The New Armenian Kitchen [Spiral-bound]

St. Andrew Ladies Society (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

Inside find a compilation of 450 recipes from scores of Armenian cooks. about 300 of threm are Classic and Updated Armenian recipes. The spiral binding allows the colorful laminated cover and book to stay open, while you cook.This book has a detailed index, and also a glossary of more than 100 words which explain foreign words and cooking terms. Sprinkled liberally throughout the book are Armenian historical facts and proverbs, plus 38 pages of household hints.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

I put together "The New Armenian Kitchen" and feel it is a great Armenian value, with over 450 recipes as well as many pages of household hints. We contacted hundreds of Armenians and asked them to submit their family and friends' favorite recipes. The response was overwhelming. The name of each contributor is proudly displayed right next to their recipe. In many cases families grandmother's recipes were submitted in loving memory. Our book has around 300 classic Armenian recipes and updated variations plus many time savers with simple preparation methods, making it a real value among Armenian cookbooks. In short there is something for everyone. There are challenging and detailed recipes that start everything from scratch, like the many Choreg variations (yeast breads), Baklava and Bourma, Chicken Kiev, or Walnut Mourapa (preserved whole green walnuts.) There are also fast easy recipes like Cherry Dump Cake (a variation on a boxed cake mix) or Curried Tuna Casserole ( a tastey, fast and easy canned tuna dinner.) The recipes are as varied as the people that offered to share their family recipe secrets and treasures. I spent much time in gathering the many historical facts and proverbs that appear throughout the book among the recipes. I also listed more than 100 words in the glossary that I felt might make the book more user friendly. Our cookbook committee spent countless hours proofing the recipes and creating a detailed index to make recipes easier to find. Everyone worked as volunteers for our non profit group, and all monies earned will go into our charitable projects.

About the Author

The St. Andrew Ladies Society is a non profit organization that is part of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Located in Cupertino California, they carry on many charitable activities in the local community as well as abroad. Each year the group uses many of the recipes in the cookbook at their Food Fair that attracts hundreds of Armenian food lovers.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 248 pages
• Publisher: G & R Publishing Co. (March 1, 2000)
• ISBN-10: 0967838258
• ISBN-13: 978-0967838250
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cooking The Way My Mother-in-Law Should Have Taught Me, December 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The New Armenian Kitchen (Spiral-bound)

Ever Since I got this book, I have been cooking up a storm for my husband that really missed his mother's Armenian cooking. But since she isn't around to teach me, I had to turn to books. I have tried several and was not as happy with them as I am with THE NEW ARMENIAN KITCHEN. He told me that his mother used to make homemade yogurt for him, so I tried the recipe on page 22. He was right, the store bought stuff cannot compare to the creamy homemade kind. It is like night and day. The homemade kind has a delicate flavor and is not so tart like the ones at the grocery store.

I tried the Eegra on page 5 and my husband was in heaven. It really has a barbecued flavor that adds to the creamy eggplant base. Just like his mom used to make he says, even though his mom used to use a lot of oil and this is a low cal. version.

The rice pilaf on page 76 is so easy to make, but oh, so good. The butter flavor really comes through with the chicken broth making mouthwatering rice that went well with a lamb kabob recipe on page 113.

I am enjoying my new adventure in cooking and have found this to be a most useful book. I had a Circulon `pan that I could not get clean. Now it is thanks to the household hints in the back of the book, that are very useful. There is also interesting Armenian information tucked in throughout the book. We especially liked the proverbs. My husband remembered his parents saying many of them to him years ago.

It is great that the book has several versions of the same recipe. That way you can choose the one that best fits your tastes. My husband says that Armenians from different countries cook in different ways. This book allows us to choose the one that is closest to the way "Mom used to cook." I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Armenian home cooking. You get a lot of recipes for $15.95

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TODAY'S Armenian Cuisine, August 5, 2000

By 

Reubena Nalbandian (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Armenian Kitchen (Spiral-bound)

This book is the one that I always seem to take out for use while many others stay on the bookshelf unused. Together our family has made over 30 of the recipes and we have had only great results. I don't agree with the one negative reviewer. I fully enjoyed reading the many many historical quotes and proverbs throughout the book that I guess she missed. She said that some recipes used a lot of canned and ready made ingredients, well...welcome to the NEW Armenian world! Yes, we sinfully use frozen things and don't always use made from scratch sauces. Even those of us that stay home with our kids find that our cooking time is limited. Does she make her fillo dough from scratch? I would love a peak into her freezer. She was obviously an older woman that has nothing else to do but spend all day in the kitchen. Yes, I can say that as we speak I have most of those "horrible" ingredients she mentioned in my pantry, like canned pineapple, canned soup, and even (shudder) Coolwhip! I am glad to have a book that helps me use them in some interesting ways. She is insulting hundreds of Armenian cooks that felt their recipes warranted submission to this book. Yet she remains anonymous as do her credentials. Hundreds of Armenian cooks that submitted recipes to this book make it as diverse as the Armenian home of today. They are no less Armenian for using convenience foods or recipes when time is limited. The book is packed with several updated versions of each old traditional Armenian recipe, giving you a choice of prep. methods and ingredients that best suit your style. Other recipe books written by one author often have recipes that please only one palate. I loved the fact that there are many recipes that show the diversity of today's Armenian cook. Just as you wonder what is really American food (Would that be spaghetti?), when you study Armenian cuisine you find that other than "Herissah" there are arguments as to what foods are really authentic Armenian. Armenian food encompases many of the ingredients and flavors of the country where the family lives, or from where they emigrated. Lebonese Armenians make Pilaf, Iranian Armenians make Pollo, Russian Armenians make potatoes, and they all argue as to which is more Armenian. I find myself using the quick recipes that are missing in many books. They require fewer ingredients and many more of the things that the average kitchen has on hand. Do some Armenian kitchens make lasagna? You bet! My family raved about the Great Lasagna recipe on page 105 last night. I am so glad it was submitted by a cook that knew how good it was. Having several lasagna recipes to choose from, such as the meatless Eggplant Lasagna makes this book most practical. This book is titled "The New Armenian Kitchen," not "Old Armenian Recipes." With the majority (more than 300) of the recipes "old world Armenian" there are more than enough "Authentic Armenian" recipes from which to choose. I stumbled on a surprise joke recipe on page 177 (Fruit Cake)and couldn't stop laughing. I would highly recommend the purchase of this book. I also like the idea that the money for this book is going to a charitable non profit organization and not into the pocket of some rich author. This book will give you some new twists on some old recipes, like orange date baklava, and will not stay on your shelf collecting dust.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Armenian Kitchen is for Everyone!, August 8, 2000

By 

Lori Janjigian (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Armenian Kitchen (Spiral-bound)

I received the cookbook as a gift from my grandma, and I have to say that I was a bit disappointed in the negative review posted below. I thought that the canned and already prepared foods that are called for in the recipes make the cookbook quite a bit more user-friendly (I thought that was the point of it being from the "new" Armenian Kitchen). I recently graduated from college and don't have some of the patience, the knowledge, or the time to cook some of the Armenian meals that were prepared for me when I was little. The recipes in this book actually give me the chance to make really good Armenian food myself, and the recipes taste great because they come from other families-so it's real home cooking! My parents have shelves filled with other Armenian cookbooks at home that have the detailed, lengthy recipes with ingredients that I've never even heard of before. This one is definitely different (we actually use it), and I'm definitely looking forward to trying out more of the recipes.