Asure

Sample Dishes from Turkish Cuisine

Asure (Aşure)

Preparation

Wash the wheat, chickpeas and dried beans. Soak them seperately overnight with beans and chickpeas in 1 cup and the dövme and rice mixture in 2 cups of water. Add 3 cups of water to dövme and 2 cups of water each to chickpeas and beans and place them individually on the burner. Cook the dövme until the grains are dissolved and the starc comes out. If necessary boil the chickpeas in pressure cooker. Wash the dry fruit and soak them for 2 hours in 1 ½ cups of water. Mix the cooked ingredients and the dry fruit in a pan and cook for 15 minutes. Peel the orange and cut the rid, including the white inner part into 3-4 cm long and 1 cm wide strips. Divide the orange slices into 4-5 pieces. Add them altogether to the mixture and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the sugar and cook for 1-2 minutes and turn off the heath. Add the rosewater and stir. Pour into dessert cups. Garnish with walnuts and promgrante pits.

Servings: 10

Nutritional Value
(in approximately one serving)

Notes

It is one of the oldest and most traditional desserts of the Turkish cuisine. The month following the Feast of Sacrifice is known as the Aşure month. Plenty of aşure is cooked in every household during it which is both served to the guests and distributed to the neighbours and relatives. The legend regarding the origins of aşure goes as follows : "When the Flood finally subsided and the Noah's Arc settled on Mount Ararat, those on the vessel wanted to hold a celebration as an expression of the gratitute they felt towards the God. But alas, the food storages of the ship were practically empty and so they made a soup with all the remaining ingredients they could find and thus ended up with the aşure". Following the legend, aşure is today prepared by cooking together 15 or more ingredients. In some regions a piece of the sacrificial meat is saved and added to the pot while aşure is being cooked. Rice can also be substituted for wheat or it can be used in combination with it. The pudding can be enriched with almonds, hazelnuts and currants. In addition to dried white beans and chickpeas, dried broad beans and dried black-eyed beans can also be added. In some regions molasses replaces sugar. To the later version, which is known in the Çorum region as "Pekmezli Hedik", anise is added in Gaziantep. In other regions raisin gum is added. If a pressure cooker is to be used, the chick peas, beans and the wheat can be cooked together. In normal, non-pressure pots the cooking time can vary between 1 - 2 hours depending on the type and quality of the ingredients used. Due to the difference in cooking times and ways of the ingredients, cooking them seperately would be more appropriate.