Sumalak — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A sacred Navruz dessert made by slowly cooking sprouted wheat paste for twenty-four hours over low heat, producing a naturally sweet, dark, malty confection.

Ingredients

2kg wheat berries, sprouted for 3 days
500g all-purpose flour
1L water
100ml vegetable oil
Walnuts placed at bottom of pot
Cotton cloth for covering

Instructions

1 Sprout wheat berries by soaking for a day then spreading on damp cloth for three days, misting regularly until green shoots appear.
2 Grind the sprouted wheat to a paste using a grinder or pound in a mortar, then strain through cheesecloth to extract the milky liquid.
3 Mix the extracted liquid with flour and water to form a smooth thin batter, ensuring there are no lumps throughout the mixture.
4 Place walnuts at the bottom of a large oiled kazan — tradition says they predict the coming year fortune for whoever finds them.
5 Pour in the batter and cook over the lowest possible heat for twelve to twenty-four hours, stirring constantly in shifts with family.
6 The sumalak is ready when it turns a deep mahogany brown and tastes naturally sweet from the converted wheat starches — no sugar needed.

Did You Know?

Making sumalak is a communal all-night ritual — women gather, sing traditional songs, and take turns stirring the pot through the night.