Turkish delights: fava take 2

There are days when nothing works out. Days, when one should just stay away from the kitchen and accept the fact that ordering a pizza is a sufficient culinary attempt. But when one of those days collides with one of those days friends coming over for Turkish feast they've been promised... then it's best to just get with the program. Fuelled by the wine the friends bring. Pressures ran high, seeing how two of the guests were vegetarians. And third makes tzatziki that is widely hailed as the best tzatziki in the world.

And this is what we ended up with: Sigara börek, fava, kisir, tzatziki and icli köfte. But I'll tell you this: in a kitchen the size of a stamp cooking, fotographing, drinking that wine, enjoying the company of friends and writing down the recipes is pretty challenging...

But we tried and the results will be posted here in the coming days!

The whole night started with fava. That failed paté that refused to set bothered me so much I had to have another go at it. I fried a small onion in a little oil until it was soft, added 400 g  of fava beans (that the clerk told me were not cooked, but which turned out to be cooked anyway) and boiled them until soft and piping hot in a little bit of water, making sure every now and then that the water hadn't completely evaporated.


Then I drained the mixture and puréed it in the blender (which, judging by the sound, really went through a workout without any liquid to ease the pain), seasoned with salt, pepper, a little bit of sugar and mint (1 tbsp). I think I preferred dill though.

Then I spooned the mixture into a rectangular dish (12 cm x 22 cm) lined with cling film and let it cool in the room temperature. Then I covered it with cling film and kept in the fridge until next day.

And hamdulillah - it set. Following day cut into desired shapes with an oiled knife and serve. Depending on the size of your slices this makes 12-15 pieces.


Blizzing might be easier with a handheld device. And in order to get achieve silky, smooth consistency you might want to run it through a sieve too.