Recipes from Stranded Karabakh 

Coffee (for 8 serving)

— 1 coffee cup of buckwheat
— 1 coffee cup of lentils
— 1 coffee cup of barley

Start with warming the pan on high heat. Roast the three grains separately. Keep it moving by stirring constantly to ensure even roasting and to prevent burning. Continue until the grain turns a reddish color. Transfer the grain to a bowl. Allow it to cool. Repeat the process for the remaining grains. Place the cooled grains in a grinder and grind them into a fine powder. Use a jazzve to make your coffee-like brew.

Liquid Laundry Detergent (~4 liter)

— 100 grams of soap (unscented or your choice)
— 150 grams of baking soda
— 4 liters of water
— Essential oils

Use a cheese grater or scrapper to grate the soap into small flakes. Put them into a large pot, add the baking soda. Set the pot on medium heat. Slowly pour in the water while stirring continuously, to allow the flakes to dissolve evenly. Bring to a boil. If you want to add fragrance, drop in a few drops of essential oil.

Cigarettes 

— Raspberry leaves
— Greaseproof paper or thin paper
— Cardboard

(English subtitles are available)

Subtitles:

— One soap per 4 liters of water. For better fragrance, I would get one of those nice-smelling soaps that cost 100 drams. I would scrape the soap and add 4-5 scoops of baking soda. I would always have a backup storage. I would add one capsule of Ariel because the soap does the job of cleansing but smells horrible.

— We could make both ends meet the first 1-2 months. We stored up some supplies, we had some savings, and we spent money with caution. But then we ran out of money, food was almost finished, and there were no hygiene products left. We were down to 2 soaps. We learned how to make laundry gel from soap at home, mixing it with baking soda and stuff. We would come up with life hacks to survive.

— We would mix up stuff to make laundry gel. You take dishwashing soap or regular soap, cook it, and add water to increase the quantity. The regular Ariel at 1.5 kilograms cost 5000 drams when it was available. Soon, no more.

— First, they would give us 3 buns of bread, then 2 buns. Then they started giving away only by coupons — 1.5 buns per person. That bread was not normal bread. It was half black flour and half wheat flakes.

— Russians would bring it there, and only some could go and buy it from them and sell it for triple the price.
— More than triple. Vegetable oil was sold for 5-6 manets, regular salt for 5000 drams. At the end, gasoline would be sold for 100,000 drams.

— During the blockade, we would glimpse at passersby’s handbags to see what they got, to ask how they got it. When we came here, I would look at people’s packages by inertia for a while.

— Their boss said one day that he had tasted barley coffee and liked it. We tried to pan-fry barley. Then we fried lentils and buckwheat until it turned yellow. Then we could grind the seeds. That coffee would leave a lot of residue in the cup.

— Some would make coffee from chickpeas. Then, when chickpeas were depleted․ My mother-in-law and I decided to fry buckwheat, lentils, and peas. We would mix them to get a nice flavor, and I would use a blender to grind.

When we didn’t have electricity or gas supply, I once lit a broom to make a fire for cooking coffee. We had a garden there, and we were craving coffee.

— We had money, but the groceries were empty. We couldn’t get hold of tobacco, but the supermarket warehouses and town halls had ample supplies, while the soldiers had nothing—not even a cigarette at their positions. There were no Armenian cigarettes, only Iranian cigarettes. Russians and some of our folks were selling. They would sell 3 leaves of tobacco for 3000 drams. If you are a smoker, you are forced to buy it.

— We would dry the leaves on the stove to make it faster and smoke.
— What did you use to roll?
— Newspaper or notebook cuts.

— I still have a little of that “tobacco” from Karabakh with me.

— We would put leaves in lukewarm water for an hour, to get rid of bitterness․ The water would turn yellow․ Then we would hang the leaves up to dry, then we would crumble them. We would use a pen to roll cigarettes to smoke.