Christmas in Armenia in August.
Forgive me subscribers for I have sinned. I skipped a week of writing, which at first I was really bummed about then relieved because I seriously needed a break from all the work I’ve been doing all these weeks. I also didn’t get to write the newsletter for my Eating A-Z in NYC series because dun dun dun...the place that I went to visit was CLOSED!
There’s literally ONE Armenian restaurant in all of NYC that isn’t half Lebanese or half Turkish or half anything (all the other places I found were just amalgamations of Mediterranean cuisine with random dishes from multiple countries). The place I was going to eat at is a cute cafe/mini market that is family-owned and nestled in the depths of south Brooklyn. I was really excited to visit and possibly buy some small Armenian jams and condiments to giveaway to another subscriber but alas that didn’t happen.
My partner and I drove a little over an hour to Coney Island Avenue to Hi Food Cafe and were met with closed doors, metal grates, and a note on the door that said the restaurant would be closed till September because they were taking a vacation. Unfortunately, this mom + pop shop does not have a website so I went based on Google + Yelp which both said that the cafe was open. What’s a hungry girl to do when she drove over an hour to eat on basically an empty stomach in the middle of the day?! She pivots quickly and heads 10 minutes from her original destination to another restaurant on her list to check that one off instead.
I headed home super full from eating somewhere else, but a bit defeated that now I had to scramble to make an Armenian dish to write about for this newsletter. I scoured the web for something delicious, easy to make, and vegetarian (I try to choose recipes that everyone can replicate at home). I stumbled upon a treasure trove of Armenian delicacies that didn’t look too hard to make and didn’t require ingredients that were inaccessible. I settled on a dish that looked super fancy but didn’t take much to make. It is usually made for Christmas because of the beautiful presentation and the abundance of food that it can serve.
I decided to make ghapama which is an Armenian stuffed pumpkin dish with rice, nuts, and dried fruits. I had all the ingredients on hand except for the pumpkin, which I was pretty sure I’d find at my local market. Guess what? Didn’t find the right pumpkin anywhere. Yes, I know...it’s summer and usually, pumpkins don’t dominate the scene until late September, but certain pumpkins can be found due to cool temp cellar storage. It’s how we have sweet potatoes and other hearty winter vegetables all year-round in supermarkets.
I ended up buying the next best thing which was a small kabocha. It’s a nice green super thick-skinned pumpkin. The flesh is bright orange but isn’t as sweet as its orange-skinned cousins. This recipe is super adaptable and can be a show stopper for a large dinner. I used what I had on hand which was dried cranberries, apricots, pepita seeds + pecans. Feel free to make this recipe your own by customizing it with whatever dried fruits and nuts you think are best. Some suggestions are chopped almonds, apple, plums, dates, prunes, raisins, or anything else that you see fit for your pumpkin.
Ghapama
1 small kabocha/pumpkin (mine was 3 lbs), deseeded and fibrous flesh removed
1 ½ cup cooked rice (leave it a bit on the undercooked side by 5 minutes)
¼ cup chopped dried apricots
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup chopped pecans
1 tablespoon pepita seeds
¼ cup honey
2 cardamom pods, crushed
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut the top of the pumpkin as you would a Jack-o-Lantern and remove insides, set pumpkin aside. In a medium-sized bowl mix rice with dried fruits and nuts. In a small bowl create a slurry with the honey, crushed cardamom, cinnamon, and water. If the slurry is a bit too thick add a little more water. Add slurry to the rice mixture and combine together until fully incorporated. Stuff the pumpkin with the mixture to the top and close with the pumpkin lid. Place on a lined cookie sheet and cook in the oven for 1 to 1 ½ hour. The pumpkin will be done when it can be pierced easily with a knife. Cut the pumpkin in segments so that it falls open to create a showstopping open flower effect.
The ghapama was pretty tasty, not too sweet, and reminded me of that Afghani rice that I literally still dream and drool about. The spices of the cardamom + cinnamon really lend themselves to the rice and help the fruits stand out. Next time I make this impressive dish I’ll be buttering the inside of the pumpkin and rubbing brown sugar all along the insides to add an extra layer of flavor. I was full from just one segment of rice and pumpkin. This recipe is fun to play around with and can really be made by anyone. It’s that simple. Let me know if you try it out!
Next up on Eating A-Z in NYC is Aruba!
Cook. Eat. Repeat.
Natalie
Nice work, Natalie. Charming.
If there was a God, he/she would find a way of making rice like this without having cooked fruits in it at the end...