

By this point, the macaroni pasta should be cooked. Drain it well and return it to the pot.

Add the sauce to the pasta and toss it gently to combine and heat through. Serve it hot, sprinkled with the parsley. Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container for up to 5 days.

Of course, like a good Armenian, I did other things while I cooked. We had some stale bread, so I made croutons. 

Overall, it was good, a little sweet, but with more black pepper the flavors balanced well. 

And my amazing boyfriend sliced the sausage that we ate with the pasta.

[dandeegeen]

I also made Choreg. While the dough was rising I made the okra.

[dandeegeen]

I made okra as part of a Thank You present to my friend and her family for letting me stay with them in Costa Rica. I never made it before, but I've eaten it many times. My mom gave me recipe over the phone which made me a little nervous, but it looks great. Let's hope everyone likes it!

[dandeegeen]

Yalanchi

After a long hard week of sickness and family drama, I woke up early on a Sunday to make Yalanchi with my fellow dandeegeens Malvina and Vicky. We all are participating in lent this year and decided it would be fun to cook something together. Yalanchi, dolma, dolamedes, sarma, whatever you want to call it, it's delicious.

The recipe we used is my mother's which I am going to guess was her mother's and so on. 

1 jar of grape leaves (preferably Orlando, Yergat seems to not be available anymore.

10 onions

1 coffee mug of rice (about 1 and a 1/2 or 2 cups) [our mug of choice was once a Shushi Dance Ensemble mug]

1 coffee mug of olive oil

1 bunch of dill chopped

1 bunch of parsley chopped

A few springs of mint chopped

Salt and pepper

The first task is to get the leaves ready. Rinse each leaf of brine and dry them. Cut the stems off.  Save the big leaves aside to line the pot.  As I washed the leaves, Malvina dried them and cut the stems. We thought we had a lot of leaves, but ended up buying another small jar.

While we did that Vicky cut the onions. The recipe calls for 10 but some of them were small so we used 12. We cried and laughed, and most importantly listened to iTunes Radio 90's Pop Gold.  The onions need to be small, so if you're not using a food processor you have to cook the onions for a bit to mersunel them (kill them, but really soften them). 

Mix the onions, rice, olive oil, dill, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl, now your filling is done. Next you have to stuff the leaves.  You need to make sure the leave is vein side up. Place some filling in the bottom of the leaf wrap the bottom up and the fold over the sides, then you have to roll it up and keep tucking in the sides.  The olive oil acts as a glue, but when you place it in the pot, put it open side down. Our first few were a disaster, but with time we got better. 

After you've finished the filling or the leaves you're ready to cook! Add half a mug of water and place a china plate on top.  The plate helps to steam the dolma. The dolma should cook on medium high until it starts boiling at a high rate.  Then lower it medium low.  The total cook time should be about an hour and a half. Ours didn't work out as well, our rice was cooked, but our onions were a little crunchy.  I called a reinforcement (my mother) who said just to let it cook more, the onions this time of year aren't great, also we might not have let it get hot enough before.  She called again later to check our progress. 

The best part was eating the dolmas hot out of the pot to check if they were cooked. So yummy. Even the ones on the bottom that burned.

All our families enjoyed the dolma. Our common criticism was the leaves were too thick.  But we got the flavoring right.  My dad gave me an 8 out of 10, 10 being dolma by my aunt Arpi.

What a yummy way to start my week. 

[dandeegeen]

Bzdig Choreg

Choreg is typically made during Easter as a braided loaf.  I've made the loaf style in the past, but never made the bzdig (small) choregs before. We used to order them from a woman at church who I've nicknamed The Choreg Lady, but she stopped making it. So, it became my turn to make it.

My day started at 6am. I took out the milk and eggs, so they wouldn't be cold.  I had taken out the butter the night before. I prepared the yeast and while it was proofing gathered everything I needed. The wet items all went into the bowl with the sugar. I felt the bowl get very cold so I took a towel and placed it underneath the bowl to keep it warm.  After the yeast proofed I started by adding three-quarters of the flour needed.  I mixed well and the dough was too sticky, so I knew I could add more flour. I kept adding 1/2 a cup for flour until the dough was smooth and not sticky. I rolled the dough into a ball and covered the bowl with plastic wrap. The dough needs to rise in a draft free place and it needs to stay warm. I put two dishtowels on top and kept the towel under the bowl. The dough then went into the oven to rise.

2 hours later my dough was ready.

I cut the dough into pieces and made little balls of dough.  Then I rolled out each ball into thin 8 to 12 inch strips and shaped the strips into pinwheels (or snails). The dough needs to rise a second time once it's in this shape. Most Armenian Khmoreghen (things made from dough) rise twice. I've come to the conclusion this is to allow for time to clean dishes, cook other things and take care of the children. 

The choregs then get an egg wash, sesame seeds and caraway seeds.  They bake at 350 degrees for about 25  minutes, or until they are a little darker than golden brown.

  The first batch of choregs came out very big and poofy. I was upset because The Choreg Lady's did not look like that. I tried to fix the other choregs and they all came out poofy. They smelled delicious and tasted delicious so my Mom and neighbor decided that this will be my shape.

  Pari Aghorjak and Bon Appetit

[dandeegeen]

Imrik halva is traditionally eaten at funerals or hokihankists. The literal translation of hokihankist is resting of the soul. In Armenian tradition there is a hokihankist 40 days after a funeral and then every year around the anniversary of the death. My Yaya was very superstitious and would not make imrik halva for fear it would cause the death of someone she knew. My mother barely makes it. My cousins love imrik halva and so do I. I made it today which is very close to the 13th anniversary of my Dede's death. The hardest part of imrik halva is breaking the bits of imrik when they are stuck together. You stir and fluff and stir and fluff. It never ends! Armenian women from the villages must have had some serious Kelly Ripa arms.

[dandeegeen]

Hi guys, it's gross out and I'm home. Let's see what I can make today.

[dandeegeen]

This Saturday I set my heart on making Katah. Katah is an Armenian coffee roll sometimes filled with a sweet buttery, sugary, flour mixture called khoritz. Katah is by all means not easy. The dough takes 3 hours to rise. That part is not hard. When you make the dough the butter, milk and sugar need to be mixed on the stove first. I found one of the most annoying parts of katah making was the dishes! After the dough rises you split the dough into 8 pieces make balls and let it rise again. Then comes the hardest part. You need to roll out the dough. The recipe said to roll it out into 10 by 20 inch rectangles. That was impossible for me. I did my best. Then you coat the dough with butter and fold it and coat it again and fold it and put in the khoritz and fold it one last time. Again you let it rise for an hour and then finally you bake it! I issue was rolling out the dough. It's not something I've done before. It just takes practice. Also I should have not coated the whole dough with butter because then pinching the katah shut was impossible. Well now I know for next time. I was upset because I hoped they would look better. My parents said "who cares it tastes good, not everything has to look perfect." I used the recipe from Armenian Cooking Today by Alice Antreassian.

[dandeegeen]

A New Beginning.

I've decided to actually use this blog. I've become some what of a dandeegeen in training. Dandeegeen in Armenian literally translates to House Madame, basically Housewife, Woman of the House. 

I will post about the different Armenian food I'm making. Or food that I make which my family puts an Armenian twist on. Or just fun Armenian related stories. 

I've made Choreg, Katah, Manti and Cracker Lavash. This weekend's task is Imrik Halva. 

[dandeegeen]

I finished sending out cover letters and decided I was hungry. We had no leftovers in the fridge. I picked at some lettuce that mom had washed the night before. I wanted to eat something unhealthy, like a bowl full of pasta. I thought I shouldn't do that, I need protein. Then I had an aha moment. Make my own version of carbonara.

Elbow macaroni, 1 egg, 1 soujouk (Armenian dried sausage) and a little butter.

Carbs + Protein= Happy 

End result: it was yummy, but not as good as when mom makes it. The egg scrambled a little. Dad ate a whole bowl and said it was good. 

While I was cooking, Dad looked into the fridge and also picked at the lettuce.