Pastegh

Armenian sun-dried apricot leather: pure apricot purée spread in paper-thin sheets on boards and dried in the summer sun to a translucent, amber-orange film, eaten as a snack or dissolved as a souring agent through the winter

Origin: Armenia

From the journey of Apricot.

Pastegh (also called ttu lavash, meaning sour flatbread) is the oldest preserved food of the Armenian table and one of the most elemental expressions of the apricot in any cuisine. The technique is pure simplicity: ripe apricots are simmered until soft, sieved to remove stones and skin, and the smooth purée is spread in paper-thin sheets on clean boards or trays and set out in the fierce summer sun to dry. Over two or three days the sheets lose their moisture, concentrating the fruit's sweetness and acidity into a translucent, leathery film that can be lifted, rolled, and stored through the winter without any other preservation. The dried sheet is eaten as a snack, pulled off in strips and chewed as the Armenian child's sweet; wound around a filling of walnut, white cheese, or herbs for a portable, sustaining food; dissolved in warm water to make a sour drink or a cooking agent for soups and stews; or soaked and reconstituted into a rough sauce for meat. In the diaspora kitchens of Beirut, Los Angeles, and Yerevan alike, pastegh carries the most immediate taste of the Armenian summer and the most direct connection to the orchard culture of the plateau. Its making in August is a domestic ritual of considerable antiquity: the boards spread with the amber purée standing in the sun outside the kitchen door are one of the defining images of the Armenian late summer.

Ingredients

Fruit

  • 1.5 kg very ripe apricots (the ripest you can find; overripe is acceptable), halved and stoned

Liquid

  • 2 tbsp water

Optional

  • 1 tbsp sugar (optional; add only if the apricots lack natural sweetness)
  • 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (optional; adds brightness if the apricots are very sweet)

Method

  1. Place the stoned apricot halves in a wide, heavy pot with the water. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for 15–18 minutes until the apricots have completely collapsed and are very soft and pulpy. Remove from the heat.
  2. Pass the cooked apricots through a fine sieve or a food mill, pressing firmly to extract all the purée and discard the skins. Taste and adjust: add the sugar if the purée is too tart, the lemon juice if it is too sweet. The purée should have a clean, concentrated apricot flavour — pleasantly tart and very aromatic.
  3. Line several large flat baking trays or wooden boards with cling film, smoothing it tight and flat. Pour the purée onto the trays in thin, even sheets 2–3 mm deep. Tilt the trays to spread it as evenly as possible; a palette knife helps at the edges.
  4. Set the trays in a very sunny outdoor spot (or in a very low oven, 50°C / 120°F, with the door slightly ajar). Dry for 2–3 days outdoors in full sun, bringing the trays in at night to avoid dew. In an oven, 8–12 hours is usually sufficient.
  5. Peel the dried sheet from the cling film in one piece. Dust very lightly with a little icing sugar or cornflour to prevent sticking, then roll each sheet into a loose roll. Store in an airtight tin or jar at room temperature away from direct light.

Notes

Pastegh keeps for several months at room temperature in an airtight container, and for a year or more in the freezer. To use as a souring agent in cooking, tear a strip of pastegh and dissolve it in a little hot water; the resulting liquid is sharply fruity and can replace lemon juice or tamarind in any recipe calling for a tart fruit note. The quality of the apricots matters enormously: ripe, flavourful summer apricots make a pastegh of vivid complexity; underripe or cold-stored supermarket apricots make something much flatter. In Armenia the apricots used for pastegh are always harvested at full ripeness, and the best sheets are said to carry the full fragrance of an Armenian summer.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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