Sweet country: how to cook halva in Azerbaijan

We continue to get to know Azerbaijan, today I’ll only cover the topic of national cuisine a little, but I’ll start with the sweetest :) The cult of tea and sweets in Azerbaijan, an incredible amount of types of jam and most importantly - the exclusive secrets of the production of Sheki halva!

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

Tea is drunk from a glass typical of this region - Armuda (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, it has come more recently as a fashion trend. Tea is naturally sugar free. With tea there is always an abundance of sweets on the table.

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

Jam

I probably have never eaten such exotic types of jam as, for example, watermelon jam, young walnut jam, white dogwood, and paradise apples. In the last I could not believe for a long time and realized that these are apples only after I felt the bones on my tongue, but it looks like cherry. The last three types of jam are the hallmark of the Gabala region of the country.

Baklava

My baklava is strongly associated with Azerbaijan, in each region with its own characteristics. Most of all I liked the baklava "uchgulag", which means terry, the sweet highlight of the Gabala region of the country.

Halva

This dish has completely changed my ideas about halva, I’ll dwell on it in more detail. This is a completely different dish, different from the gray mass of waste seeds, which is sold with us ... On the very first evening, I noted the Sheki halva, the best and special halva in Azerbaijan.

Wherever you come in the country, be sure to order the Sheki halva, it is likely that its taste will make you visit Sheki itself :)

Halva - an oriental dessert made from sugar, nuts or seeds; The word is used to describe several types of confectionery. One type of halva is based on ground oilseeds. Another type is based on wheat flour or vegetables.

Sheki halva

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

Trying this halva back in Baku, I absolutely could not imagine how such a taste is formed, soft and crisp at the same time. However, I had an amazing opportunity to see the holy of holies in Sheki - a workshop-workshop for the production of halva.
This is Mamed Saleh, the owner of a small workshop for the production of Sheki halva, he is a master in the third generation, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were “halvahs”.

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

Then the dish itself is formed - 6 layers of rice rishts are put on the bottom, then a special nut mixture is poured and another 4 layers of rice rishts are placed on top.

A special jam is made from saffron, with which halva is decorated from above, applying it to the surface with a goose feather.

This is a wedding halva.

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

After that, it is abundantly poured with a special sugar-based syrup or, in a more expensive version, based on honey.

The next day, halva is soaked.

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