asure—noah’s pudding

This classic Turkish dessert is said to have been the first thing Noah and his family prepared when they left the ark.

If you’re looking for the definitive, authentic recipe for asure, you should give up now—there are as many versions as there are cooks who make it. It can be as thin as a brothy soup or as thick as a pudding. It can be made with five ingredients or with as many as 40. But there are some constants that define the dish. It will always contain wheat, barley. There will be beans. There will be nuts and dried fruits. You will often find it flavored with rose water. There will usually be cinnamon sprinkled over the top.

What this means, is that in addition to being a sweet treat, it’s also a nutritious, protein-packed vegan dish.

Bear in mind that the grains and beans will need to be soaked overnight, so plan ahead.

Asure is generally served during the first month of the Islamic calendar, but it’s so delicious, I think it should be made all the time. Here’s my version. The list of ingredients is long because I add lots of yummy ingredients.

I thought it would be less confusing if I break it down into categories, rather than listing them according to their appearance in the dish, the way I usually do.

The making of the dish is much less complicated than the long list of steps might lead you to think.

Ingredients:

The grains

• ½ cup hulled barley

• ½ cup hulled wheat berries

• 1 tablespoon bulgar

• ¼ cup short grain white rice

• The beans

• 1/3 cup dry chickpeas

• 1/3 cup dry fava beans

• ¼ cup dry small white beans

  The fruits

• ½ cup raisins

• ½ cup dried apricots

• ½ cup dried figs

• grated rind of one orange

• grated rind of one lemon + juice of half a lemon

• ½ pomegranate

  The nuts

• ¼ cup almonds, roasted and coarsely chopped

• ¼ cup walnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped

• ¼ cup hazelnuts, roasted and coarsely chopped

• 2 tablespoons ground pistachios

  The spices

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom (preferably freshly ground)

• a grating of nutmeg

  Everything else

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (optional, for a thicker pudding)

• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

• ½-1 cup sugar, to taste

• 1 tablespoon rosewater

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract (not traditional, but everything is better with vanilla)

Method:

• In separate bowls, soak the beans overnight (or for at least 6 hours), in a generous amount of fresh water.

• Then….

• Cook all three types of beans, each one in its own pot, until tender, then drain them.

• To measure the dried fruits, squish them into a measuring cup. The amounts are a guideline—feel free to add a little more if you’d like to.

• Combine the dried fruits in a bowl. Pour boiling water over to cover, then squeeze in the juice of half the lemon that you zested. Let them rest for 15 minutes or so, then drain the fruits, separating them out according to type. Finely chop half of each type to mix in, and cut the other half into larger pieces for garnish.

• Follow the package directions to boil the wheat berries. Cook them until very tender.

• Rinse the barley in a mesh strainer. Bring 5 cups water, with the honey, to boil in a large pot and add the barley. Cook for about 45 minutes, or until the barley is tender.

• To the pot with the barley, add the cooked wheat berries, all the cooked beans, the raw rice, the bulgar, the finely chopped fruits, the salt, and the citrus rinds. Simmer them together for 15 minutes. Add more water if it looks like it’s beginning to stick.

• For a thick style pudding, combine the cornstarch with enough of the cooking liquid in a small bowl to make a thick slurry, and set it aside.

• Stir the sugar into the pot with the beans and grains, starting with ½ cup. Let it cook for a few more minutes until it’s well combined. Taste. If you’d like it sweeter, add more sugar.

• (If using) Give the cornstarch slurry another stir if it has separated and then add it to the pot, stirring the pot until the slurry is well incorporated. If you don’t stir, it could become lumpy. No one wants a lumpy asure.

• Continue to cook the asure until it’s thickened. I prefer mine thick and pudding-like, not soupy. If you’d like yours thinner, add more water. But bear in mind that it will thicken more as it cools.

• Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the chopped dried fruits, the rosewater and the vanilla. Let the pudding cool to room temperature.

• Transfer the pudding to a large serving bowl, pressing down to give it a smooth, even surface. Alternatively, you can divide the pudding into individual serving bowls and follow the sequence of garnishing, as below.

• Grate a little bit of nutmeg over the surface.

• Combine the cinnamon with the cardamom. Sprinkle the spice mix carefully in lines to make 6 sections, as if you were delineating slices of pie.

• Sprinkle a circle of pistachio dust in the center.

• Between the spice lines, sprinkle the garnishes, each in its own section—raisins in one, walnuts next to it, then the apricots, then the almonds, then the figs, and then the hazelnuts. It will look very pretty this way.

• Sprinkle the pomegranate arils over the top.

  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge. The asure pudding is delicious served at room temperature or cold, but my favorite way is to eat it icy cold.