The proverb, which states that no matter how much we pronounce the word “halva”, it will not become sweeter in the mouth, was born in Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that this dish is considered by many to be a delicacy and is associated with a holiday and pleasant sensations, it is not customary for Azerbaijanis to make halva for a holiday. Except for Ramadan.

Azerbaijani halva is a treat that, along with other obligatory dishes, is prepared for the wake. Within forty days after the death of a person, he is commemorated every Thursday, and halva must certainly be present on the table as a traditional ritual dish. There is a belief among the people: if someone really wants halva, it is necessary to cook it, otherwise trouble will happen in the house.

Halva is a very tasty treat. Various eastern peoples argue about the origin: Georgians, Lezgins, Ossetians, etc. In all the cuisines of the East, it is prepared in different ways and on different occasions. Unlike Azerbaijani halva, Lezgins make this sweet on holidays and for weddings. In our article, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the features of preparing one of the most delicious oriental delicacies. How is real Azerbaijani halva made?

Recipe Description

Homemade Azerbaijani halva is easy to prepare. You will need:

• wheat flour - 10 tbsp. l.;
• butter (melted) -150 g;
• water - 1 glass;
• granulated sugar - 1 glass;
• some saffron;
• a pinch of salt.

Cooking

Azerbaijani halva is made like this. First, syrup is prepared: sugar is poured into a saucepan, water is poured, brought to a boil, honey and a little saffron (3-4 stalks) are added, boiled with constant stirring. The fire should be reduced to a minimum. While the syrup is cooking, melt the butter in a separate frying pan. Add flour (10 tablespoons), salt (a pinch) to it and mix thoroughly until the flour is mixed with butter. If there is more oil, add a little more flour. In the future, flour is not added, even if the consistency of the mixture becomes more and more liquid.

Next, the butter-flour mixture should be fried over medium heat, stirring constantly. It is necessary to fry until the mass acquires a golden color. After that, the syrup and butter-flour mixture is removed from the stove. Now it's time to gradually add the syrup to the flour mixture. Do not be afraid of the resulting strong hiss. The mass must be thoroughly mixed so that it becomes homogeneous.

The treat is poured into plates and left for about one hour so that it “gets stronger”. You can decorate as you like.

Nuances

The Azerbaijani halva created according to this recipe should not turn out too pale. Oil will certainly show through the edges of the plate. The treat should also not be too hard (excessive hardness indicates that too much flour was put in the dish). If the consistency of the dish is too liquid - this is also wrong. This means that syrup is added in excess.

In general, in the original recipe, halva is prepared without the addition of nuts. But since everyone at my house loves them, I could not resist and added some ground walnuts to the halva. Halva turned out very tasty and fragrant. Of course, it is different from the store, but my family liked this dessert very much.

List of ingredients

• sugar - 1/2 cup
• water - 1/2 cup
• melted butter- 50-75 g
• flour - 50 g
• walnuts - 1-2 handfuls
• saffron - to taste
• cinnamon - to taste

Cooking method

Prepare all ingredients. I took the products in a double portion. There are no nuts in the photo, because I decided to add them already in the cooking process.

Pour sugar into a saucepan and add water. Put on fire and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer until the syrup thickens slightly, about 8-10 minutes. In this case, the syrup must be constantly stirred.

Add saffron and cinnamon. Remove the syrup from the heat and let it cool slightly. Unfortunately, there was no saffron at home, so I added turmeric to the syrup on the tip of a knife.

Grind walnuts in a blender. I also fried them lightly in a dry frying pan.

Heat a dry frying pan and add flour to it. Fry it until a beautiful creamy color, stirring constantly. In the photo, the flour turned out a little lighter than in reality.

Then add butter to the pan with flour. Fry the mass for 1-2 minutes, without stopping stirring. Pour the syrup into the resulting mass and quickly mix everything until smooth. This will cause the mixture to sizzle a lot. You need not be afraid and continue to stir quickly)) At the end, add ground nuts. But it's optional.)

Pour the finished mass onto a plate or into a mold. Smooth the surface and place in the refrigerator to cool completely. Chilled halva turned out to be very tender and soft.

Bon Appetit!

We continue to get acquainted with Azerbaijan, today I will only slightly reveal the topic of national cuisine, but I will start with the sweetest :) The cult of tea and sweets in Azerbaijan, an incredible number of types of jam and, most importantly, the exclusive secrets of the production of Sheki halva only for the readers of my blog!

Well, not all reports show only sights?! There should be a place for gastronomic posts ... and even more so since food is a cult in Azerbaijan. Everything, absolutely everything that is cooked in this country is incredibly tasty, satisfying and very much! But I'll start with sweets :)

Tea

Tea is drunk from a glass typical for this region - armudy (armud - pear), tea does not cool down, and the edges are not hot, very convenient! Moreover, the volume of armuda is sufficient, unlike Turkey, where it is somewhat small. Tea is drunk mostly black, sometimes with the addition of herbs or purely herbal. Green tea is not very popular, but rather came as a fashion trend lately. Tea, of course, without sugar. With tea, there is always an abundance of sweets on the table:

Also, tea is served with different types of nuts, raisins, pressed sugar with different syrups.

Jam

I probably have never eaten such exotic types of jam anywhere as, for example, watermelon jam, jam from young walnuts, from white dogwood, from paradise apples. I couldn’t believe the last one for a long time, and I realized that these were apples only after I felt the bones on my tongue, but it looks like a cherry. The last three types of jam are the visiting card of the Gabala region of the country.

Baklava

I strongly associate baklava with Azerbaijan, each region has its own characteristics. I liked baklava most of all - "uchgulag", which means treushnik, a sweet zest of the Gabala region of the country.

Halva

This dish absolutely changed my ideas about halva, I will dwell on it in more detail. This is a completely different dish, different from the gray mass of seed waste, which is sold here ... On the very first evening, I noted the Sheki halva, the best and most special halva in Azerbaijan. Wherever you come in the country, be sure to order Sheki halva, it is likely that its taste will make you visit Sheki itself :) Halva is an oriental dessert made from sugar, nuts or seeds; the word is used to describe several types of confectionery. One type of halvah is based on ground oilseeds. Another type is based on wheat flour or vegetables.

This halva can be tasted only in Azerbaijan. Hard work and cooking conditions limit the ability to cook at home. Therefore, we buy only ready-made. However, this delicacy, along with other national food, is prepared for the Navruz holiday (the ancient holiday of the New Year, celebrated in March).

There are many recipes for Sheki halva on the Internet, but real Sheki halva can only be enjoyed in the city of the same name. The fact is that the secret of its production is known to those for whom the preparation of halva has been a family business for 200 years. People call them "halvachi". They do not reveal the recipe to anyone, therefore, no one will ever know how to bake a grid-like rishta, how many chopped nuts to add to the dough, how to make sweet syrup. Be careful, in summer, due to the high content of oil and rice flour, halva spoils faster. There is only one thing left - to come and try a piece in person.

Trying this halva back in Baku, I had absolutely no idea how such a taste is formed, soft and crispy at the same time. However, I had an amazing opportunity to see the holy of holies in Sheki - a workshop for the production of halva.

This is Mammad Saleh, the owner of a small workshop for the production of Sheki halva, he is a master in the third generation, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather were "halvachs".

And now about the process of preparing this confectionery masterpiece. First, the dough is prepared on the basis of rice flour, with the help of special containers it is poured into a hot pan in several layers, forming a grid. This grid is called a rishta, 1 rishta is ready to be removed from the pan in 1 minute.

Then the dish itself is formed - 6 layers of rice rishta are placed on the bottom, then a special nut mixture is poured and 4 more layers of rice rishta are placed on top:

A special jam is made from saffron, which is used to decorate halva on top, applying it to the surface with a goose feather:

This is a wedding halva:

Then the halva is baked in a frying pan for 30-40 minutes.

After that, it is abundantly poured with a special syrup based on sugar or, in a more expensive version, based on honey. The next day, the halva is soaked.

Then it is cut, weighed and packaged in boxes per kilogram. What scales and what design of boxes! Yes, modern printing can never be compared with this provincial authenticity:

It remains a little to envy these Sheki children, who have this incredible natural dessert every day:

Well, our tea party with Azer Gharib, the main traveler of the country, who kindly agreed to tell me the intricacies of Azerbaijani cuisine :)

Happy tea drinking everyone!

I thank for the assistance in preparing this report: Azer Gharib, representative of the administration of the Sheki region - Aydin Tamrazoglu Ibragimkhalimov and Mammad Saleh!