What is khash? This rich hot dish comes from Armenia. For the first time, his recipe is found in written sources from the 11th century. The name comes from the Armenian “khoshou” or “khashoy”, which means “to cook”. Traditionally, the dish is prepared from beef or veal legs and stomach. Less often, the heads and tails of artiodactyls are used (but this is more likely for adherents of hardcore authenticity).
Popular wisdom says: “Khash should be cooked only in those months whose names contain the letter “P.” That is, from September to the end of April. Why? It is believed that it is cool outside at this time, and this soup warms up the body well and gives vivacity and enthusiasm to the spirit. All thanks to the beneficial properties of the soup. It is worth noting that the Armenians themselves made folk wisdom even more reasonable: “Khash can be eaten all year round. If it’s not cool enough, go higher into the mountains, brother.”
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Hash: healthy and brutal
What are the benefits of khash? Beef legs and tripe, from which the dish is cooked, contain simply prohibitive amounts of gelatin, and it is extremely beneficial for the joints. The microelements that gelatin is rich in actively restore bone tissue. Thus, it is recommended to eat khash for problems in the musculoskeletal system, as well as for fractures and cracks. Khash is the best friend of hairdressers and manicurists: nails and hair grow much faster from this collagen bomb.
Due to its ingredients, some consider khash a purely masculine dish and a semantic antonym to the word “diet”. By-products, fat, cholesterol - this is not something you want to post on Instagram with the hashtag #lowcalories. Yes, and you can’t be distracted from khash for a minute. Cool slightly and immediately turn into jellied meat.
Khash is called the best cure for a hangover (although it is customary to eat it with vodka). In this title, it competes worthy with Russian solyanka, cabbage soup and Vietnamese pho bo. But we will leave this statement to the conscience of connoisseurs of the alcoholic craft.
Photo: Yulia Dyagileva
How to cook khash and love the smell of boiled hooves
Ingredients To prepare this dish you can count on the fingers of one hand:
– 4 beef legs;
– 1 kg of beef tripe.
For the sauce:
– 1 head of fresh garlic;
– salt (to taste);
– 1 radish.
How to cook (hour by hour):
- To begin, we thoroughly rinse the beef legs under running cold water, clean the limbs of dirt, if necessary, singe the wool and scald with boiling water. We chop (ideally saw) into small pieces.
- We soak our feet for 24 hours in cold water, change it many times (we keep in mind that Armenians can “soak” their feet in a mountain stream for a week in order to remove the smell as much as possible). The color scheme will indicate that the legs are ready. They should be pinkish-white.
- Place the clean legs on low heat until the meat begins to easily fall away from the bones (usually the procedure takes from 6 to 10 hours). Remove “extra” witnesses from the kitchen: only the strong-willed can bear the strong smell. Life hack: use a pressure cooker to prepare khash. The whole process will only take an hour and a half, and the taste will be the same.
- We prepare the tripe separately. Cut into portions and boil in water - without salt, sugar, pepper and other spices. After boiling, drain the water and cook again, a total of 5 times. From the second boil, you can add one bay leaf at a time. This is not canonical, but it will slightly reduce the pungent smell. The neighbors will be grateful to you.
- Prepare the sauce from salt, broth and fresh garlic. To do this, you need to mix the cloves crushed in a press with a lot of salt and 5-7 tablespoons of the prepared broth. The sauce is ready! It is not always served with khash, but is often content with the ingredients separately.
- It's time to collect the hash. Add boiled tripe to the beef leg broth. Serve the prepared garlic sauce, dried pita bread, and radish separately on the table in a gravy boat. It needs to be chopped into strips and placed next to a bowl with salt for dipping. Also, there are usually pickles and cheeses on the table. How can you eat all this correctly?
Video: Yulia Dyagileva
Serving and eating khash in Armenian
Hot khash is placed separately on the table in front of the guests, next to it is garlic sauce, salt, radish and dried pita bread, which can be crumbled directly onto the plate. Traditionally enough lavash is added so that the khash can be eaten with your hands, but now spoons are increasingly used. Vodka is a must on the table. Some men eat khash with their heads over it and covered with a towel, just like they used to breathe over potatoes.
Video: Yulia Dyagileva
Traditionally, khash is eaten on weekends early in the morning (at 7-9 o’clock) or for breakfast. Experts do not recommend eating the dish in the evening: it takes a long time to digest and puts a strain on the digestive system. Eventful dreams are guaranteed.
And one more fact to follow. Khash is not only a soup, but also a TV star. In 2015, he appeared on the program “What? Where? When?". Connoisseurs were asked to name three things starting with the letter “K” that this dish doesn’t like. It turned out that this is:
– kin – woman (should not eat garlic);
– cognac (traditionally, vodka is served with the broth);
– kenats – long toast (the dish must be eaten hot).
Video: "Bograch" Kazan-bar
Now you know how to prepare khash in such a way that even the most picky Armenian will not undermine you, but, on the contrary, will ask you to try it.
Might be interesting: free cooking classes from Move2Armenia Culture. Follow the announcements.
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