This recipe is for Noah's Pudding, a traditional Turkish dessert called Asure that contains a variety of grains, legumes, dried fruits, and nuts. The legend is that Noah mixed together leftover ingredients on the ark to feed his family and animals. To make the pudding, wheat, rice, beans, chickpeas and other ingredients are soaked, boiled and cooked together with sugar and water before drying overnight. The next day, additional dried fruits are added and the pudding is served warm or at room temperature, garnished with cinnamon and various nuts and fruits.

1. NOAH’S PUDDING
• 2 cups wheat kernels
• 1/2 cup great northern beans
• 1/2 cup chick peas
• 1/2 cup rice (short grain)
• 3 cups sugar
• 9 pints (18 cups) water
• cinnamon
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup currants
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1.5 cup dried apricots
• 1.5 cup dried figs
• 1 tablespoon orange rind
• 1 pomegranate
• The legend is that when Noah and his animals were about to run out of food
on the arc, he mixed whatever ingredients were left and cooked them all
together to feed his voyagers and the resulting dish was the pudding
described in this recipe.
• Asure is a classical, most cherished Turkish dessert, which is a staple item of
every "muhallebi" shop in Istanbul. It is a "must" if you need to brag about
your knowledge of the Turkish cuisine.
• This recipe yields twenty four 6 oz servings of asure.
• Choose a pot large enough to take all the dry ingredients and 8 pintsof
water.
• Measure 5 pints of water into the pot. Bring the water to a boil.
• Wash the wheat grains thouroughly in a wire mesh strainer under
running water until the water runs clear. Add the grains to the boiling water,

2. cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Turn off the heat and leave the
grains in this water overnight.
• Wash the rice thouroughly in a wire mesh strainer under running water
until the water runs clear. In a seperate pot, boil 2 pints (4 cups) of water.
Add the rice to the boiling water, cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Turn off the heat and leave the grains in this water overnight.
• Wash the great northern beans and soak them in water overnight.
• Wash the chick peas and soak them in water overnight.
• Begin the next day by cooking the chick peas and the great northern
beans in plain water. We recommend using a pressure cooker. The beans
and the chickpeas need to be cooked separately because it takes less time to
cook the beans. In our pressure cooker, we use 15 minutes for the beans and
30 minutes for the chick peas. It is important to note however that the
cooking time may slightly change between different pressure cookers. If you
do not have a pressure cooker, you can boil the beans and the chick peas in
separate pots until they are fully cooked. When they are cooked, leave the
beans and the peas in cold water until they are cool to hand. Discard the
water chickpeas and beans were cooked in.
• While the beans and chickpeas are cooking, dice the dried apricots and
the figs into small pieces - see the picture below for reference.
• Remove the skins of the chick peas. If they are properly cooked, a gentle
squeeze is sufficient to remove their skins.
• Add 2 more pints of water into the main pot with the wheat grains, add
the chick peas, the great northern beans, the rice and the orange rind. Bring
the pot to a boil, reduce the temperature and continue boiling for 15
minutes.
• Add the sugar, continue boiling for another 15 minutes.
• Add the raisins and half of the the dried apricots, continue boiling for 5
minutes.
• Add half of the dried figs, turn off the heat.
• Let the asure rest for about an hour, then pour it into small, 8 oz bowls.
• Garnish with cinnamon, chopped walnuts, currants, pine nuts, remaining
half of the dried apricots, remaining half of the dried figs and fresh
pomegranate seeds.
• Serve at room temperature.