boorsok

Boorsok

Time 1 h 40 min Serves 10 For Weddings, memorial meals, name days Posted 9 September 2026 IradKyrgyzstanKazakhstan

No dastorkon is laid without boorsok. Before every wedding in our village the women gathered in one kitchen, sleeves pushed up, cutting dough and laughing and gossiping until the bowls were heaped as high as our chins. My grandmother taught me that the smell of the frying fat at a memorial reaches the ones we have lost, and she always fried a batch on the seventh day. I still do, for her.

Kyrgyz and Kazakh families make them the same way. Some cut diamonds and some cut squares; the women of Orto-Ayyl cut squares. Now my daughter Aruu cuts them for me, a little crooked, and they taste just as good.

Ingredients

10

servings

• 500 gplain flour, plus extra for rolling
• 250 mlwarm milk
• 7 gdried yeast (one sachet)
• 1 tbspsugar
• 1 egg
• 30 gbutter, melted
• 1 tspsalt
• 1 Loil for frying (or half oil, half lamb fat)

Method

1. Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm milk and leave 10 minutes until foamy.
2. Add the egg, melted butter and salt, then the flour. Knead 8–10 minutes into a soft, smooth dough.
3. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled.
4. Roll out on a floured board to just under 1 cm thick. Cut into 3–4 cm squares. Cut a small slit in the centre of a few so they puff evenly.
5. Heat the oil to 175 °C. Fry a handful at a time, turning once, for 1–2 minutes until puffed and golden.
6. Drain on paper. Serve warm or cold, piled high, with tea, honey and kaymak.

From my kitchenIf they come out flat, the dough was rolled too thin or the oil was too cool.

With love from my kitchen to yours,Jibek

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