Spas

Ingredients

• Matsun or plain yoghurt1 l
• Dzavar (cracked wheat)120 g
• Egg1
• Flour2 tbsp
• Onion1
• Butter40 g
• Coriander20 g
• Dried mint1 tsp
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the dzavar overnight, then boil it in a litre of water until soft, about twenty-five minutes. Keep the water.

   27 min

2. 2

   Whisk the matsun with the egg and flour until completely smooth. No lumps may remain; each one becomes a curd in the soup.

   5 min

3. 3

   Pour the mixture into a cold pan and heat it over medium, stirring with a wooden spoon in one direction, until it comes to a boil.

   20 min

4. 4

   At the first bubbles, stir in the wheat with its cooking water and hold it on a low heat for five more minutes.

   6 min

5. 5

   Fry the onion in butter until golden and stir it into the soup with the dried mint. Salt to taste.

   8 min

6. 6

   Ladle out and scatter with coriander. Spas must not be boiled twice; reheat it only until hot.

   2 min

About the dish

Spas rests on one technique: matsun is whisked with egg and flour and heated with constant stirring, always in the same direction. Egg and flour bind the protein and the soup holds.

The stirring goes on until it boils — about twenty minutes. Left for a minute, the soup separates into whey and curds, and nothing brings it back.

In summer the same soup is served cold, under a different name. Hot spas is winter food, with coriander and mint added in the bowl rather than the pot.

Worth knowing

• — Use a heavy-bottomed pan. On a thin one the matsun catches underneath before the top is warm.
• — Without dzavar, coarse bulgur works, but skip the soaking — it cooks in ten minutes.
• — Salt goes in at the end. In a hot acidic pan it speeds the protein along towards splitting.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

280 kcal

Protein

14 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

30 g

More from Armenia

• Ghapama — A whole pumpkin baked with rice, dried fruit and nuts. A festive dish, cut open at the table.