SAN FRANCISCO — Asked what her ultimate Armenian dinner would be, The Armenian Kitchen’s chief cook and food blogger Robyn Kalajian said, “Our ultimate Armenian dinner would start with cheese beoregs and a hefty plate of mezze, including basterma and yalanchi. The main course would include bulgur pilaf, any type of kebab, kufteh, vegetable geragoor, and chopped salad. Finally, dessert would be baklava with Armenian coffee.”
Thanks to Steve Sharafian for this Armenian geragoor recipe (green beans with lamb stew) from Zarouhi Sharafian, his beloved paternal grandmother who passed away in 1999. “This delicious geragoor is a tomato-based string bean stew made with lamb bones, lamb shoulder chops, ground lamb, beef or turkey or even as a vegetarian entrée. Most Middle Eastern stews are prepared the same way and have similar ingredients. The main difference is the vegetable added to the stew. This dish is traditionally served with Armenian rice or bulgur pilaf, and yogurt,” he says.
“To my memory, my grandmother never called this dish fassoulia, just plain geragoor,” he adds. According to Dining in Diaspora, this is a dish where every family has their own variation and favorite way to prepare it, but that’s what makes this dish so special. Here Steve provides some memories behind his grandmother’s dish:
“I grew up eating this dish at my grandparent’s house. Whether served as a weekday supper or as part of an elaborate celebratory meal, the basic ingredients remained the same: lamb, a featured vegetable (usually green beans), onions and tomatoes. Growing up I thought this dish was exclusively Armenian; it is not. Many Mediterranean and Near Eastern countries have similar rustic lamb and vegetable stews with an onion and tomato base. Penelope Casas’s The Food & Wine of Spain [1983] has a recipe for Cordero al Chilindrón that pairs red peppers with lamb, onions and tomatoes. Richard Olney’s Provence, The Beautiful Cookbook [1993] shares a French version of this dish called Ragoût D’Agneau Aux Artichauts that contains artichokes. Paula Wolfert’s Mediterranean Grains and Greens [1998] includes a Tunisian variation that features cactus pads. Each version is a simply seasoned combination of a limited number of regional ingredients.”
“My grandmother made her geragoor with fresh green beans, it was one of her favorite specialties. If she didn’t like her grocer’s green bean selection that day, she’d buy any vegetable that looked the best: leeks, squash, or my favorite, okra (bamia in Armenian). On a rare occasion she used potatoes in the place of vegetables; when she did, she seasoned her geragoor with dried purple basil or rahan,” says Steve. “Although this stew’s vegetables might vary, its meat does not: my grandmother always used lamb shoulder. I’ve tried the dish with leg of lamb and didn’t like the results; I think the leg is too lean for this dish. Although I sometimes cut cubes from a boneless shoulder, typically, I use lamb shoulder blade chops cut widthwise into thirds.”
“If using bone-in shoulder blade chops, remember that small (and often sharp) pieces of bone may turn up in the finished dish,” he says. “Look out for bones. When I have the time, I’ll salt the lamb the night before (using about 2 teaspoons of medium-grained sea salt) and leave the meat uncovered on a cooling rack inside the refrigerator. This step helps the lamb to brown and deepens the meat’s flavor. Remember to cut back on the amount of salt when seasoning the stew to account for the well-salted meat.”
