Shortcut Khash
Խաշ
Healing Bowls: Soups of Survival & Comfort
Khash is a prehistoric soup of survival, a frugal peasant dish born to ensure no part of the slaughtered animal went to waste. Traditionally, making it is an agonizing labor of love—families hovering over a simmering pot of cow hooves for twenty-four sleepless hours to extract a milky, deeply restorative broth served at dawn. We do not do watered-down versions of homeland classics here, but we do use physics. By deploying a pressure cooker, you can brutally extract every ounce of rich, sticky gelatin from the bones in just ninety minutes. The golden rule is absolute: no salt, spices, or vegetables go into the pot. You build the flavor at the table, aggressively customizing your bowl with raw garlic, massive pinches of kosher salt, and fistfuls of shattered flatbread.
Before you start
Dry the flatbread ahead of time.
The architectural integrity of the dried bread is vital for soaking up the broth without disintegrating completely. Lay half of your lavash out on a wire rack overnight to stale, or crisp it in a low oven for 10 to 15 minutes until it becomes brittle.
Ingredients
- cow feet3 1/2 lb
- cold water8 cup
- garlic heads2 med
- kosher salt1/4 cup
- lavash flatbread4 large
- lavash flatbread4 large
- radishes8 oz
- quality vodka1 pt
Method
- 01
Execute a violent parboil to purge the bones of impurities.
Place the pre-cut cow feet into a large pot on the stove, cover entirely with cold water, and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Let them boil violently for 15 minutes to force out the gray, foamy scum, then dump the entire contents of the pot into a colander in the sink. Discard the dirty water and rinse the cow feet thoroughly under cold running water.
- 02
Extract the collagen under high pressure.
Transfer your freshly rinsed cow feet into the insert of your electric pressure cooker and pour in enough fresh cold water to cover the bones entirely, taking care not to exceed the maximum fill line. Do not add salt or any aromatics. Secure the lid, ensure the valve is set to seal, and cook on high pressure for 90 minutes.
- 03
Allow the pressure to release naturally.
When the 90 minutes are up, let the pressure release on its own for 20 to 30 minutes to prevent the highly gelatinous broth from sputtering out of the valve. Once the pin drops, open the lid to reveal perfectly translucent, tender meat and a milky, collagen-rich broth.
- 04
Temper the raw garlic with hot broth.
Place all the finely crushed garlic into a small serving bowl. Ladle about a half cup of the hot broth into the garlic bowl and stir, slightly mellowing the aggressive bite of the raw allium before serving.
- 05
Assemble the bowls and build the final flavor at the table.
Using tongs, pull the chunks of meat and bone out of the pot, divide them among deep soup bowls, and generously ladle the hot, sticky broth over top. Bring the bowls to the table alongside the garlic water, kosher salt, dried and fresh lavash, sliced radishes, and chilled vodka, allowing each guest to aggressively season their own broth and crush in the brittle flatbread until the soup becomes a hearty, spongey stew.
Notes
Do not substitute standard pita or naan for the lavash.
Thick breads will dissolve into a sludgy mess. If authentic Armenian lavash is unavailable, find the thinnest flour tortillas you can and bake them at 250°F until they shatter like glass.
Omit the traditional tripe entirely.
While old-school iterations of khash sometimes include beef stomach, omitting it is culturally accurate, strictly canonical, and spares you an agonizing, deeply unpleasant cleaning process on a weeknight.
From Cook Armenian in America.