DiploMom: Restaurant Kitchen Confidential Redux

Covering my already very short hair!

Chef Marmulyan at Ararat Hall (see post from 9/24/12) actually let us do it again! Can you imagine?

Our chef explaining a point of nutrition

Recently another dozen members of IWAY descended on the kitchen of Ararat Hall with the idea of preparing a meal we would all share with loved ones. This time our focus was a fish dish called Ahktamar (ock-tah-mar), Denise and I had enjoyed this dish on a visit to the restaurant with friends Gayane and Lilit. We wanted to learn how to make this fish stew/casserole. Chef Sedrak Mamulyan himself was otherwise occupied upstairs with his TV show, which looked a little like Julia Child's TV kitchen set. So he again left us in the very capable hands of his number two man.

Just the right pan at the ready

Denise picks up the knife, Armine asks a question

This time we started by making two very tasty salads--one featuring large mushrooms with a plum dressing and the other a more traditional eggplant salad--both to die for, of course.

Mushroom salad with plum dressing

We also made some stuffed mushrooms in a very interesting way. First we peeled and then roasted very large mushrooms with only butter in their cavities. Once roasted, we then filled them with sauteed chopped mushroom stems and herbs, topped with cheese, just until the cheese melted.

Walnut and quince brandy for us!

Early on, instead of the fruit juice we had last time, we enjoyed a glass of walnut and quince brandy. If the intention was to chill us out, I think the strategy may have backfired. The decibel level of conversation definitely went up! I want to say it was yummy!

Lovely eggplant salad ready to serve

Our next hands-on project was to make the "meatballs" for a rich soup. For this we used a pureed raw beef I had seen in stores but had no clue what it was or what it was for! We mixed it with bulghur an made small-small-small balls to put in the simmering soup. And should you be tempted to make your meatballs larger, you will see the consequences when the balls swell with the cooked bulghur in the soup.

Pureed raw beef, beef, lardons, tomatoes, bulghur, herbs

Meatballs for soup from pureed raw beef and bulghur

Ahktamar--the whole reason for going!

After that "we" (meaning the chef) tackled the piece de resistance, ahktamar or fish stew. Made with a meaty version of trout, this stew is utterly delicious.In the end we all sat down to a wonderful dinner--16 of us in all--again, so happy to see firsthand how these dishes are made. And for me to have actual useful notes about how to make akhtamar for our Gourmands group once I get home in Vermont!

Herbs and spices at the ready

Here are more views of this very busy kitchen in Yerevan's best Armenian restaurant!

Thanks again to Chef Marmulyan and especially to our friend, Armine Tumanyan for her efforts to make these unique experiences available to us!