[MUSIC PLAYING]
[APPLAUSE]
KATE LEAHY: I'm delighted
to be here today.
It's a real treat
and a real honor
to talk a little bit
about the cookbook I
finished and also show a couple
of the recipes from the book.
Today we're taking
an approach-- we're
doing some of the vegetarian
recipes from the book.
I don't know if anyone's ever
heard of Zhingyalov Hats.
I'm not pronouncing
it perfectly,
but OK, we've got three people
who know Zhingyalov Hats.
We're going to be making those.
And then we're also going to be
doing a very simple bean dish.
I think of it as the Armenian
answer to refried beans.
And then we are going to
talk just a little bit, too,
about how the book
came about, how
I came to write a book with
my two other co-authors, what
Armenia is all about, what
the food of Armenia is like,
and we're just going
to have some fun.
So with that, I will
start on Zhingyalov Hats.
But first I'll talk a little
bit about just the background
of the story.
So my name, as you
know, is Kate Leahy.
And my co-authors are
John Lee and Ara Zada.
Ara is an Armenian
American chef from LA.
John is a Taiwanese
American food
photographer slash
photojournalist.
And the three of
us formed this team
to write this book together.
And if anyone knows anything
about cookbooks, a lot of times
you just see one
person's name on the book
and they have their story.
Here it wasn't really about
our individual stories.
It was us forming a
team to go to Armenia
and really uncover stories that
we felt needed to be written.
We joined up--
John, actually-- I know him from
the "Burma Superstar" cookbook.
He was the photographer
for that book.
And I kid you not, we are
on a flight to Yangon,
we have a lot of hours
to kill, and he can't
stop talking about Armenia.
He's just like, dude.
He says dude a lot.
Dude, you don't understand.
Like, Armenia-- the
food there is amazing.
He's like, you want to
show me some picture--
show me some pictures, John.
So he opens up his laptop
and we pass at least a couple
of hours of the flight
scrolling through images
of the country of Armenia.
And what's really amazing
is that he actually
was one of those people who
didn't know where Armenia was--
was asked out of the blue
from a friend of his who
lives in the country to
teach a food photography
workshop to high school students
through an organization called
TUMO.
And if anyone's heard
of TUMO, think of it
as the world's best
after school program.
It's one of those things that--
any kid would want
to go to TUMO.
You teach everything
from animation,
to computer programming,
to culinary arts,
to food photography.
So John finds
himself in Yerevan,
the capital of Armenia,
and he's leading
this group of Armenian high
school kids around Yerevan.
And they ended up touring
the entire country.
And he's teaching
them food photography,
but he really feels like they're
teaching him about Armenia.
And he just really fell in
love with the food, the people,
and the story.
And when we were talking about
doing a book on Burmese food,
he said what about Armenia?
And I said, well,
these photographs--
and I don't know if anyone's
peeked through the book,
but the images are
really captivating.
I thought, this
looks like a book.
So let's figure out how
to make something happen.
But it wasn't right
to just have John
as a food photographer
and me as a food writer.
I did have some history
with Armenian food.
I wrote my college thesis--
you guys probably
studied things that
were much better for employment,
but my college thesis
was cookbooks and Armenian
American identity.
I had some really good
Armenian friends in high school
and college and I always felt
they talked about food more
than any of my other friends.
And so I wrote this thesis
but then put it away
for many years.
And it wasn't until John was
talking to me about Armenia
that I thought, oh, yeah,
this is a great idea,
but we need to find another
person to complete our team.
And Ara Zada grew up in an
Armenian Egyptian household
in LA, and he had also
been to Armenia to teach
through the TUMO organization.
And what was amazing for
him is that he found out
that the food he
thought was Armenian
was very different from the
Armenian food in Armenia.
So it was a learning
experience for all of us.
So with that said, a
little story on the book,
I'm going to start
on the food part.
So get you guys a little hungry.
So Zhingyalov Hats.
And if I'm talking too
much, please interrupt.
Ask questions.
I can talk probably
all day about Armenia,
so I won't bore you.
Zhingyalov Hats, though, is
really an interesting story.
It's a very simple dough.
The dough is just flour,
water, a little bit
of salt. There's no yeast.
Made it about 20,
25 minutes ago.
I'm just going to
divide it up into balls,
and then this is a way,
any kind of bread making,
you can roll bread into a ball
just by using the friction
on a counter.
So you have this
nice little ball.
I'm just going to put
that aside and then
we will roll that out later.
But then what I'm going
to do in the meantime
is talk about all
the delicious green.
So has anybody ever
eaten Zhingyalov Hats?
Where did you eat it?
AUDIENCE: In Armenia.
KATE LEAHY: Oh, so we have
people here who have actually
gone to the source.
This is really scary for me.
How am I going to live
up to the expectations?
SPEAKER 1: Is Kate
pronouncing it correctly?
AUDIENCE: [INTERPOSING VOICES]
KATE LEAHY: Well, I
have a funny story.
So I was in Glendale in
October and it was before--
now Glendale has a place
called Zhingyalov Hats
that opened recently.
But before it opened I went
to this other bakery that will
make it if you ordered ahead.
And so I called on the phone.
I said, can you make me--
I need six Zhingyalov
Hats for a book signing.
What?
Zhingyalov Hats.
What?
Zhingyalov Hats.
Oh, you mean the
Zhingyalov bread.
I said you really couldn't
get it from Zhingyalov?
Like, really?
So actually I'll bring
over these greens just
to show you how cool this is.
So Zhingyalov Hats is really--
Hats is bread in Armenia.
So Zhingyalov-- there's
lots of theories
where the name comes from
but generally the idea is
a lot of greens.
Sometimes it translates
to jungle or forest,
but essentially
it means, locally
in the Artsakh region, which
is a complicated story that I
might not get into until later.
But this is a dish from Artsakh.
And it's basically
as many greens
as you can fit in a bread.
So we've got-- today I'm super
excited because the Google
Garden--
Google Garden has these
beautiful sorrel leaves
which look like
the kind of greens
you find all over
Artsakh in Armenia.
They're sour.
They give it that
nice acidic balance
to the bread which is really
important for the flavor.
So what I'm going to do is just
chop up some of them and then--
the Google team here
has been so amazing
chopping some stuff for me
because chopping is pretty much
the hardest part about
making Zhingyalov Hats, that
and filling the Hats.
So I'm just going to chop
up some of the greens,
just to give you a
sense of chopping.
Ideally you want
them nice and thin,
but they're a little bigger.
It's going to be perfectly fine.
What's really
interesting about this
from a culinary
perspective is that you're
using raw greens,
which I find kind of--
I don't know if you feel
this way, but a lot of times
when you're using greens
in a bread you would think,
oh, I've got to cook the greens,
drain out all the liquid,
and then go ahead
and make the greens.
But in this case, you
actually want all those.
You want the freshness.
And it's going to
cook in the dough.
So this is cilantro.
As you can see, I'm
chopping it with the stems.
I think the cilantro stems
add a really nice flavor.
And let's see.
We've got the spinach here.
SPEAKER 1: So the raw vegetables
don't emit too much water
when it's baking?
KATE LEAHY: Well,
the thing you have
to think about
the raw vegetables
is that when you're
making the filling
my dough is already made.
So I'm not going to have
to wait on the dough.
So the raw greens,
once they're chopped,
you do want to use them fairly
soon after chopping them.
Because if you do season
them it becomes like a salad.
It will eventually wilt down.
And when you're making
the Zhingyalov Hats
with wilted greens
it's a little bit
of a mess of your experience.
I'm sure the flavor
is still good,
but you're going to have
liquid that's going to come out
in the bread itself.
So anyway, just a
little bit about slicing
greens in Armenia--
I'll do the cilantro again.
But what's really cool is that
they'll chop it like this.
I don't know if you
guys can see that.
And then they move
their hands so then
they end up chopping the stems
and the greens all together.
And they can do this with
a massive bunch of greens
in their hand, which
is pretty fun to watch.
So we've got greens in there.
I'm going to slice up a
couple of these scallions.
SPEAKER 1: Now, in
the book you mentioned
that the scallions that
they have in Armenia
are a lot thinner.
So are they more
similar to our spring
onions or just our scallions?
KATE LEAHY: I think in general--
and those of you who have been
to Armenia, I'd love to
hear what you think--
but I feel that herbs
in Armenia have a--
for lack of a better term,
they have a fresher, brighter
flavor.
There is something about--
eating a scallion in Armenia
raw doesn't leave you
with that over pungent kind
of flavor in your mouth.
So what I like to think
of is if you do get, say,
a scallion that is
really big, I sometimes
will just quarter
it and serve it
if I'm doing an
Armenian table, just
so you can get the scallion.
I might even soak it
in water to reduce
some of that astringency.
But then when it comes
to herbs like dill,
and this is really
beautiful dill,
sometimes dill in the States
can be a little coarse.
And dill in Armenia is just--
it's almost sweet.
It's got a freshness
and a sweetness.
So one of the interesting things
about Armenian food in general
is a lot of people
think, oh, it's
got to be filled with spices.
And it's not.
Really, the key ingredient
for a lot of this food
is the fresh herbs.
So you use a lot of fresh herbs.
You never are shy with
fresh herbs, which
I think is, for me, going from
Burmese food to Italian food,
it's closer to
what I would think
of as southern Italian food
than it is to what people might
think of as Armenian food in
the US or Middle Eastern food
in the US.
So did you have a question, or--
AUDIENCE: No, I was just
going to say that growing
up in an Armenian household,
every night for dinner there's
green onions, even raw
onions on the table.
You just eat it
while you're eating.
So Armenians are very used to
just eating raw green onions.
KATE LEAHY: It's true.
A raw green onion--
but I do think in Armenia, the
onions are a little sweeter.
You can eat them raw.
There is something really
nice about a nice delicious
raw onion flavor,
especially of grilled meats.
You get your peace of lavash--
which I can't believe
I've gone this far
and I have a book
called "Lavash"
and I haven't
mentioned lavash once.
But we'll get there.
But let me get on
to this filling.
So we've got a
little vegetable oil.
In the country of
Armenia and in Artsakh,
olive oil is very expensive.
So you use usually
a sunflower oil.
I like using a little
red chili flake.
The ladies who make this in
the Stepanakert [INAUDIBLE]
would not be using
that, probably.
But they would use some paprika.
And then I add lemon
juice because sometimes I
find the greens that
you get in the US don't
have enough sour flavor and
so you want that sour flavor.
In Armenia, they would probably
not use the lemon juice.
They would just use--
there's a million
different greens
that are called
something like sorrel.
And they're all a
little different
but there's [INAUDIBLE].
I can't even get into it.
But they all are
variations of this,
and that gives it that
bright, sour flavor.
SPEAKER 1: Are there any
other American type vegetables
that offer that
kind of sour flavor?
KATE LEAHY: I like using--
when it comes to
greens, I think you
can taste greens that sometimes
you forget about using.
Radish tops can sometimes
have a sour flavor.
Turnip tops, depending
on the turnip--
there's some lovely
turnip tops here
that are pretty mild and nice.
Sometimes they have a sharpness.
Those can be also used
for the sour flavor.
And then another
way you can get sour
is from things like sour
cherries, pomegranate molasses,
and you can vinegar too,
just for that sourness.
So through the
magic of moving, I'm
going to just scoot this
here and start rolling out,
and see if I have luck
shaping this Zhingyalov Hats.
So this is the moment of truth.
So I'm just taking
this ball of dough.
As I said, it's very
easy to handle dough.
You want to keep it
nice and floured.
But it's forgiving.
It's a soft dough.
I did the other day try to use
very, very local milled flour
that was a variety of
wheat I hadn't heard of.
And I didn't realize that it
just wasn't going to work.
It totally fell apart on me.
So you do want some flour
with a bit of gluten
to hold it together.
And if you do want to use
a locally milled flour,
start with maybe a quarter of
it in the mixture and then add.
So you can experiment
with whole grains
and make a delicious
version of this.
This recipe can be a jumping
off point for a lot of things.
So you've got a nice
dough, nothing too crazy,
probably about
eight, nine inches.
In Armenia, they make
them really large.
I find it's easier at home
to get used to a smaller size
so you feel like you
can get some success
and learn how to make the dough.
And then you can go crazy and
make them real big if you want.
So I'm actually
going to mound this.
More greens than you
think are going to fit.
And that's also part of
the thing about this bread.
And I think it was one that as
soon as we tried it in Armenia
we thought, wow, no matter
what we have in this book
we're going to have to
have this recipe in.
So I'm just going to pinch this.
Think of making a really big
dumpling filled with greens.
I'm just pinching it down, like
maybe making dumplings or pie
crust.
And I'm just going to close it.
So it doesn't have to be in
any particular perfect crimped
shape.
And I want to thank
the Google staff
for making such a nice
dough for me earlier.
So look, it's got--
check this out.
It's kind of crazy, right?
It's this big puffy--
my version maybe a
little misshapen.
I'm not as practiced as
the women in Artsakh.
But we've got this
ball of dough.
And now what I'm going to do--
my side of my hand is
floured and I'm just
going to smash the bread
like that, sealing it.
It's got a little air in there.
My co-author, Ara--
for some reason,
even though he grew up in
LA, he's a big Falcons fan.
He calls these
deflated footballs.
So you can think of it
as deflated football.
You can do this, too, to make
sure it gets nice and flat.
Roll it like that.
And again, if
there's a little hole
like there's a
little hole there,
I'm just going to patch it
and then maybe roll it again.
So Zhingyalov Hats
ready for the pan.
And that's a thing, too.
You can use a cast iron skillet.
This is, I think, a paella
pan, which is beautiful.
And if I was faster I could have
had two going at the same time.
At home, sometimes I
use an overturned wok.
That's what I also love
to do for making lavash.
It gets nice and hot.
It's like a [INAUDIBLE].
You get this nice hot surface,
but it also cools down fast.
So in between you
can turn it off
and it's not going to scorch
your next batch of dough.
But I'm just going to--
this probably needs
to be a little hotter.
I think if I keep
holding this button down
it goes to superpower,
but I don't know.
That might be too hot for me.
So we'll see.
AUDIENCE: What do you
think about the idea
of resourcefulness in Armenia?
I think this dish
is a great example
of just using everything
that you have around you.
And I think that's probably--
I just wanted to hear
your thoughts on that.
KATE LEAHY: It's
incredibly resourceful.
For instance, this is a bread
that is made from greens.
Most of them are foraged.
So springtime is the
time to eat this.
You would forage
for as many greens
as you could find to the
point where sometimes people
had lists of 22 greens.
And I'm not even sure
off the top of my head
I could name 22 greens.
There's, I said, a lot
of versions of sorrel.
Mountain sorrel, meadow sorrel,
sorrel from, I don't know,
the river.
So it's not only resourceful
because of the ingredients
but it's resourceful in
how they use their kitchen.
So no one's going
to tell me you have
to only use a cast
iron [INAUDIBLE]
to make your Zhingyalov Hats.
Use whatever pan you can.
If it's a pancake griddle,
if it's an electric griddle,
it will work.
Another thing-- now
it's getting hot.
Another thing I found too
is that I think in the US,
we use plastic wrap
more than we need to.
I know for sustainability
issues it's a problem.
In Armenia, when I went to
a commercial bakery there,
people use what they have.
So this one woman--
it was cold that
morning and she wanted
to make sure her
dough stayed warm,
so she took her winter coat and
just draped it over the bowl.
And then another woman,
we were in her home
and she was teaching
us how to make
this really amazing type of
baklava from the city of Goris.
That recipe is in the book, too.
And to cut, instead of using
a new piece of plastic wrap,
she would just cut plastic
bags from something
she had used before.
And a lot of this, I
think, is resourcefulness.
But it also goes
back to Soviet times
where you had to reuse
things and you also
had to make a lot
of your own food
because to guarantee
the quality,
you wanted to make
your own butter.
You wanted to make
your own pickles.
And even today, you can go
to a modern home in Yerevan
and you go into the
pantry and they've
got it stocked with pickles,
preserves, dried cured meats
that they've made.
And this is an apartment,
but they're still
preserving as if they
were still on a farm.
So it's pretty incredible.
Let's see.
I think we need a little
bit more heat on this guy.
Generally, I think
maybe 3 minutes
each side, depending
on your heat source.
Today I also discovered that if
you use a pizza oven, if you're
fortunate to have
access to a pizza oven
and can crank it up
to say 700 degrees,
you can make Zhingyalov Hats in
the pizza oven really nicely.
So another option.
Maybe I'll roll out
another one and I
can keep talking and
answering questions.
SPEAKER 1: Do we have
any audience questions?
AUDIENCE: Generally, you
don't add any fat or oil?
KATE LEAHY: No, that's a
great question, actually.
And the first time
I made this at home
I said I'm going to
try it with some oil.
It's got to make
it better, right?
And I ended up splashing
the oil onto my arm
and it was a terrible idea.
So no, you use a dry pan.
When you're using
cast iron, you want
to make sure that pan has
already been used, seasoned.
There's lots of
great instructions
online for how to
season a cast iron pan.
I don't know if you have
special ways of seasoning
that you recommend.
SPEAKER 1: I don't
have any special ways.
I do it pretty much
the normal way.
So you can look it up.
There's a great search
engine that'll tell you how
to season cast iron pans.
KATE LEAHY: So the thing about
it is if the pan is seasoned
and it's hot, the
dough won't stick.
And that's why using a
wok that's flipped over
like I do for making
lavash, it really works.
It really works well because
it doesn't stick and the bread
instantly puffs up a bit.
SPEAKER 1: I believe on
Instagram, you just recently
discovered another cooking--?
KATE LEAHY: Yes.
So somebody sent me a photo.
They didn't have a wok.
They didn't have
a cast iron pan.
They wanted to do a lavash
on the grill outside.
And it was too cold.
It was raining, so they
brought the grill pan,
a perforated grill pan,
inside on the stove,
flipped it over, and
actually put the dough on top
of this perforated grill pan.
And that worked.
So it just kind of opened
my eye on how many ways
you could actually do this.
So this still needs a
little bit of color,
but I'm going to flip it
over anyway and keep it going
and then keep an
eye on this burner
as I'm getting accustomed to it.
I'm going to make
one more of these.
How to adapt your local
greens that you're
finding at your market or maybe
you're growing in your garden
to this bread.
And the first thing is--
what I like to do
is I like to have--
you can use a lot of
different types of greens.
I think the key is
getting a balance.
You want some greens
that have flavor that
are a little bit more pungent.
So if you don't have sorrel,
save the radish greens
from your radishes and use
those, or dandelion greens,
which are something that
grow all over California
and are really popular
for that bitterness.
You could probably even go with
radicchio for that bitterness.
So you want to look for a
balance of herbs, cilantro,
cilantro and parsley,
cilantro, parsley, dill,
a combination like that.
Woo, now we're cooking.
OK, that's what
we're looking for.
And then you want neutral herb,
so maybe chard, maybe spinach,
maybe kale, of course.
Another way to use kale.
If you're getting a CSA
and you're just like,
I can't do a kale salad
anymore, maybe make some bread.
OK, so now that I've got
the super heat going,
this right here is
a little bit more
of what you're looking
for, these blisters.
So maybe the second one will
be the magic Zhingyalov Hats.
Another thing about this is
that it's not a hard project,
but it's not a clean project.
So you can see
I'm probably going
to be wearing a lot of flour.
But you know, it's fun.
It's fun.
It's a nice rainy day activity.
All right, little
too much flour there.
So another deflated football.
There we go.
But yeah, great question.
If you're stuck with greens that
you don't know what to do with,
taste it, see if it's
bitter or if it's neutral
or maybe it's floral,
and then balance it out
with something else
that's a little bit--
so you have a range.
You get that acidity and
you get the herbal flavor
and a little bit
of green onions,
spring onion, shallot,
maybe even just
a little white onion if you
don't have green onions, any
of those combinations.
I have done this.
I think I did a demo in New York
a few years ago in Zhingyalov
Hats when I was still
learning how to make it,
and somebody was just like,
where's the hot sauce?
You know what?
You could put some
hot sauce on it.
I'm not going to stop you.
Somebody also
asked about cheese.
I would serve it with cheese.
I don't know if I'd
put the cheese inside
because it would make
a mess of the pan
if it did start oozing
out grilled cheese style.
But you could probably make
a delicious one like that.
It probably wouldn't
be Zhingyalov Hats,
but it would be great.
So that's a great question.
I should probably talk a
little bit about lavash.
So one of the things, if
you did run out of greens--
say you have no more greens
and you have extra dough,
you could just roll this out
into a very simple version
of lavash.
But lavash itself is a
really special bread.
It's the reason we
called the book "Lavash."
It's the center of every meal.
There's lavash on
every table in Armenia.
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
there's a bowl of lavash.
And I've made a mistake.
Sometimes I call it lavash,
but then it's lavash.
I've now said
lavash enough times
and we did a book
talk in LA and they
said, can you please tell
people to pronounce it lavash?
And I said, we just want
people to know about the bread.
Call it however you want.
But they usually do say lavash.
And it's a Unesco
Heritage bread.
It's recognized as a part of
intangible cultural heritage
for Armenia.
So to say it's important is
probably an understatement.
It's a beautiful bread.
It's made in a clay tonir in
the oven about four feet deep.
And to watch women--
it's usually always women
working around the tonir.
They're like professional
baseball players.
So one of them is
rolling the dough,
then she throws it
to the next woman who
is rolling it out into a sheet.
And she tosses it to the next
woman who's maybe the batter,
and she stretches it over this--
it would be the equivalent
of a pizza peel.
They call it a [INAUDIBLE].
It looks like a
really firm pillow.
And it looks like a
pillow you would never
want to use for sleeping but
it's great for stretching dough
over.
And then they take it and they
slap it against the hot oven
wall and it immediately puffs.
And then the fourth
woman, she gets a hook
and she takes it out
of the oven and then
makes sure it cooks on the
other side for a few seconds
and then stacks it in a pile.
So it really is-- watching
the orchestration,
it's spectacular.
And to us, it was
worth going to Armenia
to see what it was
like in person.
So for our recipe in
our book, obviously
we weren't going to have people
make a tonir in their backyard.
So we had to get a
little bit creative on--
let's see.
What kind of heat sources
would get hot enough
that you would get the
effect of a very hot oven
but then also be able to make
it in an apartment or in a stove
if you didn't have a gas stove?
So we kind of gave
it-- in the book
we have options for
using a griddle,
using a pancake griddle,
using your grill
if you wanted to use a grill.
So just alternatives.
It's not going to
be tonir lavash,
but it's going to be
delicious flatbread that you
can feel satisfied that
you can make at home.
Oh, now that's more like it.
So this one, number two--
so think of it like--
I think flatbreads, they're
kind of like the first pancake.
Sometimes the first
pancake you're still
figuring out the surface.
And the second pancake
you kind of get it.
You get it.
Yeah.
So now I think I'll
move into beans.
SPEAKER 1: So speaking
of beans, I just
want to point out for those
of you who did get the book,
and for those of you who
didn't please look this way,
I just learned that this
gorgeous photo is the city
to which these beans came--
recipe came from, right?
KATE LEAHY: Right.
So the very first thing you'll
see when you open up the book
is this picture of what kind of
looks like a storybook castle.
And it's this beautiful photo.
John shot it in 2015 with
the students from TUMO.
And it's remarkable.
You can actually take a
gondola ride to go see it.
It's called Tatev Monastery.
And culinary wise,
why it's interesting,
is this area is near
the city of Goris.
And Goris is famous
for its beans.
They make beans.
The beans are a little bit like
cranberry beans or borlotti
beans, which, if you guys
haven't seen those raw,
they have speckles on them.
They're almost like
a raw pinto bean.
But in Goris they come in
so many different colors.
You have deep purple ones,
you have magenta ones,
and you just have this range.
And the women are really
passionate about which
village outside of Goris
has the best beans.
And the women in Goris have
strong Armenian accents
and they like to talk all at
once, so we learned a lot,
but I don't know if
we learned anything.
We just learned that there's
a lot of great beans there.
But when we visited
Tatev, we just needed time
for a little snack
before continuing--
all right, before I
burn down the house.
We went to a little roadside
stand next to the monastery
and we ordered some
beans, actually.
And the beans were
really good, good enough
where we're just
like, we need to find
a woman in Goris who could help
us learn how to make the beans.
And excuse my mess.
I'm really usually
a very clean cook.
But right now I'm just slicing
up a little bit of onion.
If you want, you can slice
it into smaller pieces.
It's not really
all that important.
So Goris is known for
its beans, but it's also
just a really fascinating place
to visit for Tatev Monastery.
And also it's a
beautiful city that
has gotten forgotten about.
And we found this woman
through friends of a friend who
invited us into her home.
And she really didn't
want anything from us.
She just invited us over.
And we're saying,
what can we bring?
She said nothing.
Just bring yourselves.
And I said, we just want to
learn more about Goris beans
because we know that
they're so delicious.
So right now this is just
a saute pan or a saucepan.
I'm going to put a little bit
of the vegetable oil in it.
You can use sunflower oil.
You can use olive oil.
It takes it in a different
flavor profile that
isn't as true to
Armenia but could
be true to a lot of
different cultures.
So back to the women in
Goris, she invites us over.
And we thought she was going
to show us maybe one dish, two
dishes, how to cook beans.
She made about five different
dishes with Goris beans.
She just kept making
bean dish after bean dish
after bean dish, starting
with this really simple one
that I'm showing you right now.
And all this is is I'm going to
saute some onion in some oil,
add the beans to it, a
little salt, and some
of the bean cooking water.
And it's going to sort of turn
into the Armenian equivalent
of refried beans.
I'm going to mash the
beans a little bit.
And to me, this is a
great delicious side dish.
You finish it with
just some fresh herbs.
You can add a little
chili if you want.
You don't have to.
And it's a way that--
it's a starting point.
So you can serve this.
You can decide not
to mash the beans
and serve it as a room
temperature salad.
You can mash the beans and
have it as a side dish.
You can mash the beans and
then make it as a filling for--
what we have in the book
are these lavash triangles
which this woman showed us.
She just started,
as I said, making
bean dish after being dish.
And you wrap, almost
a shape of a samosa,
the beans and strips of lavash.
And then she would just
fry it on the stove.
It also works well to bake it.
She made a bean soup for us.
She made a bean--
the craziest thing
was at one point
in the afternoon she
got out her meat grinder
and sent the beans
through the meat grinder
and made this
being pate, which I
think was like a Soviet
kind of style, of maybe,
oh, this is pate
but it's with beans.
So as I said, there
was like, wow,
we thought we could have
a whole bean chapter,
but we ran out of
space in the book
and had to pick which ones.
But like I said, this can be
a really great starting point
for just a range of
different dishes.
A little bit about
cooking onion.
A lot of recipes say
to caramelize onions
and that usually if you want
to caramelize them properly
it's about a 20
minute, 15 minute,
20 minute kind of ordeal.
So I'm not going
for caramelization.
I just want the onions softened
and cooked, but not with not
with much color if
that makes sense.
SPEAKER 1: Sweat it.
KATE LEAHY: Yeah.
So you'll see right here,
they're just sweating.
They're just doing their thing.
So if you really wanted to have
a very healthy complete meal,
you'd have your Zhingyalov Hats,
you'd have some Goris beans,
and Goris and where
Zhingyalov Hats are from,
Artsakh, are actually very--
relatively speaking, they're not
that far away from each other.
We actually stopped
at Goris before going
to Stepanakert which is
the capital of Artsakh.
It's hard to explain Armenia
without having a map in back
of me, but just to get
where it is in the world,
Armenia has borders with
Georgia, Iran, Turkey,
and Azerbaijan.
And right in the
center there's an area
called the Republic of Artsakh.
It's also called
Nagorno-Karabakh.
It's a conflict zone.
It's a complicated area but
it's ethnically Armenian.
Yes, and we have a little
map of where we went.
And Artsakh is right
in this area here.
So it's not technically
part of Armenia,
but there's two
roads in and out.
They both go through Armenia.
And they were built, probably
funded, at least half of it
was funded, by the
Armenian diaspora.
So it's one of those
places you kind feel
like you're in Brigadoon.
You're in the middle of nowhere
and then you drive, and then
all of a sudden there's this
city that makes delicious
flatbreads as we know.
So now these are
nice and sweated.
I'm just going to add--
I'm not going to
add all these beans.
Just enough to give
you a sense of--
some salt. And then you can
do canned beans with this.
If you're using canned
beans, I taste them first.
Some canned beans are
saltier than others.
And then you just
give them a mash.
Nothing too crazy.
If you wanted these
really luscious,
you could really go
heavier on the oil.
When I used to work
at a restaurant in San
Francisco called A16,
we had cannellini beans
made in a very similar way.
And we used so much
oil I think there
was enough olive oil per bean.
They were pretty decadent
but they were delicious.
So I'm using a fish
spatula to mash this.
You don't have to.
Because there's a potato
masher right in front of me
and I just didn't see it.
But it doesn't really matter
exactly how textured this is.
I like a little
bit more texture.
You can make this smooth.
And then just simmer it
with the bean cooking liquid
so it absorbs those flavors
and gets nice and soft.
And like I said, this is
something super easy to make.
And then to dress it
up, you get your greens.
So now I'll demonstrate the
way they do it in Armenia where
they take like a big
bouquet of greens like this,
maybe chop off the ends, and
then they chop the middle side,
go like this.
And then from there they
kind of just go down.
So it's a really
great use of time
because you're cutting
a lot of herbs at once
and you're having a perfect
mix of herbs ready to go.
And I don't know if you guys saw
this when you were in Armenia,
but you can buy
bouquets of herbs
ready to go for your food.
So instead of having to
buy the cilantro separately
from the parsley,
from the purple basil,
you buy this beautiful bouquet.
And it has the parsley,
the cilantro, the dill,
the purple basil,
all in a bouquet.
You just take that and they
just chop right through.
And it's pretty much
every single dish.
If you want to make it taste
like the food of Armenia,
you add some fresh herbs.
That was our running
joke writing this book.
How do we finish this recipe?
Fresh herbs.
Fresh herbs, yeah.
SPEAKER 1: Do we
have any questions?
So Kate, since
this is California
and we have ample vegetables
but I don't know how safe it
is to go foraging,
per se, what would you
suggest for those who might
have an outdoor garden or even
a patio garden to grow?
KATE LEAHY: If you
can grow sorrel,
I feel sorrel is something that
I think in this climate grows
pretty easily.
And sorrel, because it has that
natural lemon flavor inside,
it's a delicious green to use.
If you wanted to just make
your pesto a little bit more
interesting, add a
bit of sorrel leaves
and you get that brightness.
Sorrel does have a tendency to
turn brown when you cook it,
but I think if I had
a pot of sorrel--
if I was smart enough to plan
ahead and have a pot of sorrel
or have it growing wild
in my backyard I would
be a very happy cook right now.
I tried to buy some
at the farmer's market
this past weekend and
the chefs had already
bought all the sorrel.
So if you want to know what's
next, grow some sorrel.
Maybe you can sell it
to some chef friends.
I'd say it's easy to buy
cilantro and parsley.
So you can grow it but
it's not as interesting.
But I would say any
kind of tender green
that you can grow, that
can maybe grow well
in your climate, you can use
that in so many different parts
of Armenian food.
We have beet greens soup.
Beet greens are very popular.
You could use beet greens in
the Zhingyalov Hats, in a soup,
or wilt them down
and make a salad that
would be a traditional raw
green salad but just greens that
are quickly wilted, maybe
tossed with a little bit
of vinaigrette.
Finish it with a mix of
garlic and yogurt and then
some pomegranate seeds on top.
You can have a salad.
So it's not necessarily
a raw greens salad,
but it acts like a salad.
It's a nice
vegetable green dish.
So I would say
any kind of chard,
kale, if those
grow well for you,
but the secret would be
figure out your sorrel.
The difference between Armenian
American food and culture
and what I saw in
Armenia the country,
the differences are
pretty profound.
And I think you would agree
that the food in Armenia
the country--
to just put it into
context, there's
maybe 3 million people who
live in the country of Armenia,
and there's 8 million
diaspora Armenians.
So there's more Armenians
that live outside of Armenia
than in Armenia.
And the ones who
live in Armenia also
have Soviet heritage,
Soviet food traditions,
that Armenians who either
grew up in California, France,
Lebanon, Syria, elsewhere,
they never were exposed to.
And another thing was
Armenian culture goes back--
Armenia used to be a
much bigger country
and then several
centuries ago, there
was the part that was
controlled by the Persian shahs,
and the part that was
controlled by the Ottomans.
And both of those
food traditions
also kind of
intersected in ways.
So after the Armenian Genocide
which started in 1915,
there was a mass migration
and 1.5 million Armenians
and other ethnicities
were killed.
And what ended up
happening after that is
there was a mass migration
out to other parts
like Fresno, for
instance, France.
And they brought
their food cultures.
But the food cultures
were already different
from the food cultures
that were evolving around
where Yerevan is today.
That area is mountainous.
There's no ocean.
There's not much
of a spice usage,
whereas if you were
an Armenian who
was in what is
present day Turkey,
you had a lot of spices.
You had a lot of lemon juice.
You might have used olive oil.
So the food traditions
that you ended up
moving to Glendale or to Fresno
were already quite different.
So when I went to Armenia it
was sort of like, where's--
oh, so [INAUDIBLE] is
an interesting story.
It's a flatbread topped with
ground meat with seasoning.
That's something that--
in Armenia today they
think of that as a newer
food, even though for me I
always thought of it
as Armenian pizza.
So I thought that was an
example of sometimes you
think something and you go,
and you're just thinking,
wow, this goes back
so much deeper.
And it makes the history of
that area so much deeper.
You kind of have to dig down
to learn about it before you
can kind of understand,
why is sour cream so much
more prevalent?
Why are beets and potatoes
so common in Armenia?
Well, if it's Soviet
time, the foods
there are going to be different
than they were if you were
Armenian coming from Istanbul.
So the long winded question,
but it's an important one
to address, for sure.
So these beans are looking--
I don't know if
you guys can see.
They look pretty nice.
See how creamy they are?
The bean cooking liquid--
if you're using canned beans
you can also use water,
but the cooking liquid does
give it this nice creaminess.
And just to finish it,
that's all you need.
Just some fresh herbs.
And it's incredible how the
fresh herbs can lift the flavor
and give it so much
more dimension.
I probably need to add
more salt. If you're
more of a Western Armenian,
you would definitely add
maybe Aleppo pepper to this.
The Eastern Armenians would
be like, I don't know,
that's maybe too spicy for me.
I'll stick with some paprika.
SPEAKER 1: [INAUDIBLE]
KATE LEAHY: Yeah, you could.
Yeah, you could definitely.
Oh, yeah, so let me make a
beautiful spread because I
have made such a mess up here.
I'm just going to slice this.
So OK, to slice Zhingyalov
Hats, just going to slice it
into to these little panels.
You can eat it.
Roll it up and eat it like this.
You can see, though, the greens.
It's all about the
greens and then
you have the thin
crust on the outside.
So just going to stack
those nicely there.
You can also just
wrap it up, eat it,
and take it to go if you want,
which is usually how I end up
eating it the most often.
And then what I'm going to do
is put these beautiful beans
on the side.
This is not the way they would
probably serve it in Armenia,
but I think for here, for
my purposes, how I eat,
I would be very, very happy
with a meal like this.
And maybe, of course, always
top it with more herbs
and maybe some chili flakes
because we are in California
and hot sauce makes everything
better for many of us.
And with that, just
a quick mention
on these beautiful pickles.
Pickles are always on the
table in Armenia, too.
And they could either be
salt brine fermented pickles,
or vinegar based pickles.
And the pickles we
have today over right
here are just a
nice vinegar pickle
with apple cider vinegar,
water, a little bit of dill,
some black pepper, and
super simple pickle.
So I want to thank
everybody so much
for taking time to listen to
me yap about Zhingyalov Hats
and Armenia.
And thank you so much.
[APPLAUSE]
