Barbunya Pilaki

It is cooled in its own liquid, which sets to a light jelly around the beans.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g dried borlotti beans, soaked overnight
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, diced
• 2 potatoes, diced
• 8 cloves garlic, whole
• 2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée
• 150 ml olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 800 ml hot water
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 teaspoons salt

to serve

• a large bunch of parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, in wedges

Method

1. IT IS COOLED IN ITS OWN LIQUID, WHICH SETS TO A LIGHT JELLY AROUND THE BEANS. Not drained, not dressed afterwards -- the pot is taken off the heat and left to go cold with everything in it. Borlotti beans release a great deal of starch, and that starch together with the olive oil and the reduced cooking liquid sets, as it cools, to something between a sauce and a soft jelly that coats every bean and holds the dish together on the plate. Drained and dressed while warm, it is a bean salad in oil. Cooled in the pot, it is this. The difference is entirely in what is done after the heat goes off.
2. THE LIQUID IS REDUCED TO JUST BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE BEANS BEFORE IT COMES OFF. If there is loose liquid standing above them it will not set; if the pot is dry it sets stiff and claggy. Lid off for the last fifteen minutes and judged by eye: the liquid should be level with the beans or a little below.
3. THE SALT GOES IN LATE, AS IT MUST WITH ANY DRIED BEAN. Only once the beans crush easily. Salted early, the skins set and they stay chalky however long they cook -- and there is no fixing it afterwards.
4. TWO TABLESPOONS OF SUGAR IS CORRECT AND IS WHAT MAKES IT PİLAKİ. Not a pinch. The faint sweetness against the olive oil and the lemon is the defining taste of the style, and it also balances the earthiness of borlotti, which is stronger than that of a white bean.
5. THE VEGETABLES ARE DICED TO THE SIZE OF THE BEANS. Carrot and potato in roughly bean-sized pieces, so a spoonful is a mixture rather than a bean dish with lumps of vegetable in it. It also means they finish cooking at about the same time.
6. IT IS EATEN AT ROOM TEMPERATURE AND NEVER FROM THE FRIDGE. Cooled completely, yes, but fridge-cold olive oil goes solid and tastes of nothing. Out an hour before eating if it has been refrigerated.
7. The beans soaked 12 HOURS, drained and rinsed, the soaking water thrown away.
8. Simmered in the hot water, with NO SALT, for 40 MINUTES.
9. Meanwhile the olive oil heated in a wide pan and the onions softened 10 MINUTES.
10. The carrots, potatoes and WHOLE garlic cloves added with the tomatoes, purée and sugar and cooked 5 MINUTES.
11. Tipped into the beans with their liquid and simmered together 25 MINUTES, until the beans CRUSH EASILY.
12. ONLY NOW salted.
13. The lid taken OFF and cooked 15 MINUTES more, until the liquid is LEVEL WITH THE BEANS or a little below.
14. Taken off the heat and the lemon juice stirred in.
15. LEFT IN THE POT TO GO COMPLETELY COLD, 4 HOURS, undrained.
16. The parsley scattered over at the table.
17. TESTED: the liquid should have set to a light jelly that coats the beans. Watery means it was not reduced enough before cooling.
18. Served at ROOM temperature, not fridge-cold.

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