Over the Caucasus into Central Asia... Part 1

Over the Caucasus into Central Asia... Part 1

AN UNEXPECTED LAnd...

I'm way behind in keeping this blog up to where we've actually cooked through at this point, so I'll try to update how the last couple months have been.

Catching up where we left off--drinking plenty of Vodka and eating Russian food--the next countries we were cooking and eating through were the unique mix of the Caucasus into Central Asia.  Sort of a mix of the Russian/Turkish/Persian cultures in a way. 

As there were some regions of the world in this experiment that I knew were going to be exceptionally fun to cook for and that we were already familiar with, there were other areas that were sort of a mystery.  But to properly complete the project we'd need to be adventurous and try recipes for regions that we've never had an opportunity to sample--which in itself was part of the reason for this.

Georgia

“I have a lot to say," said the fish, "But my mouth is full of water.” 

― Old Georgian Proverb

Georgia--the former Soviet republic and anchor of the northern Caucasus region, not the southern US state--was going to be one of the countries.  Not only have I no real familiarity with the dishes I'd be cooking--but I've never been to a Georgian restaurant in my life.  We had an opportunity while in Prague last year, but I relented finding it in a more confusing and less tourist friendly neighborhood of that Czech city on an especially cold December evening.

The Moscow Mule in the back really rounds out the picture.

Furthermore, the night we were going to cook this dish I was a little tired from the previous night celebrating my friend Sean's birthday at a standup comedy show.  So while I sort of picked the recipes, Laura did most of the cooking.  What we cooked was interesting--a selection of meatballs with a sour cherry and pine nut filling and a lentil and feta salad with sour cream pesto.  The results were interesting--I enjoyed the meatballs, though the salad had a less pleasing texture.  In part this was due to a difficulty finding good Georgian recipes to cook on short notice, though a month later I'd find a long article in Saveur Magazine highlighting the wide range of Georgian cooking (along with many good recipes).  If only we'd known at the time.

Armenia

“Another Armenia, Belgium...The weak innocents who always seem to be located on a natural invasion route.” 

― James T Kirk, some old Star Trek episode

Armenia was another interesting choice on the route.  It's a nation that exists despite being a victim of some of the worst atrocities of the 20th Century--and the actual nation-state itself only survived because it was under  Russian control through the Cold War--the actual heartland of Armenia remains free mostly of Armenians--there's actually more Armenians in Los Angeles and Southern California these days.

The food itself though is reminiscent of a lot of Greek or Turkish food--as well as countries just over the border from the traditional areas like Syria.  So in some ways, once again Laura could bring up how "this meal tastes just like my dad's Syrian food."  There's a lot of commonalities between the former domains of the Ottoman Empire and the Syrian/Lebanese dishes of the Levant--and some of those exist all the way towards India as well.

Maybe the second best meal on this trip at that point.

The dish we chose this time turned out excellent.  It was a Armenian moussaka--similar to a Greek moussaka though with layers of potatoes instead of eggplant and a good amount of ground lamb and topped with ricotta salata cheese.  The bechamel sauce with a taste of nutmeg was a reminder that we were still solidly in the "Yogurt Belt"  a region that basically stretches from the Balkans until Northern India.  It was a hearty meal--as good or better than the thick Greek moussaka I remember eating as a kid in Canada.  It was also sort of familiar dish for an unfamiliar area--Armenia is sort of peppered in my head as being similar to Greece in some ways.

Move over Napa and Burgundy...

To finish it off Laura made a wilted spinach and pomegranate seed salad that was a nice contrast to the first dish.  To further complement our Georgian feast I had obtained two bottles of regional wine from the Barbur World Foods market in SW Portland.  One was an Armenian pomegranate wine--a sweet fruity concoction that like a lot of things in this region seemed to be about pomegranates   It was alright--decent for a desert or summer wine, but not something I'd go back to.  The other wine was actually Georgian wine.  Apparently the Georgians are somewhat known for their wine production--though the export industry is relatively young and unrenowned.  The bottle we got was of the Mukuzani appellation--apparently the most famous wine in the Georgian region.  Though honestly, it was not among our favorite wines sampled.  It had a heavy fruity flavor to it--though almost a dark aftertaste of well, charcoal.  I kept waiting for the wine to open up a little, but it really was a little much.  Though I'm willing to give another Georgian wine a try, but I'm doubting they'll be competing with Oregon pinots anytime soon.

Iran

“When the cat and the mouse agree, the grocer is ruined.” 

― Old Persian proverb

Ben Affleck would like to thank the people of Iran and Canada for this meal.

Iran was the next country--or Persia as it has been known throughout history.  It's one of those cuisines that I've tried before--there's a restaurant in downtown Portland with a lunch buffet--but never truly dove headfirst into the extent of what the culinary region might entail.  For our dinner, we cooked khoresh bademjan--a saucy chicken and eggplant stew in a tomato sauce with a lemon and cinnamon.  To complement it we cooked Persian rice along with kuku sabzi--an egg and herb dish apparently cooked for New Year in Iran(according to the cookbook).  It was a good natured sort of meal--delicious in it's own way--with just enough of herbs and flavor to be interesting.  The kuku sabzi in some ways was basically a Persian frittata.  It was enough to whet my appetite for Iranian/Persian cooking--from what I've tried there's something simple yet refreshing about the food there--none of the heavy curries you find to the east towards India, yet a little more interesting than some of lamb and yogurt staples you find in the rest of the region

I'll continue the rest next time as we get into the food of Afghanistan and Pakistan and make out way toward the Indian subcontinent which will prove to be a whole different ballgame...