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Zhent

Name: Zhent
Total time: 30 min
Yield: Serves 6
Cuisine: Kazakhstan
Ingredients: 100g (rolled barley) Barley; 80g Butter; 3 tbsp Honey; 2 tbsp Sugar; 40g Raisins; 40g Walnuts

Dessert

⏱ 30 min

👥 Serves 6

Difficulty ⭐

Toasted crushed grain bound with butter, honey, and dried fruit — a sweet born from nomads' preserved food.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Zhent is a traditional nomadic sweet made by crushing toasted millet and binding it with butter, sugar or honey, raisins, kurt (dried cheese), and more. Nutritious and long-keeping, it was carried as portable food on long migrations. Today it's served with tea as a celebration sweet.

🌆 Where it's eaten: In a nomad family's home on the steppe, small pieces of zhent are served to guests with tea, and its simple sweetness gets the conversation flowing.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 6)

Barley 100g (rolled barley)
Butter 80g
Honey 3 tbsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Raisins 40g
Walnuts 40g

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Dry-toast the rolled barley in a frying pan until fragrant and colored.
Cool, then crush coarsely in a blender.
Melt the butter, honey, and sugar in a pot.
Add the crushed barley, raisins, and chopped walnuts and mix well.
Press firmly into a mold and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Cut into bite-size pieces.

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