This recipe for boortsog is based on a savoury version that we enjoyed at a roadside restaurant called Smoke & Steppe in the middle of Mongolia. After a long off-road drive, we had a lunch break here with the friendliest chef/owner. He cooked us a delicious meal including the boortsog with fresh local herbs. In fact, he told us he had picked wild chives in the surrounding fields. We saw a lot of that growing along the way and it smelled wonderful.
If you want to have a sweet version, you can change the recipe for boortsog by adding a little more sugar and leaving out the herbs. Instead, you can serve the fried bread with a sprinkling of icing sugar or side of honey or jam.
Ingredients
250g plain flour
1/2 packet (3.5g) dry yeast
100ml warm milk or water
20g unsalted butter
1 Tbsp sugar (2 Tbsp if you want to have sweet boortsog)
Pinch of salt (or two if making savoury boortsog)
Up to 100ml water
Vegetable oil for frying
If you are making savoury boortsog, you can add chopped herbs such as chives or parsley
Instructions
First, in a small bowl, combine the warm milk, sugar, and dry yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, add flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Melt the butter in a separate small bowl. Next, make a well in the flour mixture, and add in the milk mixture and melted butter. Add water until dough is soft but not sticky. Knead the dough until it is uniform. If adding in the herbs, then add them at this time and knead them into the dough.
Cover with a towel and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour. Punch down the dough and leave to rise again for 30 minutes.
After the dough has risen a second time, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until about 1/2 cm thick. Then cut into squares, rectangles or triangles.
Cover the cut boortsog with a towel for 10-20 minutes to let them rise again.
Finally, heat the oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Then fry boortsog until golden, about 2 minutes on each side.
Drain fried boortsog on a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Then you can either serve as a savoury snack, or for a sweet version, sprinkle with icing sugar.
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