Cuisine of Sheki

Sheki cuisine is known for Sheki phaklava and piti. Nabat with boiled sugar and sweet pesheveng holds a special place for those who have a sweet tooth.

Sheki includes a number of popular dishes like girmabadam, zilviya, piti, terracotta from meat and potatoes.

Piti is a famous and traditional dish from mutton in Sheki, which is cooked in the oven for at least 8 hours and served in clay pots. Piti is food for winter, but because of the visitors, it’s prepared in the summer as well.

Piti should be cooked not only in the right way but also be eaten.

Firstly, you need to crumble the slices of bread on the plate. Then pour the broth out of the clay pot. Then sprinkle the broth with sumakh. After eating the broth, you scoop the meat and other ingredients out of a clay pot, then you add sliced bread, sumakh again, and mash all of them together.

Sheki halva is one of the sweetest symbols of Azerbaijan. Halva is prepared in a special copper pan. The recipe of halva is passed down from generation to generation. Halva is made from rice flour. The ingredients include chopped nuts, sugar, cardamom, and saffron.

The liquid rice dough is poured over the buttered hot pan, which forms a layer in the form of a net. This net is called Rishta. On the baking tray are put 6-8 layers of rishta, then the mixture of chopped nuts and cardamom are added. Then 6-8 layers of Rishta are put again. The top of the halva is decorated with saffron syrup.