Bastêq — Grape Leather with Walnuts

Name: Bastêq — Grape Leather with Walnuts
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients: 500 ml grape juice (100 % not from concentrate, unsweetened); 45 g plain flour (type 405); 20 g cornstarch; 2 tbsp grape syrup (see the recipe Dims — Homemade Grape Syrup; or shop-bought grape syrup, Turkish Üzüm pekmezi); 80 g walnuts

A Kurdish classic served in every Kurdish region: Bastêq is a thin, pliable grape leather made from the same thick grape juice pudding as Sucuk; in the villages it dries on cloths, and at home it dries in the oven at 50 °C for six to eight hours. In Turkey it is called Pestil, and filled with nuts and rolled up it is known there as Köme. The chopped walnuts stick firmly in the dark, glossy layer, which tastes fruity and sweet and has a pleasant chew.

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Cook time

45 min

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Servings

🧂

Ingredients

View Original ↗

Nutrition

per serving

1203 kcal

Calories

18 g

Protein

52 g

Fat

150 g

Carbs

Ingredients

For 1 servings

Estimated cost~€1.90 · ~€1.90/serving

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Instructions

1
Preheat the oven to 50 °C fan. Line a baking tray with baking paper and finely chop the walnuts.
2
Whisk the flour and cornstarch with 150 ml cold grape juice until free of lumps. Bring the remaining grape juice to the boil with the grape syrup in a pot.
3
Pour the flour mixture into the boiling juice in a thin stream, stirring constantly, and keep stirring without a break over a medium heat until a thick, glossy pudding forms; it bubbles and spits, so stir with a long wooden spoon. The mixture is the same as for Sucuk — Walnut Strings in Thickened Grape Juice.
4
Pour the hot pudding onto the baking paper and spread it with an offset spatula or a dough scraper into an even layer about 3 mm thin and about 30 × 35 cm in size; keep it no thinner at the edges than in the middle, otherwise it will turn brittle there.
5
Scatter the chopped walnuts evenly over the top and press them in lightly with the dough scraper so that they stick.
6
Slide the tray onto the middle shelf, keep the oven door slightly open with the handle of a wooden spoon so that the moisture can escape, and leave the grape leather to dry.
7
Check the surface: nothing should stick when you touch it. Keep drying until the grape leather can be peeled off the baking paper in one piece and remains pliable; depending on the oven, this takes two to four hours.
8
Leave the grape leather to cool, roll it up tightly together with the baking paper and cut it into strips about 3 cm wide with a sharp knife. Instead of in the oven, it can also be dried in a dehydrator at 55 °C, but not outside in the sun, where dust and insects can get at it.
9
Tip: Rolled up in baking paper and stored cool and dry in an airtight tin, the grape leather keeps for two months, or six months frozen; if any mould appears, throw it all away. Walnuts trigger allergies in some people, so ask your guests beforehand; without walnuts it becomes a plain grape leather. Serve with Çay — Kurdish Tea in a Glass.