Kurdish History Journal
Helawî is the Kurdish word for halva — flour or semolina toasted in butter and sweetened, made at mourning gatherings and at weddings and celebrations alike. The sweet that Kurdish families distribute at every threshold of life.
Read article →Kaburga dolmasî is the stuffed lamb ribs of Amed (Diyarbakır) — lamb ribs filled with spiced rice, almonds, currants, and pine nuts and slow-cooked for hours. The great Kurdish meat-feast of the Feast of Sacrifice and weddings.
Read article →Dûşav is Kurdish grape molasses — fruit juice boiled down into a dark natural sweetener, eaten with tahini as rashî w dûşav. With honey and rose, one of the old sweetnesses of the Kurdish kitchen, made in autumn to last the winter.
Read article →Sirmo is the wild garlic foraged in the Kurdish mountains of Wan, Hakkari, and Bitlis — one of the first fresh greens of spring, eaten with eggs and in breads, the prized herb of Wan’s herbed cheese, and pickled or dried to keep.
Read article →Tirşî is the Kurdish word for pickles — vegetables preserved in vinegar-and-salt brine, named from tirş (“sour”). The sour branch of the Kurdish winter pantry and the everyday face of the Kurdish love of acidity.
Read article →Zerde is the golden saffron rice pudding of Kurdish celebration — made with water not milk, scented with rose water, and served at Newroz, weddings, and festivals. An ancient Mesopotamian sweet at the heart of how Kurds mark their happiest days.
Read article →Büryan is the pit-roasted meat of the Kurdish cities of Bitlis and Siirt — a whole goat or lamb slow-cooked in a deep, sealed underground well over wood embers, salted only with rock salt and served on flatbread. A pastoral dish carried into Istanbul’s “Little Kurdistan.”
Read article →Darex (the pearl mullet, Alburnus tarichi) is the only fish able to live in Lake Wan’s soda water — a staple of Kurdish villages around the lake, eaten fried or grilled and salted and dried for winter, famous for its salmon-like spawning leap.
Read article →Penîrê giyayî (jajî; Van otlu peyniri) is the Kurdish wild-herb cheese of Wan (Van) — sheep’s-milk cheese studded with foraged mountain herbs like sirmo, the heart of the famous Wan breakfast.
Read article →Reçel is the Kurdish word for jam — whole mountain fruit (mulberry, fig, quince, walnut, and rose petals) preserved in syrup. The sweet branch of the Kurdish preservation calendar and a jewel of the Kurdish breakfast table.
Read article →Klêçe (kulîçe) is the Kurdish date cookie of Eid — cardamom-scented pastry filled with date paste, baked in big batches and served with tea. Known internationally as Iraqi “kleicha,” this series restores its Kurdish name.
Read article →Meftûne is the sour garlic stew of Amed (Diyarbakır), the largest Kurdish city — lamb and seasonal vegetables cooked with garlic and sumac-infused water. A heritage dish registered under the Turkish label, with the Kurdish city of Amed behind it.
Read article →Silq û hêk — Kurdish chard and eggs — is a homely brunch of wilted chard (silq) topped with poached or fried eggs, served with flatbread. An everyday dish carried into exile in the recipe diaries of displaced Kurdish cooks like chef Pary Baban.
Read article →Avelik (evelik) is a wild dock / sorrel foraged across the Kurdish highlands in spring — used in dolma, lentil dishes, and egg dishes, and dried in braids for winter. A foraged green that is also a stored food, completing the Kurdish foraged-greens quartet.
Read article →Qeli is the Kurdish confit meat of Akre — fatty lamb braised and preserved sealed in its own fat, then served over rice with a dried-apricot sauce and cooked in cauldrons at Newroz. The meat chapter of the Kurdish winter-preservation tradition.
Read article →Seyran is the Kurdish mountain picnic — a beloved tradition, peaking at Newroz, of feasting on the hillsides with dolma, grilled meat, mastaw, bread, and tea brewed over a fire. The 100th article in the series: the mountain as the Kurdish table.
Read article →Şamburek (sham-burek, shamburak) is a Kurdish meat hand pie from Mardin — thin dough folded over spiced minced meat, baked or fried, and eaten warm with ayran or daw. Distinct from kürt böreği, and now a celebrated Kurdish pastry in Jerusalem.
Read article →Çay — Kurdish tea — is strong sweet black tea served in an istikan, the drink “second only to water.” Tea reached Kurdistan only c. 1895, but the çayxane (teahouse) became a Kurdish civic forum for poets, politics, and storytelling.
Read article →Hingiv — Kurdish wild mountain honey — is made by bees foraging the zozan highland wildflowers, prized from Sulaimani to Hakkari’s Karakovan log hives and scientifically shown to meet EU standards. A renowned Kurdish food, and a casualty of mountain conflict.
Read article →Kadeh (kade) is a Kurdish stuffed bread — dough folded over cheese and greens, cooked on a saj and topped with nigella. Treasured by the Kurdish Jews of Zakho as the Shavuot bread, “the queen of the table,” and shared across Kurdistan’s communities.
Read article →Shifta (shfta) is the humble Kurdish fried meat patty — ground meat, onion, parsley, and spices, stretched with potato and bread. A beloved home, picnic, and Ramadan food eaten across Kurdistan and the diaspora, rarely found in restaurants.
Read article →Terxena is a hearty Kurdish winter stew from Iraqi Kurdistan — legumes, walnuts, beets, and meat — named for dried fermented disks of spring greens made months ahead. A word of Kurdish origin and a beloved diaspora comfort food: the preservation calendar in one dish.
Read article →Khoresht-e tareh is the Kurdish wild-leek stew of Rojhelat (Sanandaj, Saqqez, Marivan, Mahabad) — meat and a single foraged leek soured with dried lime. Often folded into “Persian” cuisine, it is distinct from the many-herb ghormeh sabzi.
Read article →Tirşik is a sour Kurdish dish — a slow-cooked lamb and aubergine stew with sumac, and a whole family of sour dishes named for tirş (“sour”). Many Kurds treat it as a national dish: land-rooted, foraged, and unmistakably Kurdish.
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