What I Cook when I'm too Busy to Cook
A favorite meal prep recipe and chile paste along with some exciting news...
I’m heading to Paris.
I’ve been asked to cook for the inaugural Matter & Shape Design Salon with We Are Ona, a creative culinary studio creating unique dining experiences all over the world. I have been a fan of their work from afar for about a year now and it’s truly a dream to be working with them. Matter and Shape is a project of Journalist Dan Thawley, former editor in chief of A Magazine Curated By. The salon will host a variety of contemporary design companies, galleries, fashion houses, and independent makers. Curated installations will be set throughout the space with the dining area designed by the powerhouse that is Willo Perron with accompaniment from Studio Lilo, an incredible floral design studio.
A fitting but dangerous opportunity, as I am currently in the market for just about everything for my new apartment. I’m hoping I can make some friends who will help make this feat a bit less stressful….
This will be the most ambitious pop-up I’ve done to date—serving 80 people for both lunch AND dinner over 4 days in the iconic Jardin des Tuileries.
The structure of the menu will be a tasting; 6 courses for lunch and 8 for dinner. A clear stray from the approachable recipes I share here but a challenge I’ve been excited to take on.
I’ve decided to theme the menu around exploring my Armenian heritage, my dad’s side of the family. Yes, I know Abernathy is not Armenian…. But this is my technical step-grandfather’s last name, who is the only father and grandfather my dad and myself have known.
I didn’t grow up with a deep connection to my Armenian roots. I visited my dad’s family a few times a year and my grandmother would make pilaf, dolma, and Armenian string beans. We’d speak about her parents and how they immigrated here from Armenia during the genocide, the Armenian church she went to every Sunday, and the closeness of the little diaspora in Richmond, Virginia. Throughout all these visits, Pilaf was the great connector to my roots for years. Luckily my dad’s mother taught my mom the recipe. It was on the table at least once a week and I couldn’t get enough of it…. I still can’t.
It was only until I grew older and started to cook when I became more interested. I learned my great-aunt wrote an Armenian cookbook in the 70s and it soon became one of my most cherished possessions.
Over the past year, my focus has centered around exploration and discovery, thematically. With systems, technology, ingredients, techniques, and producers. For the Matter & Shape Series, I hope to take these ideas inward and explore my relationship with my Armenian heritage.
This menu is an opportunity for me to dig deeper into my roots and share a part of me that I am continuing to discover. I couldn’t be more excited. The menu is still in its testing stage but next week I’ll talk through the menu more in depth and share some R&D. Speaking of R&D, I picked up a few other Armenian books that have been an immense help as I tackle this menu. I will share them below but if you are at all interested in the history of Armenian cuisine or the cuisine of the Levant and Caucasus at all I highly recommend checking these out.
Armenian Food: Fact, Fiction & Folklore Irina Petrosian & David Underwood
The Cuisine of Armenia Sonia Uvezian
Lavash: The Bread that Launched 1000 Meals Ara Zada, John Lee, and Kate Leahy
One-Pot Spiced Chickpea Stew
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Look, I’m not reinventing the wheel here nor am I interested in doing so when I’m stressed with other work. I want something simple, healthy and nourishing that I can make in a large enough quantity for the week. Enter - stewed chickpeas. With the right seasoning and patience you can really build some deep flavor. The format of this recipe is highly customizable based on what you have. See this as an opportunity to throw in any produce that’s been slowly dying in the back of your fridge. For me that was sweet potatoes and kale.
This stew is inspired by Moroccan flavors using Harissa, a Tunisian chili paste, and whole spices. Harissa is deeply flavorful and something I highly recommend making at home. It just doesn’t compare to the store bought stuff. Lucky for you, I have a recipe that I’ll share below. Cover this stuff with a thin layer of oil and it’ll keep for months in the fridge.
PSA: The age of your dried beans matter!! To be honest, I tried making this recipe the day earlier and used some extremely old chickpeas. This resulted in 4 plus hours of cooking with still untender chickpeas. So if you have some old dried beans in your pantry do not bother cooking with them and just snag some new ones. (Though they are great for blind baking a pie or a tart shell so don’t throw them away!)