Arisa, or harisa, is an Armenian dish from the Ararat plain. This is a thick porridge from zavar (dried or fried chopped wheat) and fatty meat, usually chicken or lamb. Herbs have traditionally replaced meat in this dish when religious days in Armenia required fasting and repentance. An extremely long cooking process is an integral part of the arisa recipe. As with other ritual dishes, the time required for cooking is part of its traditional value.
Origin
The name "arisa" comes from the Arabic word Harees, which means "to knead, crush." This dish has been known since ancient times, and theories regarding its origin differ. According to Armenian traditions, the patron saint of Armenia, Gregory the Illuminator, offered the poor food out of love and mercy. He did not have enough sheep to feed the crowd, so they added wheat to the pots. People noticed that the wheat stuck to the bottom of the boilers. Gregory advised to mix everything. Thus, the name of the dish comes from the words of the saint himself. Since then, this dish has been offered as a charity dinner. Arisa is traditionally served on Easter Day. It is still cooked by many Armenians around the world, and is also considered the national dish of Armenia. The technology of cooking is still one of the original Armenian recipes.
Outside of Armenia
Arisa is also very common in Lebanese villages, in different ethnic communities, where they are usually prepared for religious reasons in a large pot at a village meeting. In addition, it is used by the Syrians as a dish for Eda Zoora - Christmas, and Eda Gora - for Easter. Arisa is very similar to the dish popular among the Arabian countries of the Persian Gulf, known as haris, which is made from meat and finely ground wheat.
It is also a common dish in Iraqi cuisine. Arisa is very famous in Kashmir, where it is cooked in winter. Here, the recipe for arisa resembles kashkeg - a kind of homogeneous porridge made from stewed and peeled chicken or lamb and coarsely ground wheat (usually peeled).
How to cook this dish?
The recipe for arisa seems complicated, but it can be reproduced in an ordinary kitchen. To do this, you will need:
- Whole chicken or 700 grams of boneless chicken, plus two cups of chicken stock. It is best to choose the first option, as the combination of brown and white meat and chicken fat in this dish is more traditional. But the second option is easier to prepare.
- 2 cups whole wheat grains (if possible, soak them overnight, rinse and dry). You can also use bulgur or pearl barley, but this will not be the traditional Armenian arisa, but its modern version.
- 6-10 glasses of water.
- Butter.
- 2 tablespoons ground pepper and / or 2 teaspoons ground cumin. You can use both seasonings, but not everyone will like this combination.
How it's done?
Arisa with chicken is prepared like this. If you use a whole bird, boil the carcass in water over medium heat until cooked. Remove from pan, wait for it to cool, and select meat by removing skin and bones. Grind it. Save the chicken stock. If you use fillets, just cut them into thin strips.
Combine the wheat, chicken and chicken stock in a large saucepan. Add enough water to keep about 8 cups of liquid in the container. Simmer until very soft. How to cook wheat? It will take about two hours if you soaked the cereal overnight, or 4 hours if you did not. Stir occasionally, especially towards the end, when there is a danger of grains sticking.
Add salt and pepper to taste (you'll need more salt than you think). Put cumin and / or paprika.
The traditional final step in the arisa recipe is to stir the dish vigorously until it becomes very uniform. If you want wheat kernels to remain more or less whole, skip this step.
When serving, put a piece of butter on top and sprinkle with caraway seeds or paprika.
Serve with pita bread and Armenian salad. In the culinary of this country, as in the Middle East, leafy greens of any type are rarely used, so it is better to use raw onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and coriander leaves.
How does it taste?
Many will agree that this dish is very tasty. It perfectly conveys the taste of chicken mixed with a satisfying, but gentle source of carbohydrates. Even the smell of this dish, slowly bubbling on the stove, fills the house with a very pleasant aroma. Arisa should be especially delicious with farm chicken. If you do not like fatty foods, you can not add oil to the dish.
Thus, the taste of arisa is very pleasant and authentic. It seems that you eat the same thing that people ate in biblical times. So do not be surprised at the slightly unusual texture, simplicity of the ingredients or the long cooking time. You can make a large amount of arice at a time, and freeze leftovers.
Option with pearl barley
As noted above, you can replace wheat with pearl barley in the preparation of this dish. For this variation you will need:
- 500 grams of pearl barley soaked overnight;
- 1.8 kg of whole chicken;
- 1 tablespoon ground caraway seeds plus an additional for serving;
- 150 grams of butter, diced;
- 2 tsp Berber (a mixture of spices, including allspice, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves).
Drain the pearl barley and rinse under a stream of cold water. Put in a large pan, pour 2.5 liters of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook by adding more water, if necessary, for 2.5 hours or until the water is absorbed and the barley becomes very soft. Do not stir too often, as this will cause the cereal to stick to the pan.
In the middle of cooking pearl barley, put the chicken in a separate pan and fill it with water. Bring to a boil, removing any impurities that rise to the surface, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for an hour or until the chicken is very soft. Remove the bird and reserve 1.5 liters of broth. When the chicken has cooled sufficiently, thinly cut the meat by removing and discarding the skin and bones.
Add chopped poultry and 1 liter of chicken stock to the cooked pearl barley. Put the pan on a slow fire and cook, stirring, for 20 minutes or until thick. Mix with a hand blender until the consistency of a homogeneous porridge, add the remaining broth, if necessary, to achieve the desired density. Season with salt, white pepper and caraway seeds.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan immediately before serving and cook until it is hazel brown, then pour in the aris. Serve with extra caraway seeds and berber.