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Aşure

Every grain and pulse is cooked separately before they meet, because none of them cooks at the same rate.

Vegan.

Ingredients

cooked separately

the rest

to finish

Method

  1. EVERY GRAIN AND PULSE IS COOKED SEPARATELY BEFORE THEY MEET, because none of them cooks at the same rate. Hulled wheat takes two hours and more; chickpeas an hour and a half; haricot beans an hour; rice twenty minutes. Put together in one pot, either the wheat is chalky or the beans have disintegrated into the liquid and the rice is paste. So four pans, or four sittings in one pan, each cooked until tender in its own water, and only then combined. It is the most tedious part of a dessert that is already a long job, and there is no way round it: this is a dish made in enormous quantity to be given away, and it is the one place where the labour is simply the price.
  2. THE WHEAT'S COOKING WATER IS KEPT AND THE OTHERS' ARE THROWN AWAY. The wheat releases a great deal of starch and that cloudy, thickened water is the body of the finished pudding. The chickpea and bean water is discarded -- it carries the indigestible sugars and a faint savouriness that has no place in a dessert.
  3. THE SUGAR GOES IN ONLY WHEN EVERYTHING IS ALREADY TENDER. Three hundred and fifty grams, after the combining. In early, it stops the wheat and the pulses softening -- the same trap as with any dried bean, and here it would waste three hours of work.
  4. THE DRIED FRUIT GOES IN FOR THE LAST TWENTY MINUTES ONLY. Figs, apricots, sultanas and currants. Long cooking turns them to pulp and they vanish into the body; twenty minutes swells them and leaves them as distinct pieces.
  5. IT IS STIRRED OFTEN ONCE COMBINED AND KEPT LOOSER THAN IT SHOULD LOOK. The starch catches easily on the base, and it thickens considerably as it cools and again overnight. Taken off at the thickness wanted, it will be stiff and claggy the next day; taken off noticeably loose, it is right.
  6. ALL THE NUTS GO ON TOP AND NONE GO IN. Walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, coconut and pomegranate scattered over the cold bowls. Cooked in, they soften and go slightly rancid-tasting over the two days the dish keeps; on top, they are the crunch against the soft body.
  7. IT IS SERVED COLD IN SMALL BOWLS AND MADE TO BE GIVEN AWAY. The quantities here fill sixteen bowls, which is the small end of how it is usually made.
  8. The wheat, chickpeas and beans soaked SEPARATELY 12 HOURS and drained.
  9. The WHEAT simmered in plenty of water 2 HOURS, until soft. ITS WATER KEPT.
  10. The CHICKPEAS simmered separately 1 HOUR 30 MINUTES, drained, water thrown away.
  11. The BEANS simmered separately 1 HOUR, drained, water thrown away.
  12. The RICE simmered separately 20 MINUTES, drained.
  13. All four combined in a very large pan WITH THE WHEAT'S STARCHY WATER, topped up to a loose porridge.
  14. ONLY NOW the sugar stirred in.
  15. Simmered together 20 MINUTES, STIRRING OFTEN so it does not catch.
  16. The dried figs, apricots, sultanas and currants added for the LAST 20 MINUTES.
  17. The rose water stirred in off the heat.
  18. Taken off while NOTICEABLY LOOSER than it should look -- it thickens as it cools.
  19. Ladled into small bowls and chilled 4 HOURS.
  20. TESTED: the wheat should be soft and the beans whole, and it should still be spoonable cold rather than solid.
  21. Topped with walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, coconut, pomegranate and cinnamon.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Turkey · All recipes