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CLEVELAND-AREA COOKS PASS ON ARMENIAN TRADITIONS
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
OH
Thirty years ago, members of the St. Gregory of Narek Women's Guild
foraged for edible wild grape leaves in the back seven acres of their
Richmond Heights church.
"The men came with us," said Sandy Aurslanian. "You could get lost
back there."
Much of that property has been sold off for development, but the
domed and arched church -- Ohio's only Armenian church -- still sits
elegantly across from Richmond Town Square. And the women of the
church are still coming together to stuff grape leaves with rice,
onion and herbs and raise money for the parish.
Less than two weeks remain before this year's Armenian Food Festival
and Bazaar, Saturday and Sunday. Already the women have stuffed
1,700 grape leaves, tucked feta cheese into puff pastry for 1,500
cheese boereg and cooked and seasoned ground lamb and beef for 1,008
flatbread pizzas called lahmajoun.
Many of the desserts they will serve, including an Armenian-styled
baklava, will be prepared over the next week. Lamb and chicken will
be marinated, skewered and cooked over charcoal. Cracked wheat pilafs
will be simmered in broth, and green fattoush salads will be seasoned
with tart, red sumac berries.
"It's a lot of work," said Aurslanian. "We have a couple crates of
parsley to prepare, and that has to be washed and the leaves picked
off and chopped. All the lemons must be juiced."
In a cooperative interfaith culinary moment, the women will store
much of what they make in extra freezer space at St. Paschal Baylon,
a nearby Catholic church.
None of these Mediterranean-styled festival dishes would be made if
the women thought of it only as work. On a strikingly clear September
Saturday morning, about 20 of them gathered in the church hall to
make cheese boereg. While Armenian congregations in Boston and New
York may be larger, some feel St. Gregory's is special for the way
it continues to pull in the young to learn the tricks of the old.
Some of those tricks include the logistics of turning 30 pounds of
cracked wheat into pilaf. Or, testing the proper texture of baklava
syrup as it rolls off the fingernail.
Each procedure comes with room for other opinions.
"We're all critics here," said Alice Paterna, who co-manages the
festival's food preparation.
The event has raised about $10,000 a year for the past six years,
which added up to a little more than half the money needed to rebuild
the church hall kitchen last year. Festival manager Dina Walworth,
41, Aurslanian's daughter, said she thinks of Armenians as warm,
hardworking people who have similarities with Jews because of the
way they merge their religion with their cultural identity and have
survived terrible genocides.
Armenia was the first Christian country, as of the year 301, and has
suffered a parade of persecutors. It is north of Turkey and Iran and
sits landlocked in the isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas.
"My mom's generation knew some of the million-and-a-half people who
died in the attacks of 1915," she said. "They were driven to build
this church and after hearing the stories, we, the younger generation,
are driven to keep it going.
"It's one of the reasons we make this food."
Walworth calls the cooks who came before her "pillars of the
kitchen." She thinks of them as she works her way through recipes,
especially when she's stuffing grape leaves at home with leaves she
gathered herself.
So does her mom, Aurslanian, who can barely speak of her food --
and life -- mentors without fanning her face to ward off her tears.
"I learned everything from them," she said, before turning back to
the job at hand.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-4357
L01%ARMENIAN, ,30012LLE1001, , PEGGY TURBETTTHE PLAIN DEALER
%%head%%Cheese Boereg With Puff Pastry
%%endhead%% %%bodybegin%%
Makes 24 servings
FILLING:
1 pound brick cheese
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
DOUGH:
1 package Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
GLAZE:
1 egg, beaten
Cook's notes: Brick, a melting cheese, is often found in su permarket
deli sections. A small pizza wheel cutter is handy for cutting
the dough.
Prepare dough: Thaw dough according to package direc tions. Divide each
pastry sheet into thirds and cut each strip into 4 equal pieces. Roll
each piece into a 4-inch square.
Fill pastry: Place about 1 heap ing tablespoon of cheese mix ture
on half of the square and fold the other half over to cover cheese,
making a trian gle. (Wet edges of dough with water if needed.) Seal
edges by pressing with fork. Brush tops with beaten egg.
Baking: Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 12 to 14 minutes.
Serving: Cool slightly before eating; cheese can be hot.
Source: Adapted from the St. Gregory of Narek Women's Guild, Richmond
Heights.
--Boundary_(ID_FZBZ2cYuBX+kxpvu nnwJ+A)--
The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
OH
Thirty years ago, members of the St. Gregory of Narek Women's Guild
foraged for edible wild grape leaves in the back seven acres of their
Richmond Heights church.
"The men came with us," said Sandy Aurslanian. "You could get lost
back there."
Much of that property has been sold off for development, but the
domed and arched church -- Ohio's only Armenian church -- still sits
elegantly across from Richmond Town Square. And the women of the
church are still coming together to stuff grape leaves with rice,
onion and herbs and raise money for the parish.
Less than two weeks remain before this year's Armenian Food Festival
and Bazaar, Saturday and Sunday. Already the women have stuffed
1,700 grape leaves, tucked feta cheese into puff pastry for 1,500
cheese boereg and cooked and seasoned ground lamb and beef for 1,008
flatbread pizzas called lahmajoun.
Many of the desserts they will serve, including an Armenian-styled
baklava, will be prepared over the next week. Lamb and chicken will
be marinated, skewered and cooked over charcoal. Cracked wheat pilafs
will be simmered in broth, and green fattoush salads will be seasoned
with tart, red sumac berries.
"It's a lot of work," said Aurslanian. "We have a couple crates of
parsley to prepare, and that has to be washed and the leaves picked
off and chopped. All the lemons must be juiced."
In a cooperative interfaith culinary moment, the women will store
much of what they make in extra freezer space at St. Paschal Baylon,
a nearby Catholic church.
None of these Mediterranean-styled festival dishes would be made if
the women thought of it only as work. On a strikingly clear September
Saturday morning, about 20 of them gathered in the church hall to
make cheese boereg. While Armenian congregations in Boston and New
York may be larger, some feel St. Gregory's is special for the way
it continues to pull in the young to learn the tricks of the old.
Some of those tricks include the logistics of turning 30 pounds of
cracked wheat into pilaf. Or, testing the proper texture of baklava
syrup as it rolls off the fingernail.
Each procedure comes with room for other opinions.
"We're all critics here," said Alice Paterna, who co-manages the
festival's food preparation.
The event has raised about $10,000 a year for the past six years,
which added up to a little more than half the money needed to rebuild
the church hall kitchen last year. Festival manager Dina Walworth,
41, Aurslanian's daughter, said she thinks of Armenians as warm,
hardworking people who have similarities with Jews because of the
way they merge their religion with their cultural identity and have
survived terrible genocides.
Armenia was the first Christian country, as of the year 301, and has
suffered a parade of persecutors. It is north of Turkey and Iran and
sits landlocked in the isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas.
"My mom's generation knew some of the million-and-a-half people who
died in the attacks of 1915," she said. "They were driven to build
this church and after hearing the stories, we, the younger generation,
are driven to keep it going.
"It's one of the reasons we make this food."
Walworth calls the cooks who came before her "pillars of the
kitchen." She thinks of them as she works her way through recipes,
especially when she's stuffing grape leaves at home with leaves she
gathered herself.
So does her mom, Aurslanian, who can barely speak of her food --
and life -- mentors without fanning her face to ward off her tears.
"I learned everything from them," she said, before turning back to
the job at hand.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 216-999-4357
L01%ARMENIAN, ,30012LLE1001, , PEGGY TURBETTTHE PLAIN DEALER
%%head%%Cheese Boereg With Puff Pastry
%%endhead%% %%bodybegin%%
Makes 24 servings
FILLING:
1 pound brick cheese
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
DOUGH:
1 package Pepperidge Farm puff pastry
GLAZE:
1 egg, beaten
Cook's notes: Brick, a melting cheese, is often found in su permarket
deli sections. A small pizza wheel cutter is handy for cutting
the dough.
Prepare dough: Thaw dough according to package direc tions. Divide each
pastry sheet into thirds and cut each strip into 4 equal pieces. Roll
each piece into a 4-inch square.
Fill pastry: Place about 1 heap ing tablespoon of cheese mix ture
on half of the square and fold the other half over to cover cheese,
making a trian gle. (Wet edges of dough with water if needed.) Seal
edges by pressing with fork. Brush tops with beaten egg.
Baking: Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 12 to 14 minutes.
Serving: Cool slightly before eating; cheese can be hot.
Source: Adapted from the St. Gregory of Narek Women's Guild, Richmond
Heights.
--Boundary_(ID_FZBZ2cYuBX+kxpvu nnwJ+A)--