Kurdish History Journal
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.
Read article →Mastaw (dew) is the everyday Kurdish yogurt drink — yogurt whisked with water, salt, and dried mint, jokingly called “Kurdish beer.” The drinkable end of the Kurdish dairy chain, left after churning butter in a mashk.
Read article →Kope is the great aged cheese of Kurdistan — raw sheep’s-milk curd packed into a clay jar (kope) and buried a metre underground to ripen for up to a year. From the ancient Kurdish city of Saqqez; named Kurdish cultural heritage.
Read article →Kelane is the Kurdish stuffed flatbread of Hawraman/Avroman — sourdough dough filled with wild garlic, chives, and spring greens, baked on the saj. The signature bread of a UNESCO Cultural Landscape.
Read article →Bersaq — properly beji — is a Southern Kurdish fried sweet bread from Kermanshah, Ilam, and Lorestan, filled with walnut or dried mulberry. The name “bersaq” is the Arabized form of the Kurdish word birjiyag, meaning “toasted.”
Read article →Çökelek is a dry Kurdish curd cheese made by boiling soured milk, yogurt, or buttermilk — known in Kurdish dairy tradition as torak and jajî. The 13th product in the Kurdish dairy chain, built on the principle of wasting nothing.
Read article →Keledoş is a dense Kurdish winter stew of lamb, chickpeas, crushed wheat, and greens bound with reconstituted dried yogurt — from Bitlis, Hizan, Van, and Muş. The Kurdish preservation calendar assembled into one cauldron.
Read article →Tapsi (tepşî) is the Kurdish layered casserole of aubergine, potato, pepper, and tomato — each vegetable fried separately, braised in tomato sauce, soured with pomegranate molasses, vegan or with kofta.
Read article →Dandeh kabab is grilled Kurdish lamb ribs basted with saffron-tomato-lemon sauce — the signature kebab of Kirmaşan (Kermanshah), documented as a dish of Kurdish nomads but routinely filed as “Persian.”
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