Armenian Zhingyalov Ingyalov Khats : Labuda.blog

Zhengyalov hats

Place of origin	Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Basic	flour and herbs
Zhengyalov hats on Wikimedia Commons

Zhengyalov Khats
(Armenian: Ժենգյալով հաց; also
Zhangyalov Khats
,
Zhingyalov Khats
) is a bread flatbread stuffed with finely chopped herbs of various plants, a traditional dish in the cuisine of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh [1][2][3][4]. Similar to other dishes of the Caucasian peoples: kutab with herbs[5], afar.

Zhengyalov hats is considered the hallmark of Artsakh cuisine. In 2013, the NKR government included Zhengyal Khats in the list of intangible heritage values of Artsakh[6]. At the end of April 2015, the “Zhengyalov Khats” festival took place in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic[7].

Preparation

Unleavened dough is rolled out into a paper-thin flat cake, and then filled with a mixture of 10-20 varieties of various wild and garden finely chopped greens with vegetable oil[8]. An important characteristic of a dish is a correctly composed bouquet. The basis of the filling should be greens without a pronounced taste and smell, for example, lettuce, spinach, quinoa, beet leaves, chickweed, shepherd's purse (Armenian tstypashar)[9], violet leaves[2] and similar herbs. There should be less greens with a specific taste, like openwork chervil, nettle, green onions, sour like sorrel or spicy like carrots; Very little is required for herbs that have a bitter taste, such as dandelion. In addition, the filling may include feta cheese and fried onions. It is baked for about 10 minutes on a hot roasting pan called “saj” (Armenian: սաջ)[10], or in a tonir for a couple of minutes[8]. This dish is consumed with beer, tan, and wine. Zhengyalov hats is especially popular during Lent.

Chopped greens
Cooking zhengyal hats on sajin
Ready Zhengyalov hats
Ready Zhengyalov hats

Zhengyalov-khats: Armenian miracle!

Gayana Paritova, owner of the Dzhigyar cafe at the Moscow restaurant market The 21, talks about Armenian flatbread with various herbs.

Zhengyalov-khats is a dish originally from Nagorno-Karabakh. Its name is translated from Armenian as “bread with herbs.” This is a flatbread made from unleavened dough stuffed with chopped herbs. It is similar to kutabs and miracles, but - unlike them - zhengyalov-khats is made exclusively with greens. And the greenery there can be very different - ten different types, or twenty. It was precisely with the collection of greens that Armenian housewives used to begin preparing zhengyal-khatz. The main herb for it is kindzmindzyuk, mountain cilantro: it is more aromatic than ordinary cilantro, with a pungent taste. Kindzmindzyuk grows only in the mountains, and I don’t even know if it can be found in Moscow: it is specially brought to us from Armenia. But in general, in Zhengyalov-khats it is important to assemble the bouquet correctly. Greens with a bland taste - like lettuce, nettles or spinach - should be the most. This is followed by greens with a richer taste: kindzmindzyuk, green onions, parsley and dill. Just a little bit of sorrel and dandelion leaves are added, which add bitterness. In my grandmother’s old recipe, I also saw herbs such as violet leaves, wild poppy leaves, carrots, quinoa, beet tops, and many other plants, the names of which I cannot even correctly translate into Russian. Greens can be prepared in two ways: finely chopped and stewed a little, or added fresh. Personally, I am for the latter option, since when stewed, many of the beneficial properties of greens disappear. The dough for zhengyal-khatsa is very simple - flour, water, salt. When kneading, it should become dense, but elastic, and the main thing is to roll it out correctly: very, very thin, like a sheet of paper. It is also important to learn how to properly clamp the flatbread: the seam must be strong, but at the same time not thick, otherwise it will burn during frying and the zhengyalov-khats will be spoiled. Here we have it: the smaller the seam, the more skillful the housewife is considered. Also, when clamping, when you reach the edge, it is very important to lightly press the cake so that the air comes out: otherwise, when you fry, everything will inflate and burst.

Zhengyal-khats are usually always prepared in large portions, about fifty pieces, no less, so although the recipe is simple, the process becomes quite labor-intensive. We even have a saying - “Peace, friendship, Zhengyalov-khats”, because the whole large family gathers: some women knead the dough, others chop the herbs, and others fry. In Armenia, it is fried without oil on a special cast iron plate, which is heated very hot over a fire. At Dzhigyar we cook on the grill, but at home you can use a frying pan with a thick bottom. They eat zhengyalov-khats immediately from the fire, because the flavor bouquet of greens is fully revealed only when hot (although, let me tell you, cold flatbreads are also delicious). Yes - with your hands. And be sure to dip it in matsoni.

Source

Notes

Restaurant.ru
↑ 12
V. A. Petrov / Ethnobotany of Nagorno-Karabakh / USSR Academy of Sciences Ed. AzFan Baku-1940 p.14 (163)
A. E. Ter-Sarkisyants // “Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh” under. ed. L. B. Alaeva / Publishing House “Russian Panorama” 2020 - M; p.637 (total 917)
Timeout.
Bratusheva, 2013.
A. Beglaryan / Ecotourism is developing in Nagorno-Karabakh /IA REGNUM 06/8/2015. [1]
Panorama.
↑ 12
Recipe.
V. A. Petrov / Ethnobotany of Nagorno-Karabakh / USSR Academy of Sciences Ed. AzFan Baku-1940 p.49 (163)
PanAm.

Recipe with green onions and herbs:

First, pour sugar and yeast into warm water, mix and leave for 20 minutes, the yeast will rise like a “cap” - activation was successful)	Let the yeast rise in the water
And here my “cap” rose literally in 15 minutes)	Yeast activated
We chop the greens: you can use parsley, dill, onions (I have exactly this composition) in a small bunch, you can have basil, you can even add sausage or cheese, olives are universal buns, they are very tasty in any form))	Cutting greens
Separately, sift the flour into a container, add homemade yogurt or sour cream and vegetable oil, salt and sift the flour.	Separately add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl.
Add the appropriate yeast and knead the dough.	Add yeast and knead the dough for flatbreads
Add greens to the dough, knead and it’s like that))	Add herbs and leave the dough to rise
Using the usual method of “squeezing” balls out of dough, we form our flat cakes. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper; I let the cakes rise for about 20 minutes)	Place the buns on a baking sheet lined with baking paper
Then we grease the flatbreads with herbs with an egg mixed with milk, but you don’t have to grease them, I’ve already prepared them in different ways)) And put them in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes until browned.	Grease the flatbreads with herbs with yolk
Flatbreads with herbs are ready! Fragrant, delicious, airy)) These Armenian flatbreads are simply delicious for the first course, or just for tea and coffee)) Try it!	Flatbread with herbs photo

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Literature

Bratusheva A.
Dishes of Azerbaijani cuisine. - Litres, 2013. - ISBN 5457357198.
Muscovites will taste the famous Karabakh “Zhingalov Khats” (Russian). PanARMENIAN.Net (April 14, 2011). Retrieved December 10, 2014.
Susanna Balayan.
How to cook Zhengyalov hats. Recipe and method of preparation (Russian). PanARMENIAN.Net. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
The café “On the Staircase” serves Karabakh cuisine. (Russian). Timeout.tu (April 27, 2011). Retrieved December 10, 2014.
“Zhengyalov Khats” as a visiting card of Artsakh. The President of the NKR visited a major culinary festival (Russian) (04/29/2015). Retrieved August 4, 2020.

Armenian flatbreads

Flatbread with herbs, or as Armenian flatbreads are also called, are very pleasant on their own, with butter, as a first course, or just like that! We have already made buns with herbs - so tasty and so garlicky) This recipe, as they say, is a completely different story, completely different) But no less tasty and interesting, so let’s try it, it’s very simple!

Armenian flatbreads proofing

Armenian flatbreads turn out very tasty and so aromatic! You can add any greens, except lettuce, arugula, etc. - these greens will not give aroma), but parsley, dill, green onions, basil, mmm... And that's not all! You can add cheese, dried herbs, sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, olives to these buns - in general, everything you have, for example, after the holidays))

Armenian flatbreads in the gap

This is such a yummy))) Both for the feast and for the world)

A simple and incredibly tasty zhengyalov hats that any housewife can prepare!

Home/Recipes and preparations/Simple and incredibly tasty zhengyalov hats, which any housewife can prepare!

Few people have not heard about Armenian cuisine, especially about how they prepare kebabs and how divine their taste is. But there is one more dish that Armenian girls very often prepare - zhengyalov hats, which is prepared in such quantity that you can not only eat it yourself, but also go and sell it to others.

As soon as you find yourself next to Zhengyalov Khats, you will immediately feel the incredible smell of greens and bread, which will immediately whet your appetite.

Once you try this dish, you will want to buy it again and again, but why go somewhere and spend money on it if you can cook everything yourself and have a snack at any time.

The main feature of Zhengyal Khats is the presence in it of simply a huge amount of herbs, which make this dish so unusual and tasty.

Despite the fact that it usually includes about twenty different greens, when preparing it you can safely use only what we have at home. Here, when choosing herbs, you only need to care about the right combination and not put everything in a row.

When choosing greens for preparing zhengyal hats, the first thing to determine is in what quantity and what will be used. For example, most greens should consist of herbs that have a neutral taste and smell, such as beet tops, spinach, chickweed and lettuce.

And the remainder of the greens, that is, the minority, are greens that have a degenerate taste and smell, such as dill, nettle, parsley, sorrel and green onions.

Also, if you like a slightly unusual taste in flatbread, you can add herbs with bitterness to them, for example dandelion, but this is not for everyone.

You can also diversify it a little and make flatbread with cheese.

What ingredients will you need for the dough:

Three hundred milliliters of water;
Two tablespoons of vegetable oil;
Half a kilo of flour;
Half a teaspoon of salt.

And for the filling:

Salt;
Pepper (if you like it spicy);
Greenery;
Vegetable oil.

How to cook it correctly:

You should start by preparing the dough; to do this, you just need to pour flour into a bowl, add salt and add water, and then start kneading the dough. This needs to be done for five minutes and only after that you will need to add vegetable oil, while continuing to knead for some more time, but now it will not stick to your hands and will become smooth.

When the dough is ready, you need to transfer the dough into a bag and let it brew for half an hour, and at this time we proceed to preparing the filling.

To do this, you need to take all the greens, finely chop them and pour everything into one bowl, but before you start chopping the greens, do not forget to wash them and let them dry. The main thing is not to add anything to the greens until the time comes.

After the dough has rested, cut it into small balls, they should be the size of a chicken egg.

Then you need to take one such ball and roll it out thinly and put the filling on it. To do this, take a cup and put the required amount of greens there, then add vegetable oil, salt and mix. Afterwards, pour everything out so that there is no greenery only at the edges and it is poured in a small heap.

Now you need to close the flatbread, if in several ways, you can pinch it as when preparing dumplings, or first put one edge of the dough on the greens, and on top of it the second and press.

Now that the flatbread is ready, you can start frying it; to do this, you just need to heat a frying pan and fry the zhengyal hats on it without oil. The main thing is to place the flatbreads in the frying pan with the pint side down; it will take you only three minutes to fry one flatbread. The main thing when cooking is to remember that you should end up with a flat cake.