Stranger Foods

Photograph of Bean stew with cheese flatbreads and pickled onions.

BalkanBean stew with cheese flatbreads and pickled onions

Serves 4 | Prep 20 mins | Cook 45 mins

Iahnie is a way of cooking with just enough liquid for the ingredients to infuse and melt together. It’s a Persian technique brought to the Balkans and north of the Danube by the Ottomans, who used it in meat dishes with beans, pulses and vegetables. In Romania, it is almost always a white bean stew without meat, although I found old recipes that used potatoes, peas and even octopus instead. I serve my iahnie with scovergi, fried cheese flatbreads with crispy edges and a gooey middle, for a more satisfying meal.

Source: Danube

Ingredients

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For the cheesy flatbreads

225 g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
3 g fine salt
3 g caster sugar
5 g fast-action dried yeast
1 tbsp sunflower or olive oil
120 ml water
50 g Romanian cașcaval cheese or Cheddar, grated
sunflower oil, for frying

For the pickled onions

1 medium red onion, sliced
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ tsp salt

For the bean stew

sunflower oil, for frying
2 large brown onions, sliced
2 medium carrots, sliced
4 medium cloves garlic, sliced
4 tsp tomato purée
400 g cooked white haricot beans, from a jar or tin
400 g tinned finely chopped tomatoes
4 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp chopped tarragon, dill or parsley

Instructions

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Start by mixing together all the ingredients for the flatbreads, except for the cheese and oil. Knead until smooth, cover and leave in a warm place for . It should be a sticky dough, so add a splash of water if it looks too dry after mixing. A soft dough will make the breads light. Mix the cheese into the dough and leave it to prove for another .
Make the pickled onions by mixing the ingredients and rubbing the salt into the red onion slices. Set aside.
Meanwhile, heat a thin layer of oil on the base of a large sauté pan with a lid over a medium heat. Cook the onions and carrots for until they start to caramelise. Add a splash of water to avoid burning. Stir in the garlic, cook for a further , then add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the tarragon. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low and cook for , stirring occasionally so the beans don’t catch on the bottom of the pan. Add the tarragon before serving.
In the last , divide the bread dough into 4 equal parts and roll each out to a 16 cm circle. Flour your work surface and rolling pin, if necessary.
Heat a generous layer of oil in a frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat and fry each bread for , turning often. I like to fry one at a time, so I can use a small pan and also not too much oil. Keep the breads on a plate wrapped in kitchen foil while you cook the rest.
Serve immediately with the bean stew and pickled onions.

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