After a delicious thanksgiving dinner, our gracious host posed the usual pre-dessert/post-dinner question: tea or coffee? Only one of about 15 guests requested tea. All others asked for coffee. Why, you might ask, was coffee such a hit that evening? Well, it's because the coffee in question was not your run of the mill American style coffee. Rather, it was Turkish coffee that would be served that evening.
G.'s mom was up for the task of preparing mass quantities of Turkish coffee (she's a pro!) and I, opportunist that i am, jumped at the chance to get a lesson. Turns out the process of turkish coffee preparation isn't tooooo terribly difficult (of course I say that after having only observed the process), but it does seem to require a great deal of patience. Preparing Turkish coffee is not a simple matter of grinding coffee beans, placing those in a filter, and hitting "start" on an automatic machine. Nope. Turkish coffee prep requires standing over the stove and waiting for water to boil not once, not twice, but about six times! The process is well worth it though, because Turkish coffee is a treat to drink. It's dark and rich, and could easily stand in as a dessert substitute. There is also something extremely ceremonial and communal about drinking Turkish coffee. And it comes with fortune telling (i'll get to that later)!!
The following is what I learned about the preparation of the coffee:
To prepare Turkish coffee, you must begin with very finely ground coffee beans--they should be ground to the point of being powder-like. You can purchase finely ground coffee for this purpose at your local Arabic food market. I'll bet you will find one hiding in your area if you search. If you are in the triangle area, you can try Jerusalem Grocery or Almadina Supermarket, both of which are in Raleigh, or the Mediterranean Deli in Chapel Hill.
Next, place your water to boil on the stove top. Turkish coffee is prepared using a special pot that looks like the one picture below. If you want to purchase one, again, I'd check the local middle eastern food store in your area.
Before the water is boiling, you can add a bit (1-2 tablespoons) of sugar if you like your coffee to be sweet (G's mom does this, and I love how it comes out). Once the water begins to boil, add the coffee: approximately 1 heaping teaspoon of coffee for each cup of Turkish coffee.
Note here that a traditional cup of Turkish coffee is about the size of one shot of espresso for us: small. The coffee pots that are intended for Turkish coffee preparation generally have a marking to indicate the number of cups that the pot will prepare.
Now is the fun part. After you have added the coffee to the boiling water, quickly remove the pot from the burner and stir the mixture briskly. At the start the mixture will appear very dark and sludge-y. You are aiming to reduce the sludge and end up with a very smooth looking liquid (having the appearance of dark but clear coffee).
Once you have stirred the liquid (a long teaspoon is preferred for mixing), return the pot to the burner and bring the mixture to a boil again. Then, once it begins boiling, quickly remove the pot and mix once again. Repeat this process about 6 times until the liquid becomes lighter (it will still be very dark) and clear of residue.
Once you are satisfied with the consistency of your coffee, pour into small mugs. Note that the coffee is generally served black, and G.'s mom says that adding milk/cream will distort the flavor.
After the coffee has been drunk, there will tend to be dark grounds left over at the bottom of the cup. Now comes the fortune telling part! You can turn your mug over and allow the residue to drip out, into your saucer. There will be images left over in the cup. Once these have dried, they can be used to tell your fortune.
G's mom told us our fortunes. Apparently I have a very big, positive event, and an accomplishment in my future! I hope that the coffee grinds are right.
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