The Joy of Exploration

Passport & Plate - Flatbreads with eremurus

Armenia | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
1 kg eremurus
100 gr cilantro
100 gr d green onions
Dried mint, dill, basilico
100 gr thin roll-up sheets of sour plum puree
1 teaspoon salt
2 gr ground pepper
300 grams of flour, sifted
1 cup of water
1/2 tsp salt

How to prepare this recipe
Prepare the dough:
Sieve the flour and salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in
the middle. Pour the water into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour
in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing,
drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come
together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted
hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough. Divide into 7-8
parts and make a roll each. Cover the rolls with a cloth for 15
minutes.

Knead a dough rolls around a bit (so called knocking back the dough),
roll the doughs into circles, about 2mm thick, so you will get
flatbreads.

Prepare the mixture of greens:
Cut eremurus greens, cilantro, green onions, dried mint,dried dill,
dried basilica and thin roll-up sheets of sour plum puree. Mix together
with salt and ground pepper.

Place the mixture of greens evenly to the centre of the flatbreads,
fold over the sides, and roll out again to the same size, adding flour
as necessary.

Put the wok on a gas burner, and heat on the highest setting for a few
minutes. Then heat on the medium setting and place the flatbread on the
wok. Flip several times, about every minute, until cooked through and
nicely browned.

Remove the flatbreads from heat. You can eat the delicious flatbreads
immediately with a glass of wine. Buon appetito!

The story behind this recipe
Two-three times a year my family received a parcel sent by my granny,
who lived in Stepanakert (Nagorno Karabakh) that time, which is 400km
away from my native town Yerevan (Armenia).
Me and my brother were always excited to open the parcel as it had
wonderful smell. We didn't had the chance to visit our granny often in
our childhood, so opening that parcel with tasty aroma was like
visiting her and feeling her warmth and love.

"What was there inside?", you will wonder. It was something special,
cause it was made with so much love and passion, that we couldn't just
open it right away. We would read the note on the box handwritten by
our granny, look at each other with such joy and pride and only then
open it.
And the room would be filled with aroma of granny's love. The
flatbreads with greens were wrapped in paper and carefully put in the
box. We could imagine how long granny was cutting the greens, preparing
the dough and finally making those breads for us. So eating the
flatbreads was a pure pleasure. The first bite of it would take us to
granny's house, her big kitchen and her lovely singing.
And now, when she's gone, I always make flatbreads with eremurus,
because it still takes me to the house where she lived and those sweet
moments me and my brother experienced back in time.