Bosnian coffee

Ingredients

Coffee

• 3heaped tsp very finely ground coffee
• 200 mlcold water

To serve

• sugar cubes
• rahat lokum
• a glass of cold water

Equipment

• a džezva, the narrow-necked copper pot
• fildžan cups

Directions

1. Measure the cold water into the džezva using the cups you intend to serve in, and add a little extra for what will stay behind with the grounds.
2. Bring the water to the boil, then pour about a cupful of it into a separate cup and set it aside. Reserving this water is what separates Bosnian coffee from Turkish coffee, and it goes back in at the end to settle the grounds.
3. Take the džezva off the heat and stir the ground coffee into the remaining hot water. Adding the coffee off the heat stops it foaming over the moment it goes in.
4. Return the pot to a low heat and watch it without looking away. A thick foam will rise, and the instant it begins climbing the neck you must lift the pot off. Letting it boil is the one unforgivable mistake: it kills the foam and turns the coffee bitter.
5. Stir once, put it back on the heat, let it rise a second time and take it off again.
6. Pour the reserved water back into the pot. The grounds drop to the bottom and the kajmak, the pale foam, stays on the surface.
7. Let it rest for a minute, then spoon a little of the foam into each fildžan before you pour, so that every cup gets its share.
8. Serve with a sugar cube and a piece of rahat lokum alongside, and a glass of cold water. The sugar is held between the teeth and the coffee drunk through it, or dipped and bitten, but it is not stirred into the pot.

Technique

• The grind must be finer than espresso, closer to flour than to sand. Ask for a Turkish grind or take a burr grinder to its finest setting.
• Never let it boil. Every part of the method exists to bring it to the edge of boiling and no further.
• The first cup out of the pot has the most foam, which is why the foam is shared out by spoon before pouring.

Substitutions

• A small heavy saucepan will work, though the narrow neck of a džezva is what concentrates the foam.
• Any dark-roast coffee ground to powder; the roast matters far less than the grind.

Variations

• Kuhana, boiled in the everyday way with the coffee added at the start.
• Prelivena, in which the hot water is poured over the grounds instead.
• Razlivena, poured out into the cups and left to settle there.

History

Ground fine and boiled in a džezva, served with rahat lokum and a sugar cube held in the teeth, as a social ritual.

Frequently asked questions

What is Bosnian coffee?

Bosnian coffee is a drink from Bosnia and Herzegovina: unfiltered coffee brewed in copper džezva, with rahat lokum. Ground fine and boiled in a džezva, served with rahat lokum and a sugar cube held in the teeth, as a social ritual.

How long does Bosnian coffee take to make?

Bosnian coffee takes 5 min of preparation and 8 min of cooking. The recipe makes 3 small cups. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Bosnian coffee?

Yes, within limits. A small heavy saucepan will work, though the narrow neck of a džezva is what concentrates the foam. Any dark-roast coffee ground to powder; the roast matters far less than the grind.

What is the most important thing to get right in Bosnian coffee?

Return the pot to a low heat and watch it without looking away. A thick foam will rise, and the instant it begins climbing the neck you must lift the pot off. Letting it boil is the one unforgivable mistake: it kills the foam and turns the coffee bitter.