Tweet
IN THE KITCHEN WITH: MAKING ARMENIAN BOREG WITH EDNA TUNGRIAN
BY SACHI FUJIMORI
The Record
Nov 26 2012
NJ
Edna Tungrian cracks an egg with confidence, like someone who's been
doing it a lifetime. In one decisive tap, her knife's blade whacks
the center of the shell, and the yolk and whites slip into the bowl.
The petite 84-year-old is in the industrial kitchen of the St. Leon
Armenian Church in Fair Lawn on this recent morning, making a batch of
boreg, flaky, baked triangles of phyllo dough that ooze white cheese
when bit into hot out of the oven. Across the Mediterran-ean, and in
former Ottoman territories and Slavic regions, variations of these
cheese- and meat-filled pastries are considered everyday comfort food.
Tungrian has folded these simple but satisfying appetizers thousands
of times. Since 1990 when she was widowed, she's been the grand dame
of her church's annual food festival, which is a massive undertaking.
For this year's festival, she oversaw about 50 church women who made
2,300 boreg, 2,500 stuffed grape leaves and 2,000 kufte - meatballs
made with lamb and bulgur wheat. And those were just appetizers.
"She gets 20 million questions in those three (festival) days. 'How
much spice should I use?' 'How do I wash cherry tomatoes?' I've never
heard her yell," said her friend, Barbara Boghosian.
She commands respect in the kitchen, quietly, by getting things done
and keeping her cool. On this day her friends watch with curiosity as
she brushes each layer of phyllo with melted butter and folds each
paper-thin layer of dough like a flag. In her youth she worked as a
dressmaker at Saks Fifth Avenue, and her nimble hands still show it.
Tungrian attributes her calm nature and fluidity in the kitchen to her
mother, Sirvart. Both of her parents fled their homeland of Turkey
before the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I,
when more than a million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman
army. It was a topic her parents' generation avoided, she said.
But for the modern day Armenian diaspora, it's a rallying point
to keep their culture alive. "So many were killed," said Barbara
Hovsepian of Wanaque, a church friend who was watching Tungrian cook.
"All that knowledge, all these mothers and children. We really cherish
what we have. We want to keep it going, these family traditions."
Tungrian grew up in a two-bedroom apartment at 187th Street in
Washington Heights, near the family's parish - Holy Cross Armenian
Apostolic Church. Her parents ran a neighborhood grocery store six
days a week. Her father liked to entertain on Sundays, which meant
after a week of working, Sirvart had to cook, usually a chicken and
rice dish, which she said was then a luxury compared to the lamb they
ate most weekday nights.
She also made her boreg, preparing the flaky dough from scratch and
rolling it out until it was paper-thin. Tungrian and her older sister
helped fill the pockets with an egg and cheese mixture and pressed
the dough closed. No recipes were ever written down. Her mother and
her mother's mother, and generations of women in her family, followed
the atchki ayar style of cooking - "measure the ingredients by eye."
Today, Sirvart's recipe has slightly changed: Tungrian uses pre-made
phyllo dough, which she says tastes nearly as good. When she makes
these pastries and the dozens of others in her repertoire, Tungrian
remembers her mother, who lived to 95. "You think about her and the
times we were together. She lived a good, long life."
* EDNA TUNGRIAN'S CHEESE BOREG
8 ounces cream cheese
1 pound shredded muenster cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 pound phyllo dough
Make the filling by mixing the cheeses and egg very well. This can
be done with an electric mixer or with a fork. Melt the butter.
Take several sheets of dough. With a pastry brush, lightly coat with
melted butter over the entire length one layer at a time.
Put a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture at the base of the
strip. Fold over each edge, lengthwise about one inch. Then pick up
one corner and fold it into the other edge to form a triangle.
Continue folding the length of the strip the same way so that finished
product is the shape of a triangle.
Seal the edge with melted butter and place on a lightly greased baking
sheet. Repeat with each strip. Do not allow the pastries to touch
one another. Brush tops with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for about
20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately as an appetizer.
http://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/180792901_Making_Armenian_boreg_with_Edna_Tungrian .html
BY SACHI FUJIMORI
The Record
Nov 26 2012
NJ
Edna Tungrian cracks an egg with confidence, like someone who's been
doing it a lifetime. In one decisive tap, her knife's blade whacks
the center of the shell, and the yolk and whites slip into the bowl.
The petite 84-year-old is in the industrial kitchen of the St. Leon
Armenian Church in Fair Lawn on this recent morning, making a batch of
boreg, flaky, baked triangles of phyllo dough that ooze white cheese
when bit into hot out of the oven. Across the Mediterran-ean, and in
former Ottoman territories and Slavic regions, variations of these
cheese- and meat-filled pastries are considered everyday comfort food.
Tungrian has folded these simple but satisfying appetizers thousands
of times. Since 1990 when she was widowed, she's been the grand dame
of her church's annual food festival, which is a massive undertaking.
For this year's festival, she oversaw about 50 church women who made
2,300 boreg, 2,500 stuffed grape leaves and 2,000 kufte - meatballs
made with lamb and bulgur wheat. And those were just appetizers.
"She gets 20 million questions in those three (festival) days. 'How
much spice should I use?' 'How do I wash cherry tomatoes?' I've never
heard her yell," said her friend, Barbara Boghosian.
She commands respect in the kitchen, quietly, by getting things done
and keeping her cool. On this day her friends watch with curiosity as
she brushes each layer of phyllo with melted butter and folds each
paper-thin layer of dough like a flag. In her youth she worked as a
dressmaker at Saks Fifth Avenue, and her nimble hands still show it.
Tungrian attributes her calm nature and fluidity in the kitchen to her
mother, Sirvart. Both of her parents fled their homeland of Turkey
before the fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I,
when more than a million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman
army. It was a topic her parents' generation avoided, she said.
But for the modern day Armenian diaspora, it's a rallying point
to keep their culture alive. "So many were killed," said Barbara
Hovsepian of Wanaque, a church friend who was watching Tungrian cook.
"All that knowledge, all these mothers and children. We really cherish
what we have. We want to keep it going, these family traditions."
Tungrian grew up in a two-bedroom apartment at 187th Street in
Washington Heights, near the family's parish - Holy Cross Armenian
Apostolic Church. Her parents ran a neighborhood grocery store six
days a week. Her father liked to entertain on Sundays, which meant
after a week of working, Sirvart had to cook, usually a chicken and
rice dish, which she said was then a luxury compared to the lamb they
ate most weekday nights.
She also made her boreg, preparing the flaky dough from scratch and
rolling it out until it was paper-thin. Tungrian and her older sister
helped fill the pockets with an egg and cheese mixture and pressed
the dough closed. No recipes were ever written down. Her mother and
her mother's mother, and generations of women in her family, followed
the atchki ayar style of cooking - "measure the ingredients by eye."
Today, Sirvart's recipe has slightly changed: Tungrian uses pre-made
phyllo dough, which she says tastes nearly as good. When she makes
these pastries and the dozens of others in her repertoire, Tungrian
remembers her mother, who lived to 95. "You think about her and the
times we were together. She lived a good, long life."
* EDNA TUNGRIAN'S CHEESE BOREG
8 ounces cream cheese
1 pound shredded muenster cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 pound phyllo dough
Make the filling by mixing the cheeses and egg very well. This can
be done with an electric mixer or with a fork. Melt the butter.
Take several sheets of dough. With a pastry brush, lightly coat with
melted butter over the entire length one layer at a time.
Put a heaping tablespoon of the cheese mixture at the base of the
strip. Fold over each edge, lengthwise about one inch. Then pick up
one corner and fold it into the other edge to form a triangle.
Continue folding the length of the strip the same way so that finished
product is the shape of a triangle.
Seal the edge with melted butter and place on a lightly greased baking
sheet. Repeat with each strip. Do not allow the pastries to touch
one another. Brush tops with butter. Bake at 350 degrees for about
20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately as an appetizer.
http://www.northjersey.com/food_dining/180792901_Making_Armenian_boreg_with_Edna_Tungrian .html