Ashura
A creamy, lightly sweet wheat pudding scented with rose water and crowned with nuts and raisins, traditionally cooked on the tenth day of Muharram and shared with neighbors. Served chilled, it is soft, milky and gently fragrant.
Ingredients
Instructions
Bring the water to a boil in a medium pot. Lower the heat, add the rinsed wheat and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the grains are tender and most of the water has been absorbed.
Pour in 2½ cups of the milk and add the sugar. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the milk is hot but not boiling.
Whisk the cornstarch into the remaining ½ cup of cold milk until smooth. Add it to the pot with the rose water and cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the pudding turns thick and homogeneous.
Remove from the heat and spoon into individual bowls. Scatter the nuts and raisins over the top. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours and serve cold.
Notes
Cracked wheat cooks quickly. If you can only find peeled (pearled) whole wheat, simmer it for about 45 minutes, adding hot water if the pot dries out before the grains are soft.
Stir the pudding constantly once the cornstarch goes in, or it will catch on the bottom of the pot. It thickens further as it chills; if it sets too firmly, loosen it with a splash of cold milk before serving.
Keep the nuts and raisins for the end rather than cooking them in, so they stay crisp and plump against the creamy base.
Variations
Use orange blossom water instead of rose water, or a splash of vanilla.
Stir in a tablespoon of butter with the milk, as some Egyptian recipes do.
Finish with a pinch of cinnamon, pomegranate seeds or coconut flakes.
For a more festive bowl, add dried apricots or figs to the topping.
Source
Ashura takes its name from the Arabic ʿāshūrāʾ, “the tenth,” the tenth day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. In Egypt the day is marked with fasting, and the pudding is cooked in large quantities and handed out to neighbors and relatives. According to Egyptian press coverage, the dish began as a Shia tradition and has been embraced by the Sunni majority as well.
Several stories explain the pudding. A popular legend says Noah and his family cooked their last provisions into a pudding after the ark came to rest. Islamic tradition also links the tenth of Muharram to Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea, and Shia communities remember it as the day Imam Hussein was killed at Karbala in 680.
The idea of a pudding of boiled wheat is much older than any of these accounts. Boiled grain was part of spring and harvest rites across the ancient Near East, and the same wheat-based sweet appears under other names: aşure in Turkey, anoushabour in Armenia, koliva in Greece and kutia in Eastern Europe. The Egyptian version is simpler than the Turkish one. It leaves out the beans, chickpeas and many dried fruits, and relies on wheat, milk, sugar and a floral water.