Here is a recipe I inherited from my Armenian great grandmother. My grandmother still used to make it occasionally, but my mother did not bother with it any more. I still remember the taste of it and one day I will make some (I promised to myself...).
So what is this mystery food? It is a potted mix that is used to flavour dishes, mostly soups. I did try to look for it on the net without success, so maybe modern Armenians don't bother with it either. If so, then I consider it doubly my duty to post it here as a heritage recipe. Of course, it may happen that in Armenia it goes by another name. I would appreciate if someone who happens to pass by could comment on it. There is another recipe I never found anywhere and which unfortunately I do not own, I just remember it from my childhood. It was called HARSNEMADNAG and it was a cigar shaped cookie. I would very much appreciate the recipe if you happen to have it...!!!
For now here is the description of how khurut was prepared in my great grandmother's house:
Bring 1 liter (4 cups) milk to just below boiling point, let it cool a bit, then mix in ½ liter (2 cups) pure sour cream (which does not contain any gelling agent), cover it and let it stand at room temperature overnight. Next day bring large quantities of milk, 6-8-10 liters, again to boiling point, let it cool and mix the previous day's clotted batch into it.
Cover and let this big pot sit in a warm room for three weeks, stirring it every day. After the three weeks put the resulting yogurt on the stove and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until it becomes as thick as good sour cream.
Meanwhile get a huge amount of parsley (about the size of a 10 lb bag of potatoes, or maybe even more), pick the leaves off the stems and grind these leaves in a food processor (the old recipe suggests a meat grinder), adding 10-12 celery tops (leaves only), and maybe some fresh tarragon leaves. Put the ground mix into the yogurt and keep simmering while stirring until it becomes as thick as marmalade.
Distribute this among jam jars while still hot, screw the tops on, turn them over for a short while, then store the jars in a dark closet. It will last indefinitely, or at least until next year. They usually prepared it in August or September.
It is used by adding a spoonful or so, mixed with fresh yogurt or sour cream, into soups or sauces, adjusting the amount to get a pleasingly sour taste.
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3 comments:
Thank you madame for this recipe. I was looking for it for a long time. It was a tradition in my family to have a churut soup at Esater. But, the lady who made it, never revealed the recipe, it was like a kind of secret to her.
Berst wishes, Gabriela
Hurut is still prepared in Erdély (Transylvania, Romania), mostly in Gyergyószentmiklós (Gheorgheni in Romanian) and Szamosújvár (Gherla). You can find peoples with Armenian origin in these towns. Nowadays they speak only Hungarian, their original Armenian language is completely forgotten. Not too much Armenians live in Erdély (Románia) and Hungary. The majority of the population in Gyergyószentmiklós is Székely-Hungarian, in Szamosújvár is mostly Romanian. The Armenians arrived here in the XVII. century.
I was born in Gyergyószentmiklós, but now I live in Hungary. The hurut soup is one of my favourite dish. Some old ladies still make and sell dried hurut in the Gyergyószentmiklós market. But in Hungary and other parts of Romania the hurut soup is unkown. You can find lot of references (and some recipes) to hurut on the net in Hungarian language. The hurut in this form is not known in Armenia and Turkey, but there are similar dairy products in the Middle East. The word qurut is a name of a dried cottage cheese in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and some other countries. This qurut doesn't contain parsley or other herbs and eaten as a snack, not as a base for soups. Kishk, jameed are another dried dairy products in the Middle East.
I think, your grandmother was came from Erdély (Románia), not directly from Armenia, because your hurut recipe is almost the same that I have found in some Hungarian cookbook. The original recipe (and ladies in Gyergyószentmiklós market sell hurut in this form) call for drying the yoghurt paste in small cone shape, not in jars.
The most interesting (and most complicated) soup seasoned with hurut is the "Angads-abur" among the Armenians of Erdély. This is a beef broth with very small ravioli like dough filled with minced meat and of course seasoned with hurut. I will post the recipe from a Hungarian cookbook, if you are interested in.
I have never heard about the cookie you mentioned. Some sweets among the Armenians of Erdély are dalauzi (is a sweet made with honey and nuts) kata (a kind of sweet bread), daktak halva (a kind of sweet made with flour).
Best Regards
Peter
Hungary
What a wonderful culinary info and concise history lesson! You guessed well, my great grandmother's family lived in Szamosujvar. How interesting to find out that this kind of hurut then apparently is a creation of the Erdely Armenians. Wow! I am familiar with the Angads-abur, also... :-)
Your knowledge seems to be quite thorough. Are you a researcher in sociography, an ethnographer, or just a history buff? In any case, I would like to get in touch with you (I have lots of other old recipes!!! :-) I don't like to exchange email addresses out in the open, here, but I thought of a solution. Since these comments can only be posted with my approval, if you send me a new comment here, I will not let it go through -- but I will have your email address. Hope to hear from you soon...
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