Armenian lavash

It’s more pleasant to watch movies on a full stomach! But what dinner without Armenian ‘’lavash’’? After all, that is not just food, but a truly multifunctional product that can perform the function of a fork, spoon, napkin, and an invariable component of many dishes. Thin Armenian lavash is a bread made in the form of a cake, the thickness of which rarely exceeds 3 mm. It is impossible to imagine the national Armenian cuisine without lavash, although, residents of the Caucasus sometimes call it churek. It is the basis for preparing a huge number of dishes, and not only purely Caucasian.

The appearance history

Mesopotamia is a state located on the territory of modern Iraq. According to historians, it was the inhabitants of this country who learned how to bake bread, using wild cereals as raw materials, and stone millstones as a mill. The bread recipe was very simple: flour and water, and baked it on hot stones, giving the form of a cake. The word << luash >> from the Old Assyrian language means the verb << knead >>. The theory of the origin of the Armenian lavash without yeast is more like a legend in which there is a huge share of truth.
It happened a very long time ago. The Armenian king Aram was captured by the Assyrian army. The ruler Nosor told him. << Ten days you will be deprived of food. After 10 days, we will compete with you in the ability to shoot from a bow. And if you defeat me, then I will give you the freedom >>. Aram accepted that conditions, but he asked the messengers to bring him a shield, which they had to take in the camp of the Armenian army. The soldiers guessed to hide the lavash in a shield. Throughout all 10 days, the "capricious" king wanted to bring him the most beautiful shield. Only the enemies did not know that they carried him food with the shields. On the eleventh day, King Aram took part in the competition and defeated the astonished Nosor. Returning home, the winner ordered to bake thin unleavened cakes everywhere.

Cooking

You can cook Armenian lavash at home in the oven and in a pan. But traditionally, for these purposes a special earthen oven is used - the tandoor. It is drowned with dung or brushwood. Pellets are attached to the inner walls, which are made of clay, and are removed using a special stick with a hook. In production conditions, the preparation of Armenian lavash involves the use of the following equipment:

• Flour sifter



• Mixer



• Rolling machine



• Baking sheets, cutting table



• Armenian tonir



• Equipment for packing



The recipe for thin Armenian lavash is extremely simple: water, salt and flour. It does not include yeast, which is considered to be an obvious advantage. The cake contains a small number of kilocalories - less than 280 kcal / 100 g. And in some cases, the dough does not salt, which is especially appreciated by people on a diet or carefully looking after their health. Armenian ‘’lavash’’ is yeast-free and salt-free - this is a product that cannot be consumed in large quantities. That variety of Caucasian bread can bring tangible health benefits, because:
1.The absence of yeast contributes to the normalization of carbohydrate metabolism and reduces the likelihood of an unpleasant process in the intestine - fermentation.
2.Yeast-free bread does not increase acidity, and can’t be the cause of flatulence. On the contrary, lactic-acid bacteria formed in the test have a beneficial effect on the intestinal microflora.
3.Contains a large number of vitamins and minerals. And if you cook Armenian lavash from coarse grinding flour, this will significantly enrich the finished product with fiber and B vitamins.
4.Helps to get rid of dysbacteriosis and some intestinal diseases.
Caucasian bread can cause harm to the organism only if it is consumed in large quantities. Purchasing a finished product, you should remember about the storage periods. If the packaging has been depressurized, this is fraught with a deterioration in the presentation of the bakery product, because of this it either dries up or is covered with mold. Buying Armenian lavash is not difficult, and its price is quite affordable. The main thing is carefully study the composition, which should not contain emulsifiers, colorants, flavors, flavor enhancers and other << chemistry >>.
Cooking at home
It is believed that Caucasian bread << from the store >> is not so tasty, and is not without other flaws in the form of excessive fragility and etc. Therefore, it makes sense to try baking churek yourself. It is noteworthy that it is better to use a frying pan than an oven for this. The recipe for making Armenian lavash at home is extremely simple:
1.Dissolve 0.5 tsp. salt in a glass of warm boiled water.
2.Sift 3 cups of flour, pour on a table in the form of a slide, make a recess on top.
3.Pour water into the hole, constantly kneading the dough with your hands. To improve its ductility, you can add a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil.
4.Knead the dough, which in structure should be sufficiently dense. It can take up to 20 minutes to knead the dough!
5.Form a ball from the dough, cover it with a bowl and leave it to "rest" for about half an hour.
6.Divide the resulting mass into 9-10 pieces of equal size, roll them into balls.
7.Thinly roll each dough piece so that the dough is visible.
8.Preheat the pan (the fire should be below average), put the rolled "pancake" on its surface. Cooking time on the one hand is 60-90 seconds, after, the cake turns over and cooks on the other side for 30 seconds.
9.Remove the cake from the pan, sprinkle it with water from the spray bottle, cover with a towel (this is necessary in order for the Caucasian bread to become soft).

What can be prepared from lavash?



This is a truly universal ingredient. Dishes from Armenian lavash are various, and some housewives manage to make puff cakes with cinnamon and apples from it. Barbecue is served on pita bread, shaurma is prepared with its participation, it is ideal for making rolls. The simplest recipe looks like this: you need to take Armenian lavash, spread it with sauce or cream cheese from the bath, which must be mixed with grated garlic at first. After that, you should lay the filling, roll the roll and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. Then just cut into pieces. Vegetables, cheese, boiled eggs, greens, crab sticks, cottage cheese, sausage can take on the function of filling for rolls from Armenian lavash- anything is possible and in the most preferred combinations.
Armenian lavash with filling is a very popular dish, the number of its recipes are in the hundreds and even thousands. You can cook rolls, << lazy >> dumplings, envelopes with all kinds of fillings, kutaba, quesadillas, pasties, kyvyrma and many other dishes from Caucasian bread, and recipes can relate in different cuisines of the world. For example, Armenian lavash can be safely used for making lasagna, burrito, khachapuri or homemade chicken rolls. Dishes from Armenian lavash are simple and tasty, and therefore are appreciated by gourmets, as well as by those who are forced to cook them!