Tavče gravče

Ingredients

• White beans — soaked overnight500 g
• Onions3
• Sweet paprika2 tbsp
• Dried red peppers3
• Flour1 tbsp
• Vegetable oil100 ml
• Dried mint1 tsp
• Parsley20 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Drain the soaked beans, cover them with fresh water, bring it to the boil and drain again after ten minutes.

   15 min

2. 2

   Cover them a third time, add one whole onion and boil an hour until soft, without salt.

   62 min

3. 3

   Fry the sliced onion in oil until golden, take it off the heat and stir in the paprika and flour.

   12 min

4. 4

   Pour off some of the bean water, leaving it level with the beans, salt them and stir in the onion mixture.

   6 min

5. 5

   Transfer to a clay pan, arrange the dried peppers on top and scatter with mint.

   5 min

6. 6

   Bake at 200 °C for forty minutes, until a browned crust forms on top.

   42 min

7. 7

   Rest ten minutes and serve straight from the pan, scattered with parsley.

   12 min

About the dish

Tetovec beans — large, white, thin-skinned — hold their shape through a long bake. Ordinary small beans turn to purée.

The beans are boiled twice: the first water is thrown away ten minutes after it comes up. It takes the bitterness with it, along with what makes beans hard to digest.

They bake in a tavče, a shallow clay pan. The wide surface gives a crust on top and the clay holds the heat evenly; in a metal dish the top burns first.

Worth knowing

• — Salt only once the beans are soft. In salted water they take twice as long and stay hard in the middle.
• — The paprika goes into a pan off the heat. On a hot one it turns bitter within seconds and spoils the whole dish.
• — The meat version uses kebapčinja sausages or smoked ribs, laid over the beans before baking.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

420 kcal

Protein

20 g

Fat

16 g

Carbs

52 g

More from North Macedonia

• Selsko meso — Pork stewed with mushrooms, onion and wine in an individual clay pot, under cheese.