Lebanese Kishk Recipe

Directions

• Combine the yogurt and bulgur in a bowl, cover, and leave overnight.
• Knead and add the salt. When you look in the morning, the bulgur will have absorbed most of the moisture of the yogurt. Knead, fold, and turn the mixture a few times with your hands. Add the salt and mix it in. If dough seems dry, as though it could absorb more moisture, add a little more yogurt and knead it in. Cover it and leave to ferment.
• Mix the kishk daily. Check the kishk the next day. Fold and turn the mixture a few times with your hands. Continue to mix the bulgur-yogurt dough every day for about 9 days. This renews the surfaces and protects the developing kishk from surface molds.
• Dry the kishk. Spread the kishk on a baking sheet to dry, and leave in a sunny spot, or in a dehydrator, or under a fan, or in a warm oven. As it dries, crumble it into smaller bits to create more surface area.
• Crush into a powder. Once the kishk is completely dry, use a mortar and pestle or a food processor to crush it into powder and crumbs, and store at room temperature in a well-sealed jar. Kept dry, it should store indefinitely.
• To use kishk in soups, fry the kishk in oil or butter with garlic, then add a little soup stock and cook to thicken, as in a flour-based gravy or sauce. Transfer the kishk gravy to the soup and cook altogether for several minutes. Kishk thickens as well as flavors soup. Use about 2 tablespoons of kishk (or more) per cup of soup.
• Other uses for kishk. According to the Lebanese Food Heritage Foundation: “Kishk can be prepared in different forms such as salads (Wild mint and kishk salad, meeykeh); soups (shorbet kishk and kishkiyye); fillings for turnovers or mana’eesh; hot dishes such as kebbeh with kishk (kebbeh b kishk), kishk with eggs (kishk aala bayd), cabbage with kishk (malfouf aala kishk), wheat-flour dough with kishk (maacaroon b kishk), meat raviolis with kishk (shish barak b kishk), etc.”
• For Shurabat al Kishk
• Dice onions and sauté in oil in a soup pot.
• Once the onion is translucent, add 2 quarts (2 liters) of water, and bring to a boil.
• Add diced potatoes and carrots (and any other ingredients you like). Cook until soft.
• Mince garlic and sauté it in butter in a separate skillet. Add kishk, and sauté a minute or so. Then take about 1 cup (250 milliliters) of liquid from the soup pot and add it to the kishk and garlic. Stir until well blended, then add the liquefied kishk-garlic mixture to the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Cook 5 to 10 minutes, then serve, garnished with parsley.

• More from Wild Fermentation:

• Fermented Oat Porridge
• Sourdough Bread Starter
• Reprinted with permission from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz and published by Chelsea Green, 2003. Buy this book from our store: Wild Fermentation.