Armenian Aram Sandwiches
I am one quarter Armenian. My maternal grandfather came to the United States in the early 1900's as his family was fleeing the Armenian Holocaust. He was born in Istanbul, Turkey and coincidentally enough, my parents were married in Ankara, Turkey at the American Air Force Base. My mother was a teacher for the US Department of Defense and my father was an enlisted Master Sargent with the Air Force. I was fortunate to live close to my grandfather and my mother would always cook Armenian food for special occasions when my grandfather would be coming over.

 I grew up with the smell of browning vermicelli in butter for the Armenian rice pilaf, and the salty, briny flavors of the stuffed grape leaves (we called them dolmas. I will do an article on these tasty morsels in a future blog post). When I was younger in my early twenties I had the pleasure of working for a friend's cafe/bistro type restaurant where we made everything fresh including aram sandwiches.

The Central Valley of California has a large population of Armenian and Assyrian communities. Arams were something I always grew up with and that all our deli's in the grocery stores carried. When committing to a staff meeting potluck, I thought to myself, "how about making some home made arams?". I sent out my staff wide response and to my surprise, several people emailed me back privately wondering what "Homemade Aram Sandwiches" were. So I  'splained.

They are like pinwheel sandwiches, made from softened cracker bread spread with a herbed cream cheese spread, greens, typically raw baby spinach leaves, some type of deli meat like turkey, cheese slices (pepper jack), artichoke heart quarters, pepperoncinis,and olives.

 

Roll it up, wrap it in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge until ready to serve! 

Finding the cracker bread could be problematic for some. Fortunately we have many places in our region we can find it. Most of it is actually manufactured in the central part of the state so their distribution in our area is very good. The cracker bread I used is the actual Armenian Cracker Bread Ak-mak made in Sanger, California. You can also use Lavosh or other cracker breads from the ethnic aisle or specialty markets.

There is another brand called Hye-Roller that some bakery/delis use which doesn't need any preparation. You can usually find it in a square shrink wrap packaging in the deli area of your local grocer. If not you can find it here. Finding ingredients is only as difficult as you make it, you can make it very fancy or very simple.

Recipe
This recipe makes 3 aram logs.

3 cracker bread sheets (softened *)
3 - 8 oz. packages of cream cheese
4 - Green Onions (Scallions)
1 tablespoon dried dill weed (2 fronds of fresh dill chopped)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
Baby spinach leaves (and/or spring mix, watercress)
Deli sliced meats (turkey, ham or roast beef;1/3 lb each per log)
Deli sliced cheese (pepper jack, swiss, cheddar; 5 slices per log)
Plastic wrap
Optional Ingredients:
Artichoke heart quarters (1 18.75oz can does 3 logs)
Large pitted whole olives (Black. green or try Kalamata if you can afford it! 1 large can will do all three logs)
Pepperocini peppers (whole and de-stemmed, 1 jar for 3 logs)
Pine nuts (if you can afford)
Use your imagination!

*Softening the cracker bread: Wet four tea or dish towels in luke warm water, ring out excess water. On a counter top or table, place a dry bath towel folded to protect counter/table top, layer one wet towel on the dry towel, place 1 cracker  bread square on the wet towel. Place the next wet towel on top of the cracker bread and layer the remaining cracker bread and towels so they have towels on top, in between layers and underneath. Let set for about 2 hours. You may want to use a squirt bottle with water to wet down the top towel about an hour into the soak.

 Once cracker has softened to the stage of being pliable enough to roll without breaking, it's ready to assemble. 

In a food processor or with a hand mixer soften cream cheese and smooth. Add in the green onions, dill, salt and pepper and mix together until it's a smooth spreadable consistency. Make sure you have all your cans open and your packages open for ease of assembly. I suggest doing one at a time. 

Place some plastic wrap on your workspace and place the first softened cracker bread light side up in the landcape orientation so it's wide sides are the top and bottom. With a spatula spread the herbed cream cheese mixture and start about an inch and a half from  the bottom and spread a third of the mixture all over the rest of the cracker. Then begin to layer the greens to 1/4 from the top. Layer on the meat overlapping on top of the greens, add the cheese on top of the meat covering lengthwise from end to end. Top the cheese with the remaining ingredients and get ready to roll! 

Gently, with both hands, cradle the cracker with your hands underneath and begin to fold in the edge closest to you in onto itself, and while rolling, you are keeping it tight and as you roll scoop with your fingers the ingredients into the roll as they tend to want to be pushed out. Once you have rolled it up, tightly wrap the plastic wrap around it and place it in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours, if not overnight. 

When cutting for serving, I suggest using a thinly serrated knife and cut the log into spirals no more than an inch wide.  It's great for parties or luncheons and potlucks! 

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Happy rolling!