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Ref ID: 1GC2018/4405 | Posted On: 01-01-2018 | Updated on: 01-01-2018
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Armenian Khash (AKA Pacha ) - Armenian Traditional Dish for the Winter
Khash or “The Armenian Winter Soup” is one of the tastiest Armenian national dishes. If you want to eat special, tasty and interesting breakfast soup, you should definitely try Armenian khash. This special soup has not only interesting tradition of preparation, but also a unique way of eating․
What is Armenian Khash?
The name khash originates from the Armenian verb khashél, which means “to boil”. Armenians have been making this dish for ages. A number of medieval Armenian authors, including Grigor Magistros (11th century), Mkhitar Heratsi (12th century), Yesayi Nchetsi (13th century) mentioned khash in their works.
Khash is a dish, which is widely spread in many other countries, such as Georgia, Azerbajian, Bulgaria and Turkey. But it is only in Armenia where you can find unique traditions of when and how to eat khash.
“Rules” for Eating Khash
The main “rule” is that khash is exclusively eaten during the cold season of the year. Armenians eat it as a relaxing and warming dish. However, in other regions it is acceptable to eat khash in other seasons as well. In Armenia people say, that you should only eat khash during months the name of which contains the letter ‘r’. These include all the months from September to April. You can see, these are usually the coldest months of the year in Armenia.
The other “rule” is that Armenians mainly eaten khash for breakfast, but there are individuals that like to eat it in the afternoon or in the evening. As Armenian khash is a very heavy dish, traditionally it’s acceptable to eat it in the morning.
Preparation of Khash
The main ingredient for preparing khash soup is feet of cow, in Armenian “votner”. However, while preparing khash other parts of the cow can also be used. The other ingredients of the khash soup include onion, garlic, salt, water, chili pepper, dry chives leaves.
Khash preparation in Armenia is like a ritual. First of all the cows’ feet are thoroughly cleaned, cut and kept under running cold, clean water. The meat is kept under the running water for more than 10 hours or for the night. Keeping the cows feet overnight in the water makes cooking time shorter.
2 recipes below :
- Khash Soup Recipe #1
- Khash Soup Recipe #2
Click on photo to view full image or click to watch video.
Khash Soup Recipe #1
Ingredients:
- 1 onion (diced)
- 1 garlic (diced)
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 tsb dry chives leaves
- Water
- 1 cow foot (cut and washed)
- 1 chili pepper
Khash Soup Recipe #2
Ingredients:
- 8 pounds beef hooves
- 2 pounds beef tripe
- 1 bulb garlic cloves, crushed
- Salt to taste
Khash Soup Recipe #1
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For the preparation of this fantastic dish, you should thoroughly follow all the rules, described in the recipe.
- Preperation time-540 minutes
- Cooking time-60 minutes
- Total-600 minutes
Instructions:
- Wash and put the cut meat into a deep bowl.
- Pour cold water and allow the meat to soak overnight or for at least 8 hours to soften.
- Wash thoroughly, put into a pot with onions, pepper, water and garlic,and then cook until meat is tender and can be easily extracted from the bones.
- Add salt to taste and serve warm with chives sprinkled over the soup.
Khash Soup Recipe #2
Instructions:
- Thoroughly wash the meat and make sure that it’s clean.
- Cut the tripe into small chunks. Put the feet, tripe, and fat into a large kettle.
- Cover with cold water.
- Bring to boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.
- Skim the surface regularly of any foam, add more water if necessary.
- Simmer for about 10 hours.
- Garlic and salt are the only added ingredients.
What makes Armenian Khash So Special
Armenian Khash Special Feature #1: The Color
Armenian chiefs clearly know khash secrets. They say that good khash should be viscous, white in color, almost like milk. This is kind of the ideal every khash maker wants to reach. Khash is one of the three Armenian special dishes, other two are Spas and Harissa. Notably, salt is almost not used while making these dishes.
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