Kishk is widely spread dried sour milk balls. It is a famous dish in the middle east and across the Mediterranean as well. It is made and prepared differently in each country. For Egyptians, kishk is mainly made in Upper Egypt, by fermenting bulgur in sour milk or yogurt then formed into balls and dried. To cook kishk you take these balls soak them in water, separated by hand then dropped into boiling broth. After that you'll add flour dissolved in some water and stir until you get something like pudding.
In the United states, you cannot find this type of kishk, that's why this easy handy kishk recipe is great as a sub to the authentic one. My family did not eat much kishk as we were young, my mom did not cook it regularly as her mom did. My husband, on the other hand, had been exposed more to kishk. He told me once that one of his grannies (actually the grandma of his best cousin), made a delicious kishk. So when I made this to him, it brought back good old memories.
This is a great recipe cold in summer and hot in winter days, so it will suit the season in whichever part of the world you are in. I posted this recipe long time ago, so pardon me for the pictures' quality. I wanted to take some new clicks for this recipe but actually both me and my husband are following a diet these days before the beginning of Ramadan.
I hope you'll like this recipe and please if you make this recipe, snap a pic and hashtag it #amiraspantry — I love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter!
---------------------This post was originally posted on January 30-2013 ----------------------------------
Kishk, is a famous dish that is prepared differently according to each country. In Egypt there are 3 different ways to prepare it - or at least 3 that I know of - depending on the region you are coming from. I am from Cairo, the capital, and this is the way I used to see mom and even her mom do it.
You will need:
- 1 cup of all purpose flour.
- 1 cup of plain yogurt.
- ½ cup of milk- any % will do.
- 5 cups of chicken broth - you can make it with chicken bouillon.
- salt and pepper to taste.
- a dash of cinnamon.
- 1 cup of diced onion - about 1 whole big yellow onion.
To make the Kishk:
- Mix the flour,milk and yogurt together in a bowl and let it set for 2 hours.
- Boil the broth, adjust the salt,pepper and cinnamon then add the flour mixture and whisk vigorously until it thickens and forms something like pudding.
- In a skillet over high heat, brown the onion in about 5 Tbs of vegetable oil.
- Pour the mixture in a plate and let it cool, then garnish with the brown onions.
- It should be eaten cold -some people prefer to cool it in the fridge before serving - with pita bread.
Try it and tell me what do you think.
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Simone Levy
Growing up we had the green kissk as my mother is turkish.i love it. Rice boiled in chicken broth with salk and fried garlic. Boil until rice is like pudding. When done add fresh lemon juceh
Amira
Oh, this is new to me. I need to try this recipe. Kishk in Egypt is always white, never heard of salk over it but I bet my husband would love this version. He is crazy about Salk 🙂
Imelda
Amira there is drink similar to this they drink it in the morning it has yogurt & garlic it looks like milk. What is it? I saw this in a Turkish movie.
Amira
Imelda, I think you are talking about the Ayran drink. I saw them drink it in Ramadan when they are about to break their fasting day.
Samaa Zeitoun
My mom used to add the squeeze of a lemon to the yogurt mix & no cinnamon. She would fry the onions first then add a little of that oil to the mix. I loved her kishk. She was also from Cairo btw 🙂
Amira
Samaa, one of my friends actually had the same comment on this particular dish long time ago. She felt the cinnamon addition was weird but acceptable, it was her first time tasting it with cinnamon. Next time I will add try your mom's twist.. thank you so much for sharing her recipe.. .
Maryam
Do you know the other 2 ways to make it? I think my mum adds rice and cooked onion to the pudding and then garnishes with charred/very well cooked onion.
Amira
Maryam, in the post itself I've indicated one of the other two ways I believe. You are right some people add rice. They simply cook rice in chicken stock then add milk and flour and keep cooking until it thickens up to the consistency of rice pudding. Cook some onion in oil and mix some into the rice while continue to brown the other part of the onion to garnish the dish with.
Beth
So interesting, and so nice that you connected with your Dad over this dish.