Kishk Masri
A thick soup of yogurt and flour cooked out slowly and poured over fried bread and onions. Sour, savoury and completely unlike anything else in the book.
Photograph credit: Kishk by Cairocamels B. Simpson · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The flour has to be cooked out for a good five minutes in the butter before any yogurt goes in, or the finished soup tastes raw and pasty — this is a roux, and it behaves like one. Once the yogurt is in, the same rule applies as to every yogurt sauce in this book: constant stirring in one direction until it simmers, at which point it is stable. Take the pan off the heat the moment it thickens; kishk left bubbling turns grainy.
How to Make Kishk Masri
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Fry the sliced onions in the olive oil over medium heat for 15 minutes until deep brown and crisp. Drain and set aside.
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Melt the butter in a heavy pan, add the flour, and cook it out over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring, until it smells biscuity and turns pale sand-coloured.
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Whisk the yogurt with the water until smooth, then pour it into the roux in a thin stream, whisking hard.
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Add the garlic, ground coriander and salt.
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Stir constantly in one direction over medium heat for about 8 minutes until it comes to a gentle simmer and thickens to the consistency of double cream.
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Take it off the heat immediately — it goes grainy if held at a boil.
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Pour over the fried bread in bowls, top with the crisp onions and chilli flakes, and serve hot.
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A Few Pointers
- Cook the flour out for a full 5 minutes or the soup tastes raw.
- One direction, constant stirring, until it simmers.
- Off the heat the moment it thickens.
Changing the Recipe
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
What to Serve With It
Aish baladi · Torshi · A green salad
Leftovers and Storage
Refrigerated for 2 days. Rewarm gently without boiling and add the bread and onions fresh.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .