Beginner
Korean
Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew)
Source: Traditional
30 min3420 kcal
Dairy-free🌶️🌶️
Qurt
Sour strained milk salted hard, rolled into balls and dried in the sun until they are rock solid — a steppe food built to last a year in a saddlebag, and eaten like sweets.
Source
Recipe by Kazakh steppe kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · The pastoral, horse-herding heart of Kazakh food — beshbarmak, boiled and cured meats and the dishes of the nomad table, eaten with the hands and shared from one platter.
Kazakh · steppe provision — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. `Qurut` redirects to `Kashk`, which covers the whole family — kashk, kurut, qurt, aaruul, chortan and more — across Iran, Central Asia and the Caucasus, and confirms the strained-and-dried sour milk form. It is not a Kazakhstan-only article and that is said here rather than glossed over. Quantities and the drying schedule are this book's own.
Watch it being made · 3 videos
⏱ 5000 min🍽 10 servings🔥 120 kcal🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
HalalVegetarianGluten-freeNut-free
Steps
Line a colander with a double layer of muslin, tip the yoghurt in and hang it over a bowl in a cool place for 24 hours.
Gather the cloth, twist it and press out as much whey as you can. Hang it another 24 hours.
💡 Two full days of draining is the minimum. Anything still wet after that will mould in the sun instead of drying.
Work the salt right through the curd with your hands until it is evenly seasoned and stiff enough to hold a shape.
Roll into balls the size of a walnut and set them on a tray lined with cloth, well apart.
Dry in the sun for 3 to 5 days, turning them twice a day and bringing them in at night. They are ready when they are hard all the way through.
💡 Bring them in at night. Dew re-wets the surface and undoes a whole day of drying.
Store in a cloth bag somewhere dry. Eat them as they are, or drop one into hot water or soup to melt into it.
💡 Tips
- It is very salty and very sour, and it is meant to be. Qurt was survival food for people who spent months away from a kitchen.
- Dropped into hot water it makes an instant sour broth, which is how shepherds used it. In soup it does the job of both salt and cream.
- No sun? A dehydrator at 45°C or the lowest oven setting with the door ajar works over 12 to 18 hours.
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