There is perfect military tidiness in 36-year-old Hasmik Mkrtchyan’s kitchen – a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Rice, bulgur, matsuni (Armenian natural yogurt) and kufta are in separate transparent bowls. She starts working.

Hasmik will prepare meat-ball buttermilk soup. This dish is made of rice buttermilk soup and meat-balls made of kufta meat.

The first procedure is rice cooking.

“We take one cup of long rice, and cook it in 0.5 liters water. It is necessary to cook it until just a little water is left in the pan,” Hasmik explains. “And by the time the rice is being cooked, we prepare kufta meat-balls.”

She has previously soaked 200 grams bulgur in a bowl. Hasmik adds 200 grams kufta meat to the bulgur, and starts kneading the mixture.

“It is necessary ‘to talk’ to the meat and bulgur with hands until it becomes well mixed. You should feel how the meat and bulgur blend. It is very important,” she says.

In a few minutes the tray becomes full of small proportionate meat-balls. About 20 meat-balls come out of 200 grams bulgur and 200 grams kufta meat mixture.

Hasmik passes to the next step and puts 100 grams butter in a small bowl, adds one teaspoon cayenne, and starts working with hands again: she gives red color (cayenne color) to the butter with flexible movements of her figures. As a result, the butter becomes a soft red mass.

She takes the rice off the heat.

“Now we make small holes in the kufta meat-balls and put a little butter kneaded with cayenne there,” Hasmik explains taking one of the meat-balls.

She makes a hole with her index finger, and puts a small piece of butter there, rounding the meat-ball back.

Next Hasmik beats one liter matsuni with a wooden spoon to which she adds 200 grams sour cream, beats them together thoroughly, and adds the cooked rice. She puts the mixture over low flame and mixes constantly. She adds one liter boiled water (or beef tea) and keeps on mixing the mass until it starts boiling. She says it is important to mix it well until it all starts boiling.

She says that she learned the dish from her Musalertsi (Musa Ler, Western Armenia) grandmother.

“They escaped with their life during the massacres in 1915 [during the Armenian Genocide], and they migrated to Syria, and in 1946, they moved to Armenia. The cuisine of Musalertsis is very rich and interesting. If we carefully examine it, we will see that they use bulgur quite often,” Hasmik says, twirling the wooden ladle in the rice buttermilk soup.

Bubbles appear on the surface of the buttermilk soup. It starts boiling. Hasmik takes the tray full of meat-balls and approaches the pan. The small kufta meat-balls slide from her hands to the white buttermilk soup.

Hasmik takes dried mint from one of her kitchen shelves to add to the meat-ball buttermilk soup. Before that she adds half a tablespoon salt.

Mint is very popular in the Armenian cuisine. Armenian housewives dry it in summer for winter use. This herb is added to soups,salads, cheese, dishes with vegetable and meat. It is also considered good for headache, nausea, dyspepsia.

When Hasmik crumbles the dried mint into the buttermilk soup, its white color turns brownish and greenish here and there. Hasmik turns the gas fire off; she covers the pan with a lid and says that it will be ready to try in some five minutes.

“I try to preserve the traditional dishes that I learned to prepare from my grandmother. My daughters try to learn how I prepare them, too; and later they will cook them in their families. This is how the national cuisine is preserved and passed from generations to generations,” Hasmik says.

The following ingredients are necessary to prepare meat-ball buttermilk soup:
200 grams bulgur
200 grams kufta meat
1 cup of long rice
100 grams butter
1 liter matsuni
200 grams sour cream
1 liter boiled water or beef tea
1 teaspoon cayenne
some leaves of mint (either dry or fresh)

How to prepare:
Take one cup of rice, and cook it in 0.5 liters water. Cook until just a little water is left in the pan. No salt is added here. Next, put 200 grams bulgur in a bowl and add some water to wet the bulgur. Later add 200 grams kufta meat, and knead it with hands until well mixed. Next, make small round meat-balls of the mixture. Knead 100 grams butter and 1 teaspoon cayenne in a separate bowl. Make small hole with index finger in the meat-balls and stuff it with the butter and cayenne mixture. Leave the balls to rest and pass to the next procedure. Take 1 liter matsuni, 200 grams sour cream, beat them together thoroughly and add to the cooked rice. Put the pan with the mixture on a slow flame. Stir the mixture constantly until it starts boiling, adding 1 liter boiled water or beef tea, and when it starts boiling, add the meat-balls. Add half a tablespoon salt (depending on taste). In 15 minutes, add mint and remove from heat. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.