I love Armenian cooking. My favorite Armenian restaurants in NYC closed, but there are rumors of one Uptown still. There’s an Armenian chef near me but he cooks French, with an occasional Armenian dessert.
Being where they are, Armenians got stomped on for centuries by everyone stomping through the Middle East. The upside is that their cooking is a wonderful mix.
Still looking for their perfect Lemon Yogurt Soup recipe.
Armenian Lemon Chicken Soup
Ingredients:
2 Chicken breasts – cooked or uncooked
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
3-4 stalks celery
Optional: shred some celery leaf – very nutritious)
1 carrot (6-8 baby carrots)
1 Lemon
salt
15 black peppercorns or equivalent ground black pepper
4-5 leaves dried mint
10-15 fresh spinich leaves
(I use baby spinach)
Pasta – 1/3 cup whole wheat pasta & 1/3 cup basmati rice
or just use noodles
Directions:
Debone & deskin chicken
Chop if uncooked, shred if cooked
Chop onion, tomato, celery & carrots
Chicken & veggies, salt & pepper[corns] in pot.
4 cups water if chicken is cooked, 1 quart if uncooked
Simmer on low heat 45 minutes-1 hour if using cooked chicken
3-4 hours if using uncooked chicken
Bring chicken stock to a boil for 10-15 minutes
Add the pasta
Chop fresh spinach [& celery leaf], optionally cilantro, parsley
Juice from 1 lemon
Crumble dried mint
Add this stuff to the soup and cook until pasta is done
h/t Food.com
Bacon-Wrapped Jalapeño Poppers
Ingredients:
20 large jalapeños (about 1 pound)
halved & seeded
2 strips bacon (about 1 pound), cut in half
1 pound cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped chives
1/4 tsp cayenne
Kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper to taste
Directions:
Arrange oven rack about 4″ from broiler
& heat broiler to high.
Place jalapeño halves cut side edown on foil-lined baking sheet
broil until just softened; 3-5 minutes; set aside.
Place bacon on another baking sheet,
broil until fat is rendered and bacon half-cooked; set aside.
Turn oven to 425°.
Mix cheses, cayenne, salt & pepper in bowl.
Spoon about 1 tbsp filling into each jalapeño half.
Wrap eahc with strip of bacon, secure with toothpick.
Return to baking sheet and bake until bacon is crisp & filling melted;
10-12 minutes
h/t Saveur.com
Armenian cooking is sublime. I will eat at any Armenian restaurant I find. This soup looks terrific.
Do you leave the seeds in the jalapeno? I’m a hot hot foot person but my wife isn’t. I wouldn’t mind having this all to myself;)
Recipe calls for the jalapeno to be halved and seeded. If you want to leave in the seeds, be my guest.
If you want hot, try habanero or Scotch Bonnet instead of jalapeno. 🙂
BTW: I’m not surprised you wife isn’t a hot hot foot person. I don’t like a hot foot myself. Ain’t Auto-Complete a bitch? 😀