Armenian cuisine originated several thousand years ago and has kept some of its characteristic features to this day. While national Armenian dishes are usually difficult to prepare, cooking will reward excellent taste dishes prepared according to recipes, which are not even tested for centuries and millennia. What is the secret of "longevity" Armenian Cuisine?

The original raw materials

Cattle breeding developed in Armenia since ancient times, so the Armenian cuisine offers recipes from many different kinds of meat. Sometimes in one dish combines two kinds of meat, such as an ancient dish arganak consists of venison and chicken. Through livestock development in Armenia, and a wide range of dairy foods. This is primarily a variety of cheese, pickle and mold, as well as dairy products, for example, matsun. Dairy products are used not only in its natural form, but are part of many dishes. For example, matsun often used as bases for sauces.

Grains and legumes are very widely used, and often do not individually and in various combinations. Very popular wheat cereals, different from each other manufacturing techniques: dzavar and korkot. Also from wheat flour of different grinding do. And the original Armenian pohindz flour made from roasted wheat.

Widely used vegetables (carrots, cabbage, turnips, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes, beets, sorrel, okra, zucchini, spinach) and fruit (grapes, apricots, plums, quince, lemon). Interestingly, on a par with fruits vegetables used for cooking meat and fish dishes. For example, in meat soups add apples, quince and dried apricots, fish and dogwood. This allows you to make meals from a very distinctive taste.

Features of Armenian cuisine

Significant influence on the formation of the features of the Armenian cuisine has tonir - kind of focus, which is used for the preparation of many dishes. On the walls of the famous tonir bake Armenian lavash - thin bread with a neutral taste. Also, this type of fireplace used for cooking vegetables, cereals, smoked poultry and fish.

The Armenian cuisine uses a unique dishes, whose name is often the same as the name of the dish, which is to prepare the dishes served. For example, Putukam (lamb soup and peas) cooked in pottery of the same name.

The Armenian cuisine uses a lot of spices. Especially popular onion, black pepper, mint, basil, tarragon, cilantro, thyme. In sweet dishes add cinnamon, vanilla Vanilla: sweet tenderness , Cardamom, cloves and saffron. The taste of food is quite spicy, heavily used salt. Researchers attributed the increased salt intake in Armenia with a hot climate: salt allows escape from dehydration in the heat and helps keep food longer.

Raw materials for cooking is quite diverse: meat of all kinds, fish (especially trout, including specially divorced), milk products, cheese, cheeses, cereals, legumes, vegetables, herbs and fruit are widely used for cooking a variety of foods in different combinations . Pure vegetable dishes a little: much more vegetables are combined with meat, fish or poultry. The handling of products too numerous, but prevails extinguishing, lets get to the food is particularly delicate texture.

Cooking is most often used ghee, which is made from matsun (sour milk) and has a slightly sour taste. For the cooking of fish and vegetables use vegetable oils such as sesame.

Uneasy art

In the preparation of Armenian food is quite time-consuming that many foods require careful grinding, shredding and whisking ingredients, a lot of complicated stuffed dishes. A lot of dishes from minced meat, and the meat is carefully processed, which turns stringy pieces in the air and light souffle. Thus, even from the raw material is not of the highest quality obtained excellent dishes. However, for such a transformation housewives have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, relentlessly crushing, grinding, vymeshivaya ingredients.

Typically, the components of food are prepared separately and then connected. The preparation of many dishes seem very complicated, requires a change of the set of operations, it can be stretched into weeks. At the same technological methods differ originality: this results in original dishes from the most unexpected materials, such as watermelon peels or unripe tomatoes.

As a result, complex processing taste of food can vary considerably, enriched with new shades. It is therefore particularly popular dishes of minced meat, which have milled spices and chopped herbs. Less frequently used for cooking natural meat or poultry as a whole, but in this case, taste dishes enriched with herbs and spices.

Sweet dishes

As in other oriental cuisine, in a special place is given to the Armenian sweets. To prepare the dessert dishes used mainly fruit, honey The benefits of honey: tasty recovery   and nuts. From flour confectionery products are especially popular baklava and gata. The dough for confectionery is rich in oil and eggs in a generally not added. As a result, the dough becomes quite dense. Flour, butter and sugar and add to the stuffing sweet pastries.

For sweets used virtually the same raw material, but different processing methods allow you to create products, dissimilar in taste and aroma.

From nemuchnyh sweets should be noted Alanya - sun-dried peaches stuffed with walnut crumbs with sugar. For the preparation of many desserts using doshab: boiled grape juice. Doshab mixed with sugar, starch, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom Cardamom: grains of paradise and the king of spices   and walnuts in various combinations, and this results in a variety of sweets: shpot, sharots, sudjukh and others.

Maria Bykov