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Kazakh recipes

11 Kazakh recipes to cook at home, each with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Kazakh milk tea, takes 10 minutes. Most take around 60 minutes.

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Baursak

No Kazakh dastarkhan, the cloth spread with food for guests, is complete without a heap of baursak: soft, hollow pillows of yeasted dough fried until they balloon. They are scattered over the table at weddings, at Nauryz in March and at funerals, where the smell of frying baursak is said to reach the departed. In Almaty families fry hundreds at a time and eat them through the evening with milk tea, butter, jam or honey. Kyrgyz and Turkmen households make almost identical versions. Chef's tip: roll the dough just 1 cm thick and keep the oil hot; thin dough in hot oil puffs into a hollow ball, thick dough stays bready.

45 minBreads & Parathas
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kurt

Kurt is the snack of the steppe: thick, salted yogurt pressed into balls and dried until rock-hard, so it keeps for months in a saddlebag. Herders in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan make it in summer, when the animals give the most milk, and dry it on reed mats in the sun. Children suck on it like a sweet, adults crumble it into soups, or dissolve it in hot water to make a sour drink. Bazaars from Shymkent to Bishkek sell it in white, smoked and red-pepper versions. Chef's tip: drain the yogurt until it's as firm as cream cheese; if it's still wet the balls crack and turn mouldy before they dry.

20 minSnacks & StartersGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Shelpek

Shelpek are paper-thin flatbreads fried in a shallow pan, and in Kazakh homes they carry meaning: on Thursday evenings and Fridays women fry seven shelpek 'for the smell', a prayer for the ancestors, and they're handed out at funerals and memorial meals. In everyday life they are eaten warm with tea, butter and jam, all over Kazakhstan and in the Kyrgyz villages across the Tian Shan. The dough is soft and rich with milk and butter, and takes minutes to fry. Chef's tip: roll them almost transparent; thin shelpek blister and stay soft, thick ones go stiff like crackers.

30 minBreads & Parathas
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Oromo with pumpkin

Oromo, or orama, is a big rolled dumpling: a thin sheet of dough spread with filling, rolled into a long coil and steamed in a multi-tiered mantovarka. It's a home dish across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, quicker than shaping dozens of manti. In autumn, when Kyrgyz gardens in the Chüy Valley are full of squash, it's filled with grated pumpkin and onion, which turn sweet and juicy. Serve in thick slices with sour cream or a garlicky tomato sauce. Chef's tip: grate the pumpkin coarsely and salt it only just before rolling; salted too early it weeps and makes the dough soggy.

80 minVegetarian
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kespe

Kespe is the plainest and most comforting of Kazakh soups: home-made egg noodles, cut thin with a knife, simmered in broth with potato, carrot and onion. The name comes from 'kesu', to cut. Grandmothers in villages around Karaganda and Pavlodar make it on winter evenings and for anyone feeling unwell, and in Kyrgyzstan the same soup goes by the same name. It is usually cooked in mutton broth; this version uses a well-browned vegetable broth. Chef's tip: dry the cut noodles for 20 minutes before cooking; they hold their shape and don't cloud the broth.

60 minSoups
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Ashlyan-fu

Ashlyan-fu is the street food of Karakol, the town on the eastern shore of Kyrgyzstan's Lake Issyk-Kul, brought by Dungan (Hui) families more than a century ago. Locals eat it for lunch on hot days at the 'ashlyan-fu row' near the bazaar: thick wheat noodles and cubes of wobbly starch jelly in a chilled, sour and fiery broth, with a strip of thin omelette, often alongside a fried potato pirozhok. It's eaten all over Kyrgyzstan and southern Kazakhstan now. This version uses a vegetable sauce rather than meat. Chef's tip: everything must be cold; chill the broth and the jelly properly, as lukewarm ashlyan-fu tastes flat.

70 minPasta & NoodlesSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kazakh milk tea

Kazakhs drink more tea per person than almost anyone, and at home it is always sut shai: strong black tea, often brewed from Kenyan or Indian leaves, poured into a wide cup (kese) with hot milk or a spoon of cream. The host keeps the cups barely half full and refills them again and again, and a guest turns the cup upside down when they've had enough. In winter in Astana a pinch of salt or a knob of butter may go in. It accompanies baursak, shelpek and every meal. Chef's tip: heat the milk until it just steams and add it to the cup first; scalded, boiled milk gives the tea a cooked taste.

10 minDrinksGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Zhent

Zhent is one of the oldest Kazakh sweets: toasted millet (tary) pounded with dried kurt, dates or raisins, and bound with butter and honey into a crumbly, rich square. Herders made it to carry on long rides, and today it appears on the dastarkhan at Nauryz and weddings in southern Kazakhstan, beside baursak and dried fruit. It tastes nutty, salty-sour from the kurt and sweet, a bit like shortbread with a sharp edge. Chef's tip: toast the millet in a dry pan until it pops and smells like popcorn; under-toasted millet tastes raw and grassy.

30 minDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Beshbarmak

Beshbarmak, "five fingers", is the dish a Kazakh family puts on the dastarkhan for guests, weddings and Nauryz, traditionally eaten with the hand. Lamb (or horse meat in many homes) is simmered for hours, sliced and laid over wide squares of fresh noodle dough cooked in the same broth, then topped with soft onions in a peppery sauce. The broth, called sorpa, is drunk from bowls alongside. Cutting the noodles too thick is a common slip; they should be thin enough to be silky, not chewy. Chef's tip: keep a cup of the hot fat skimmed from the broth to cook the onion sauce; it carries all the lamb flavour.

210 minMeat
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kuyrdak

Kuyrdak is the first meal cooked when a sheep is slaughtered on a Kazakh farm, made quickly from the freshest cuts and the offal: lamb meat, liver, heart and kidneys fried in a kazan with onion and potatoes. Today it is an everyday dish in Almaty and the steppe villages, eaten hot from the pan with bread and strong tea. Every part is cut to the same size so it all cooks evenly. Overcooking the liver is the most common fault; it goes in last and should be just cooked through and still soft, not grainy. Chef's tip: soak the kidneys in salted cold water for 30 minutes to remove any strong smell.

80 minMeatGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Kyrgyz shorpo

Shorpo is the soup that keeps Kyrgyz herders warm in the summer pastures around Issyk-Kul and in yurts high in the Tian Shan: big pieces of lamb on the bone simmered slowly with whole potatoes, carrots and onion until the broth is clear and golden. The meat and vegetables are often served on a plate and the broth in bowls, with fresh herbs and bread torn into it. It is simple, so the quality of the lamb matters. Letting it boil hard is the usual mistake; a rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and the meat stringy. Chef's tip: start the lamb in cold water and skim patiently for the first 15 minutes.

145 minSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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