ARMENIAN TRADITIONS PASSED DOWN AS TRIBUTE TO ‘PILLARS OF THE KITCHEN’
by Debbi Snook, Plain Dealer Reporter

Plain Dealer
October 1, 2008 Wednesday
Cleveland

EVENT

7th Annual Armenian Food Festival and Bazaar

When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

What: Chance to sample Armenian foods, listen to the country’s music,
tour the church and buy crafts. There also will be entertainment
for children.

Where: St. Gregory of Narek, 678 Richmond Road, Richmond Heights.

Cost: No admission fee, but food prices range from $2 to $8.

Contact: Dina Walworth, 216-570-2247.

Thirty years ago, members of the St. Gregory of Narek Women’s Guild
foraged for edible wild grape leaves in the back seven acres of their
Richmond Heights church.

"The men came with us," said Sandy Aurslanian. "You could get lost
back there."

Much of that property has been sold off for development, but the
domed and arched church – Ohio’s only Armenian church – still sits
elegantly across from Richmond Town Square. And the women of the
church are still coming together to stuff grape leaves with rice,
onion and herbs and raise money for the parish.

Less than two weeks remain before this year’s Armenian Food Festival
and Bazaar, Saturday and Sunday. Already the women have stuffed
1,700 grape leaves, tucked feta cheese into puff pastry for 1,500
cheese boereg and cooked and seasoned ground lamb and beef for 1,008
flatbread pizzas called lahmajoun.

Many of the desserts they will serve, including an Armenian-styled
baklava, will be prepared over the next week. Lamb and chicken will
be marinated, skewered and cooked over charcoal. Cracked wheat pilafs
will be simmered in broth, and green fattoush salads will be seasoned
with tart, red sumac berries.

"It’s a lot of work," said Aurslanian. "We have a couple crates of
parsley to prepare, and that has to be washed and the leaves picked
off and chopped. All the lemons must be juiced."

In a cooperative interfaith culinary moment, the women will store
much of what they make in extra freezer space at St. Paschal Baylon,
a nearby Catholic church.

None of these Mediterranean-styled festival dishes would be made if
the women thought of it only as work. On a strikingly clear September
Saturday morning, about 20 of them gathered in the church hall to
make cheese boereg. While Armenian congregations in Boston and New
York may be larger, some feel St. Gregory’s is special for the way
it continues to pull in the young to learn the tricks of the old.

Some of those tricks include the logistics of turning 30 pounds of
cracked wheat into pilaf. Or, testing the proper texture of baklava
syrup as it rolls off the fingernail.

Each procedure comes with room for other opinions.

"We’re all critics here," said Alice Paterna, who co-manages the
festival’s food preparation.

The event has raised about $10,000 a year for the past six years,
which added up to a little more than half the money needed to rebuild
the church hall kitchen last year. Festival manager Dina Walworth,
41, Aurslanian’s daughter, said she thinks of Armenians as warm,
hardworking people who have similarities with Jews because of the
way they merge their religion with their cultural identity and have
survived terrible genocides.

Armenia was the first Christian country, as of the year 301, and has
suffered a parade of persecutors. It is north of Turkey and Iran and
sits landlocked in the isthmus between the Black and Caspian seas.

"My mom’s generation knew some of the million-and-a-half people who
died in the attacks of 1915," she said. "They were driven to build
this church and after hearing the stories, we, the younger generation,
are driven to keep it going.

"It’s one of the reasons we make this food."

Walworth calls the cooks who came before her "pillars of the
kitchen." She thinks of them as she works her way through recipes,
especially when she’s stuffing grape leaves at home with leaves she
gathered herself.

So does her mom, Aurslanian, who can barely speak of her food –
and life – mentors without fanning her face to ward off her tears.

"I learned everything from them," she said, before turning back to
the job at hand.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: dsnook@plaind.com, 216-999-4357

NUT KHADAIF

Makes 8-12 servings

DOUGH:

1 pound khadaif (shredded phyllo) dough

¾ pound unsalted butter, melted

2 cups walnuts, chopped

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoon sugar

SYRUP:

2½ cups sugar

1½ cups water

Cook’s note: Find the shredded phyllo in some supermarket frozen-food
sections or in Cleveland at Athens Pastries (2545 Lorain Ave.,
216-861-8149), Aladdin’s Baking Co. (1301 Carnegie Ave., 216-861-0317)
and Mediterranean Imported Foods at the West Side Mar ket (Lorain
Avenue and West 25th Street, 216-771-4479).

Prepare dough: In large bowl, loosen the shreds of khadaif and work in
melted butter. Spread half of the dough in a 9-by-13-inch pan. Mix
nuts with cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over khadaif. Arrange
remaining buttered dough over nuts.

Baking: Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 1 hour or until golden.

Syrup: Boil sugar and water for 10 minutes and set aside. When khadaif
is done, pour hot syrup over it and cover with foil until cool.

Serving: Cut into squares and serve at room temperature or slightly
warm with extra syrup if needed.

Source: Adapted from the St. Gregory of Narek Women’s Guild, Richmond
Heights.

CHEESE BOEREG WITH PUFF PASTRY

Makes 24 servings

FILLING:

1 pound brick cheese

¼ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 egg, beaten

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

DOUGH:

1 package Pepperidge Farm puff pastry

GLAZE:

1 egg, beaten

Cook’s notes: Brick, a melting cheese, is often found in supermarket
deli sections. A small pizza wheel cutter is handy for cutting
the dough.

Prepare dough: Thaw dough according to package directions. Divide each
pastry sheet into thirds and cut each strip into 4 equal pieces. Roll
each piece into a 4-inch square.

Fill pastry: Place about 1 heaping tablespoon of cheese mixture on
half of the square and fold the other half over to cover cheese,
making a triangle. (Wet edges of dough with water if needed.) Seal
edges by pressing with fork. Brush tops with beaten egg.

Baking: Bake at 400 degrees until golden, about 12 to 14 minutes.

Serving: Cool slightly before eating; cheese can be hot.

Source: Adapted from the St. Gregory of Narek Women’s Guild, Richmond
Heights.

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