About two years ago I posted a recipe for basooc dolma. (Reminder: Armenian
spellings can vary greatly!) It’s great for vegetarians and
vegans, and is a delicious preparation for Lent, which, by the way, begins on
Monday, February 8th this year, according to the Armenian Church
calendar.
Just the other day, my friend Sonia told be about a FB page
called ‘Inside the Armenian Kitchen’. Although the name of this page is very
similar to my website’s, we are not related. I was happy to see, however, that
some of The Armenian Kitchen recipes and photos are featured, along with recognition
to my official website.
Sonia, with
her bounty of information, has provided the following regarding another
traditional Armenian food to start New Year. |
| Sonia Tashjian’s Basuts Dolma |
Sonia states:
“I recently saw a recipe posted on FB page ‘Inside the Armenian Kitchen’ for BASUTS DOLMA. This is a ritual, ancient food, dedicated to the gods, begging for fertility
of the coming year. Basuts is prepared with all the grains that are to be sown
and for the same reason, put dried fruits in it. Each region has its own
variation, due to its climatic condition.
For example, in Vayots Tsor, where
the people use rose hip in their foods, the basuts dolma is cooked in the juice
of rose hip. In the villages of Lake Sevan, where the weather is too cold, they
cook it with a lot of seeds of hemp. In Lori, add some amount of potato puree’
is added. In Marash, it is served with tahini sauce. In the villages, the
dolmas are wrapped in the leaves of pickled cabbage, but in the cities, for
example in Van, they use grape leaves.
By the way, the word DOLMA came from the
Urartian word DOLI = grape leaves, because at the beginning, it was wrapped
only in the grape leaves.”
Sonia offers her own version of classical basuts dolma.
Sonia Tashjian’s VOSPOV (lentil)
BASUTS DOLMA
1/2 cup of chopped
walnuts 1/2 cup of chopped
mix dried fruits fresh parsley &
coriander peppermint &
wild oregano(urts)
– chop the onion,
fry a little, then mix all the ingredients; – gently wrap in the
grape leaves, then arrange in the pan; – pour water, until
it covers the dolmas. put a dish on it, then close the lid; – cook until the
water is absorbed. – let it completely
cool, or else it will break into pieces.