COPPERKisra recipe
Kisra is a paper-thin sheet of sour, fermented sorghum batter, swept across a hot griddle and cooked on one side only, then folded to scoop up stews.
Ingredients
- 500 g sorghum flour
- 1250 ml water
- 3 tbsp plain yogurt
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
How to make Kisra
- Whisk 500 g sorghum flour with 1 litre of water into a smooth, runny batter, then stir in 3 tbsp plain yogurt or a ladle of batter from a previous batch as a starter.
- Cover and leave to ferment overnight, 12 to 24 hours, in a warm place, until the batter is bubbly and tastes clearly sour. Do not shorten this step: it is what gives kisra its taste.
- Add a pinch of salt and, if needed, up to 1250 ml more water so the batter flows like a thin crêpe batter.
- Heat a saj or a large flat griddle over medium heat (about 175 °C) and wipe it lightly with oil.
- Pour about 80 ml of batter on one edge of the griddle and immediately sweep it across the surface with a flat scraper (gargariba) or the edge of a stiff spatula, into a paper-thin layer.
- Cook for 30 seconds to 2 minutes, on one side only, until the sheet dries and its edges lift; do not flip it.
- Lift it off and stack the sheets, then fold them into quarters and serve with mullah or other stews, about 2 to 3 sheets per person.
What is Kisra?
Kisra is a traditional dish from South Sudan, stewed slowly, and takes about 18 hours and 20 minutes from start to finish. It is built around sorghum flour. The recipe below uses 5 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Kisra take?
At 1100 minutes it is slower than 95% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 6 dishes built on sorghum flour. The method runs to 7 steps, the longest being 2 minutes.
Any tips for making Kisra?
Ferment the batter until bubbly and clearly sour, then sweep it paper-thin across the griddle and cook it on one side only, never flipping.
Cooked with the same thing elsewhere
Other traditional dishes built on sorghum flour, from other countries.
Copper documents South Sudan alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.