When I was leading my workshop at TUMO in Yerevan last fall, one of my students mentioned that her favorite dish was khashlama. I made a point to order it the next time I was out at a restaurant, and it was so good that I ate it three more times while I was in Armenia.

I was very excited to find a recipe for the dish in the excellent Armenian cookbook Lavash! I made it for dinner last week, and it was everything I wanted: warming, comforting, hearty and filling, and perfect for a chilly winter night.

This recipe is borrowed from Lavash, with many thanks to the talented Kate Leahy who gave me permission to use the recipe in my newsletter. My version above has a few minor changes from her recipe: I chopped things a little smaller, and used beef stock instead of water. Also, Kate suggests cooking the potatoes separately, so they don’t fall apart when you reheat them. I was feeling lazy, and tossed the potatoes in the same pot as everything else. They were delicious, and did indeed fall apart when I reheated it the next day. (>_<)

Either way, this is a pretty simple recipe for a deliciously hearty beef and vegetable stew, and I highly recommend it. It also made me miss Yerevan a lot! (T_T)

PS: Kate is also one of the hosts of the excellent podcast Everything Cookbooks, which is an amazing resource for anyone who likes cooking or cookbooks! It’s a fascinating peek behind the curtain if you’ve ever wondered how cookbooks are made, and their interviews with cookbook creators are always thoughtful and insightful.

An Aside:

I trust that anyone who’s reading this is as deeply horrified as I am at the reprehensible actions of federal agents in Minneapolis and other cities around the country. There are some very good short comics being made on the subject on BlueSky and Instagram if you’re up for learning more!

What I’m into lately:

My book club is currently reading The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not very far into the story but the characters are so unique and soulful and beautifully written and I’m a little bit in love with all of them. I have a strong feeling this book is going to break my heart in a lot of good ways.

What Toki’s into lately:

Ok, this is really difficult to photograph, but: Toki’s favorite thing lately is to chase shadows on the wall. He meows and leads me into the bedroom, and I say “Oh, do you want to play Shadow?” And I move the light so I can cast shadows with my hand, and I flutter them around the wall while Toki leaps up and tries to catch them.

(I don’t know why his favorite game right now is chasing something which he will never, ever be able to actually catch, but you know what they say about orange cats all sharing a single brain cell.)

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