Soup #49 / Keshkeg or Herisah

The alternative title for this post is "what do to with all that leftover turkey after Thanksgiving" because this is the one thing I look forward to, actually more than regular turkey itself. This is really more of a porridge than a soup (yes, Goldilocks style), but it's a traditional Armenian dish that is one of our comfort foods. My family calls it Keshkeg (pronounced "kesh" like "Ke$ha" [ugh] and "keg" like a beer keg) and E's family calls it Herisah (pronounced "hair-ee-sah" to the best of my transliterary abilities). Whatever you call it, it's thick and delicious topped with a pat of butter (or drenched in it) a little salt, pepper, and the most important ingredient: cumin. There are a few ways to make this dish, but what I love is that we make it in the crock pot which makes life that much easier. 

Before I start in on the recipe here's what you're going to need to do. Use the turkey carcass, wings, and extra bony/meat bits and boil them down. Allow to cool. Reserve the liquid for broth and remove the turkey meat from the bones (carefully so you get nice, clean pieces of meat) and shred the meat into pieces.  

What you will need:

1 crock pot/slow cooker

shredded turkey meat (see above)

reserved turkey broth 

4 cups of pelted or hulled wheat

salt

pepper

cumin

butter

How to make it:

The night before you're ready to make this dish, prepare your turkey and broth as mentioned above. Also, place your wheat in a large bowl and fill with water (about two inches over the wheat). Allow the wheat berries to soak over night. Or, if you skipped this and you want to make this all right now because you can't wait to see how delicious it really is, you can place the wheat in a pan and cover with water, then bring it to a boil for about 15 minutes, turn off the heat and allow it to sit for two hours. That speeds up the process a bit. 

When you're wheat is ready, put it into your crock pot, add in the shredded meat, and top with enough broth to cover the wheat above by 2 inches. Save any extra broth to add in later. 

Turn your crock pot on low and allow it to cook for 8 hours. Yes. 8 hours. That means you can put this on early morning, go get some shopping done, enjoy a good book, take a walk, go to the movies, do something fun with your family, and when you come home 8 hours later, you'll be just about ready for dinner. If you are home, you will want to stir the soup every 30-60 minutes once it's hot and continue to add broth as needed. This is to ensure the best results, though to be honest, the last two years we turned it on and left the house for about 10 hours and came home to amazing soup. 

When the keshkeg is ready, it should have a porridge like look, sort of like thick oatmeal.  Use a spoon to stir it vigorously, whipping it a bit. If you still have big thick chunks of meat or big wheat berries, you may want to use an immersion blender or hand mixer to mix it all up a bit til it's more porridge like. Add in more of the broth if you'd like. Give it a taste and add in salt and pepper to taste.  

It smells amazing and now you're ready to eat. Dish it up in large bowls, topping each with a pat of butter and a dash or two of cumin to taste. Enjoy!  It's a great thing that this recipe makes so much, because you're sure to want seconds and maybe thirds. And lunch for the rest of the week.

The verdict: Success! We love this dish and look forward to making it every year. 

What we'd do differently: Hech! (which means "nothing!" in Armenian) we love it just the way it is!

* on a side note, if you don't have a turkey carcass and bits left, you can make this soup with chicken as well. Next time you grab a rotisserie chicken from Costco,Albertsons, Zankou, etc, save the bones and meaty bits and make this!

Let us know what you think - we'd love to hear how you Keshkeg experience is!

XO

Soup #22 / Djadjukh or Yogurt & Cucumber Soup

This soup is one of my absolute favorites when it comes to cold refreshing summer soups. June has been full of overcast mornings that are turning in to hot and humid afternoons. This one is a traditional Armenian dish that is easy to make. It works as a side dish, but I can finish it up as a whole meal!

What you will need: 

1 large container (32 oz) plain yogurt

3 large cucumbers

1 clove of garlic, finely minced or smashed, or garlic powder

~1/8 cup of dried mint

~ 1/8 cup of dried dill

salt & pepper 

How to make it:

Peel the cucumbers and shred them using a grater. Put the shredded cucumber in a strainer and press the excess water out. Put the yogurt in a large bowl and mix in the cucumber. Add in the mint and dill. These are usually "atchkee chop" or by taste, so feel free to add more or less to your liking. When you add it in, you can sort of smoosh it with your hands to make the herbs a bit finer too.  Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste. Stir well and refrigerate, serve on a hot day. Enjoy! 

Seriously, how easy was that? You can store leftovers for up to 4 days in the fridge.

The Verdict:

LOVE LOVE LOVE! Super success. It's been a hot day and E and I are not in the mood to cook or eat a lot. This is the perfect soup. It seriously took about 15 minutes to prep, make, and clean up. It's chilling in the fridge as we speak, but I've tasted it already and I can't wait to dive in. I'm pretty sure that's all I'll be having for dinner. 

What we'd do differently: 

The true determining factor here is E's commentary. I love it, but he's not convinced it's a true soup. "To me Djadjukh is like a topping," he says, which is what truly defines the difference here. I'm used to having this as a whole meal, E is used to having it as a side or a topper. Either way it tastes fabulous! 

XO

Soup #16 / Tahn Abour / Yogurt Soup

I've been meaning to make this soup for a while as it's definitely one of my favorites. Tahn Abour literally means "Yogurt soup" is an Armenian dish that's buttery, yogurt-y, minty, and filling, all in the most amazing way - and it's good hot or cold! What could be better?

What you will need: 
1 cup wheat (pelted and hulled) or bulgur
8 cups chicken broth
2 cups of plain yogurt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
1/3 cup parsley, chopped
1/3 cup mint, chopped (dried mint is fine!)
Salt and Pepper to taste

How to make it: 

In a large sauce pan, add your wheat and broth and on a medium low heat, cook your wheat for one hour until the wheat is soft and fluffy. When the wheat is cooked, take a medium non-stick pan and melt your butter and add the chopped onion. Saute until your onion is translucent - a few minutes. Add this to the broth and wheat. Now add in your parsley, mint, and some salt and pepper to taste.  Cook this for about 45 minutes longer, letting the flavors marry.  

Now it's time to add the yogurt, but you can't add it straight in or it will curdle the yogurt (yuck!).  So you want to temper the yogurt. In a small mixing bowl, add your two cups of yogurt. Then spoon in several spoon fulls of the hot soup, whisking quickly as you go. This will warm the yogurt and get it ready to be added to the hot soup. When it's room temperature, stir it into the soup gradually and continue to stir until it's all mixed in well. Simmer for another 3-5 minutes. 

Serve the soup immediately, or you can cool it and serve cold. 

The Verdict: YUM!  Success! Honestly, I was a little worried. I've never made Tahn Abour on my own before, and I had these amazing memories of how rich and flavorful it was. As I was cooking the wheat and tasting it here and there and I was like "really? this is what it tastes like?!" I was convinced I was doing something wrong. But I kept on cooking and following my mom's recipe, and once those buttery onions and all the spices hit the soup, I could taste the closeness... and then when I added the yogurt, it all came together in it's tasty goodness! E approved as well with some remarkable compliments. It's always good when you make a traditional dish and it lives up to expectations!

What I would do differently: I adore this soup and all the exquisite flavor. But with all that goodness comes lots of...calories. If I were making this again, I would try to maybe use 1/2 the butter, and maybe some low-fat or fat free yogurt. Also, all the extra calories made our soup very thick when cold... I think that a low-fat/non-fat yogurt would make this soup a little easier to enjoy cold too (which is half the fun of having this as a leftover!).

Enjoy!

XO

Soup #9 / Mini Kufta Ball Soup

This week's soup was a special treat since I got to make it with my mama.  E called and said he was working a later shift, and I had the night off, so I went over to spend the evening doing what we do best - cooking! My mom is observing lent, so finding a vegan soup was a challenge, but she found this recipe and we decided to give it a try.  I did bring some home to share with E so he can put his 2 cents in as well, but this venture was mostly something Mom and I did together - it was VERY tasty!  

Remember that this is from an Armenian kitchen, where we make a lot of things "atchkee chop" or "measured by eye"... and by taste. Always remember to just go with it and add a little more or less here and there to make it the way you like it. Bon apetit!


You will need: 

For the kufta balls: 

1 cup of Cream of Wheat

1 cup of fine bulghur

1 Tbsp mint finely rubbed between your palms 

2 heaping Tbsp of tomato paste

1 cup of water

1-2 tbsp of roasted red pepper appetizer

Add salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together and let it stand a few minutes and then knead it into a dough.  Roll it into small balls, like marbles (maybe a little larger). We counted that it made 108 balls.  Wet your hands if the dough starts sticking to them.  Put these balls in a pot of boiling water and simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove and set aside.

The broth:

Another can of tomato paste

One can of garbanzo beans – OR – about a cup of small pasta

Garlic

Dried mint

1-2 lemons

One big onion

Olive oil

Brown one large onion, chopped,  in some olive oil.  Add enough water to make broth for the family ( I did about 8-9 cups for our batch).  Add a can of tomato paste plus whatever tomato paste you have left over from the kufta balls.  If you'd like, and you have extra, add some red pepper paste to taste. Stir some mint (also atchkee-chop) tablespoons of mint powder. Allow the broth to simmer about 10 minutes, taste, and adjust the seasonings to your liking.  Add about 3 big cloves of mashed garlic, one can of garbanzo beans (or small noodles/macaroni).  Add the cooked kufta balls, and the juice of one or two lemons and boil for another 5 or 10 minutes.

The verdict:  I really enjoyed this soup and loved that it was a fully vegan meal that wasn't based in beans which meant no bloated feeling after. OK, so we did feel a little stuffed, but I think it was because we had seconds! I loved the flavor of the broth - Armenian style, but with a bit of a kick, and the kufta balls are the consistency of gnocci, which I also love. E is not usually a fan of the kufta balls but enjoyed the taste of this soup, and was surprised at the consistency and flavor of the kufta balls.  Even as a non-vegan, or when lent is over, I would definitely try this one again!

What we'd do differently:  I would love to try this out with some noodles instead of the garbonzo beans, and maybe with a little more mint than we added, and some madzoun (yogurt) on top, although that makes it non-vegan. And on the non-vegan side of it all, I'd be interested to see what it would taste like with chicken broth instead of water.  


Thank you Mama for cooking this soup up with me and helping me catch up on my posts! If you want to check out more vegan/vegetarian recipes, check out my mom's blog here, and you can read some of her other non-food related posts here.

ENJOY!
XO

Blueberries, Turmeric, and Onion

Every year for Easter my mom and I dye Easter eggs, just like everyone else. What we do differently is dye our eggs the way our ancestors dyed Easter eggs - with onion skins! We prep the eggs with parsley leaves and nylon stockings, and then boil the eggs in water and onion skins. The result is a beautiful, rich, brown color and a cute parsley leaf pattern in a light yellow color.

These eggs turn out beautiful, and on Easter, you shine them up with a little bit of olive oil and they totally out-shine any box-dyed eggs. We're still keeping with tradition this year and our onion skin eggs are on the stove boiling as I type this. But this year we decided to do something a little bit different as well - using other natural dyes to see what kind of fun colors we could get. We tried these both with our parsley wrapped eggs as well as regular white eggs, to see what kind of effect we'd get.

First we decided to  try beets. With the amount of stains caused by the fabulous pink juice of a beet, you would totally think these would rock as far as natural dyes go. My aunt tried boiling eggs with beets last year and got a blah sort of gray color. So we thought to boil the eggs first, and then soak them in beet juice and vinegar. It looked like it would work, I mean, the juice stained the sink, why not the egg?

We even tried blending beets and adding some vinegar, then letting the eggs just sit in beet sludge. All that we got was a disappointing pink/brown sort of color that even wiped off if you rubbed it hard enough.

Eggs after the epic beet failure

 Our next attempt was boiling the eggs in blueberries with a little bit of vinegar. We let these simmer in the hot water for quite some time, getting started on the next batch.

Batch 3 was something we'd read about and knew had to give us some positive results - turmeric. With its radiant yellow color, we knew the eggs would dye at least a little bit. Like the blue berries, we let these sit for a while at a simmer long after the water had boiled, just to let the color set more.  

Our stove top with everything brewing.

The result of the blueberry eggs were a bit surprising. I thought they'd keep a little bit of a blue or purple hue, but they really are gray. Despite the lack of color, I think they actually came out really neat, especially our few with the parsley flower on them!  The eggs that are ultra-speckled are the re-dyed beet fail eggs; turns out the effect was pretty neat!

Overall, it was a neat experiment. Not only did we get some cool looking colors, we got to try something new. The turmeric was successful, just as we'd expected, and the combination of the two colors together is pretty striking. Different, but fun.

All in all though, while it's fun to try new dyes (we may even attempt red cabbage tomorrow - it's supposed to make a cool blue color), we definitely have mastered what we are familiar with. The onion skin eggs are just off the stove and polished up. What a beautiful batch of eggs. There are even a few of the more successful gray blueberry eggs mixed in there! Now these  are Easter eggs!

It was interesting getting to use my new camera skills on these eggs too. It really seems like I spent a lot of time adjusting everything for pictures that really aren't all that hot. My faves are these last three, and even those aren't so fab. I didn't do any editing of these, mostly for the sake of time and the fact that unless I use Picasa, I really don't know how to edit colors on photoshop very well, and at the moment, I don't quite have the patience for it. I also realized my white balance settings were off in the first half of my shots (plus it was more screwy even after I figured it out as I was going between two rooms with two very different types of lighting). Anyway, they captured what craziness went on in our kitchen tonight, and I think that's all that really matters in the end. One of these days my shots will get better. Tomorrow will allow for more practice, and I'm hoping to be able to captures some egg-fight shots this weekend with the family and share another Armenian tradition with you all!

Happy Holy Week!
xox
Ani