I found the two recipe cards pictured above among my mother’s cookbooks.
I asked my mom about these recipes written out by her sister. My mom recalled eating both dishes as a young girl. She especially enjoyed Arsig, which the card spells phonetically. My material grandparents came from Chunkush (aka Chunkoosh), so my mother thought that recipe traveled from the region between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea to Chicago, and ultimately, to the San Francisco Bay Area. Being curious about family recipes, I set out to learn more about Arsig.
I searched my Armenian cookbook collection for a similar lamb and grape leaf stew recipe. No luck. I consulted Musa Dagdeviren’s outstanding The Turkish Cookbook (2019, Phaidon) which contains a host of recipes that I recognize as Armenian, but I didn’t see a dish comparable to Arsig. Nothing turned up when I tried various internet searches. Then fortune smiled upon me: I had Armenian Cuisine (2011) by Aline Kamakian and Barbara Drieskens sent from the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture (GLAC) to my local library. This cookbook contains a recipe for Gertembourt that the authors translate as Vine Leaf Stew. Although not identical to Arsig, the recipe for Gertembourt looks pretty darn close. When I google Gertembourt, my search returns a single hit: Kamakian/Drieskens’s cookbook on eatyourbooks.com.
The found Arsig recipe card lacks detail. I’ve cooked the dish, which serves 6 to 8, a number of times now. Here’s how I make Arsig.
1.4 liters / 48 ounces lamb stock
454 grams / 16 ounces brined grape leaves, cut into ¼-inch slices
1000 grams / 2.2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder stew, cut into 1½-inch cubes
794 grams / 28 ounces whole peeled tomatoes, cut with scissors into ½-inch pieces
0.5 grams / ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
Kosher salt to taste
120 ml / ½ cup lemon juice from 2 large lemons
400 grams / 14 ounces bulgur wheat
In a 7.25 quart round Dutch oven, add lamb stock, sliced grape leaves, lamb, tomatoes with juice, kosher salt and cayenne. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, reduce to low heat, cover and cook. After 15 minutes, add lemon juice, cover and continue to cook at a low simmer for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, bring contents to a boil over medium heat, add bulgur wheat while stirring. Return to stew to a simmer over a low heat, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes, turn off heat, season to taste and let stew rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
Some notes. I use Karkazian Ranch Fresno Grape Leaves to make this dish. I sometimes use grape leaves imported from Armenia and from Bulgaria but think the Karkazian Ranch leaves tastier and much easier to handle. I do not rinse these leaves before slicing them for Arsig.
Food manufacturers grade bulgur wheat by size (e.g., extra fine, fine, medium, course and very course). In this recipe I often use Bob’s Red Mill Bulgur, which the company grades as medium. I also like Duru stone-milled bulgur from Turkey.
I buy both my lamb shoulder and lamb stock from The Local Butcher, located near the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Cedar Street in Berkeley. I’ve purchased a lot of lamb for Armenian dishes from this shop; its butchers do a great job sourcing and cutting meat. The Local Butcher sells frozen lamb stock that makes Arsig much faster and easier to prepare. I prep the cubed lamb by sprinkling them with a heathy amount of Crystal Diamond kosher salt and placing the meat on a rack and tray to sit overnight, uncovered, in the refrigerator.
As grandparents and parent pass away, it can become increasingly difficult to save a family’s food history, especially of people forced into diaspora. Through serendipity I stumbled upon these two cards. Otherwise, my family’s history of these dishes would have vanished. When I spoke with my mom about Arsig, she remembered her family eating it with lavosh bread and thinly shaved red torpedo onions.
This lamb and grape vine stew deserves to live on. Arsig tastes bright and delicious. I made a vegetarian version of the stew for my daughter using chickpeas in place of lamb and 4 cups chickpea stock (here), 2 cups water and 40 grams of butter. This version tastes delicious, too!
