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Martha's Vineyard Times
June 16 2011
Armenian treats for a Martha's Vineyard wedding
By Amelia Smith
Published: June 15, 2011
Mary Haigazian has been making boeregs, traditional Armenian
cheese-filled pastries, for more than 60 years. She carries a
pocket-sized black notebook that contains her recipes for a handful of
essential dishes, along with addresses and miscellaneous reminders.
The recipes are cryptic to the outside eye, but for Ms. Haigazian,
they're enough to reconstruct the foods she learned to make with her
husband's family many decades ago. Her recipe for boeregs calls for,
among other things "8 N.Y. Extra [Sharp Cheddar] Cheese, 1 Muenster
cheese, and ½ Ricotta," to begin with.
Ms. Haigazian was born into an Armenian family in New York City. Her
mother died when she was only five years old, and she and her sister
were sent to the Jennie Clarkson Home in Valhalla, New York. Their
father was still living, but at the time the state of New York deemed
it inappropriate for a single man to raise two young girls alone. Ms.
Haigazian rejoined her father in the city when she turned 18, and a
few years later she married and moved in with her husband's family,
where her culinary education resumed.
"They lived with my father's parents," says her daughter, Rosemarie
Haigazian of Edgartown. "My paternal grandmother worked very hard to
teach her traditional Armenian cooking."
Mary Haigazian became the carrier of the tradition, and boeregs are
one of her most popular creations. This week, her grandson JB Robichau
will marry his long-time girlfriend, Shuchi Saraswat. They met in
college at Franklin and Marshall, and currently live in Centerville.
Mr. Robichau commutes to Boston where he works for Northeastern
University's ice hockey teams, and Ms. Saraswat, who has an MFA in
Creative Writing from Emerson College, is writing her first novel and
also works in a bookstore.
The wedding will begin with an Indian ceremony today, June 16, in
Katama, and there will be a western wedding on Saturday at the Ag Hall
in West Tisbury. Ms. Saraswat's parents moved from India to Pittsburgh
in 1982, and she was born in this country. "My mom especially wanted
to have an Indian wedding," she said.
Thursday's festivities will be catered by The Golden Swan, an Indian
restaurant on Main Street in Falmouth. Many of her family members are
Hindu and vegetarian, so making the menu vegetarian-friendly was
essential for all phases of the wedding.
The rehearsal dinner on Friday and the reception on Saturday will be
catered by Tea Lane Caterers, owned and operated by Dee Smith. The
vegetarian entrée will be a red pepper stuffed with Yukon gold
potatoes with a fresh tomato sauce. Ms. Saraswat says that stuffed red
peppers are a traditional Armenian food, and are usually stuffed with
lamb and rice, but Ms. Smith has given them an Indian twist by using
Yukon gold potatoes flavored with Indian spices instead. The meat
entrée is an Armenian shish kebab marinated in, "cheap red wine,"
according to Ms. Smith. "Rosemarie says you gotta use cheap wine."
The Mary Haigazian boeregs will be served as an appetizer. When Tea
Lane Caterers was hired for the wedding, it was agreed that they would
make Ms. Hagazian's boeregs - under her specific direction and
according to her traditional secret family recipe. They also happen to
be vegetarian.
Ms. Haigazian, now 86 years old, had a debilitating stroke in 1998,
but she still sends many people her boeregs at Christmas time. "I
haven't met anyone that did not like it," she says. The number of
boeregs required for the wedding would probably overwhelm her Woodside
Village kitchen, however.
Tea Lane Caterers will make more boeregs for the Saturday wedding
reception, about three for each guest, Ms. Smith said. Ms. Haigazian
came to Tea Lane last Friday to teach Ms. Smith and her staff how to
make them. The ingredients were laid out on a steel table - bowls of
shredded cheese, a pot of melted butter, three eggs, packages of
phyllo.
"We usually use puff pastry," Ms. Smith said. "Phyllo is so flaky, the
crumbs get on people's clothes."
It is also difficult to handle. The tissue thin sheets must be folded
and cut precisely in half, lengthwise, then folded again and brushed
with butter between each layer. A dab of cheese mixture is placed at
one end, then it's folded into a triangle, and folded again and again
all along the long fragile length of the phyllo. Blending the proper
cheese mixture is something of a trade secret, according to Ms. Smith.
Intrigued cooks are encouraged to experiment - at their own peril.
The carefully assembled pastries are popped into the oven and emerge
about 20 minutes later, golden brown and oozing with cheese - and
delicious.
http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/article.php?id=6003
June 16 2011
Armenian treats for a Martha's Vineyard wedding
By Amelia Smith
Published: June 15, 2011
Mary Haigazian has been making boeregs, traditional Armenian
cheese-filled pastries, for more than 60 years. She carries a
pocket-sized black notebook that contains her recipes for a handful of
essential dishes, along with addresses and miscellaneous reminders.
The recipes are cryptic to the outside eye, but for Ms. Haigazian,
they're enough to reconstruct the foods she learned to make with her
husband's family many decades ago. Her recipe for boeregs calls for,
among other things "8 N.Y. Extra [Sharp Cheddar] Cheese, 1 Muenster
cheese, and ½ Ricotta," to begin with.
Ms. Haigazian was born into an Armenian family in New York City. Her
mother died when she was only five years old, and she and her sister
were sent to the Jennie Clarkson Home in Valhalla, New York. Their
father was still living, but at the time the state of New York deemed
it inappropriate for a single man to raise two young girls alone. Ms.
Haigazian rejoined her father in the city when she turned 18, and a
few years later she married and moved in with her husband's family,
where her culinary education resumed.
"They lived with my father's parents," says her daughter, Rosemarie
Haigazian of Edgartown. "My paternal grandmother worked very hard to
teach her traditional Armenian cooking."
Mary Haigazian became the carrier of the tradition, and boeregs are
one of her most popular creations. This week, her grandson JB Robichau
will marry his long-time girlfriend, Shuchi Saraswat. They met in
college at Franklin and Marshall, and currently live in Centerville.
Mr. Robichau commutes to Boston where he works for Northeastern
University's ice hockey teams, and Ms. Saraswat, who has an MFA in
Creative Writing from Emerson College, is writing her first novel and
also works in a bookstore.
The wedding will begin with an Indian ceremony today, June 16, in
Katama, and there will be a western wedding on Saturday at the Ag Hall
in West Tisbury. Ms. Saraswat's parents moved from India to Pittsburgh
in 1982, and she was born in this country. "My mom especially wanted
to have an Indian wedding," she said.
Thursday's festivities will be catered by The Golden Swan, an Indian
restaurant on Main Street in Falmouth. Many of her family members are
Hindu and vegetarian, so making the menu vegetarian-friendly was
essential for all phases of the wedding.
The rehearsal dinner on Friday and the reception on Saturday will be
catered by Tea Lane Caterers, owned and operated by Dee Smith. The
vegetarian entrée will be a red pepper stuffed with Yukon gold
potatoes with a fresh tomato sauce. Ms. Saraswat says that stuffed red
peppers are a traditional Armenian food, and are usually stuffed with
lamb and rice, but Ms. Smith has given them an Indian twist by using
Yukon gold potatoes flavored with Indian spices instead. The meat
entrée is an Armenian shish kebab marinated in, "cheap red wine,"
according to Ms. Smith. "Rosemarie says you gotta use cheap wine."
The Mary Haigazian boeregs will be served as an appetizer. When Tea
Lane Caterers was hired for the wedding, it was agreed that they would
make Ms. Hagazian's boeregs - under her specific direction and
according to her traditional secret family recipe. They also happen to
be vegetarian.
Ms. Haigazian, now 86 years old, had a debilitating stroke in 1998,
but she still sends many people her boeregs at Christmas time. "I
haven't met anyone that did not like it," she says. The number of
boeregs required for the wedding would probably overwhelm her Woodside
Village kitchen, however.
Tea Lane Caterers will make more boeregs for the Saturday wedding
reception, about three for each guest, Ms. Smith said. Ms. Haigazian
came to Tea Lane last Friday to teach Ms. Smith and her staff how to
make them. The ingredients were laid out on a steel table - bowls of
shredded cheese, a pot of melted butter, three eggs, packages of
phyllo.
"We usually use puff pastry," Ms. Smith said. "Phyllo is so flaky, the
crumbs get on people's clothes."
It is also difficult to handle. The tissue thin sheets must be folded
and cut precisely in half, lengthwise, then folded again and brushed
with butter between each layer. A dab of cheese mixture is placed at
one end, then it's folded into a triangle, and folded again and again
all along the long fragile length of the phyllo. Blending the proper
cheese mixture is something of a trade secret, according to Ms. Smith.
Intrigued cooks are encouraged to experiment - at their own peril.
The carefully assembled pastries are popped into the oven and emerge
about 20 minutes later, golden brown and oozing with cheese - and
delicious.
http://www.mvtimes.com/marthas-vineyard/article.php?id=6003