Kurdish History Journal
Izot (isot / Urfa biber) is the dark, oily, smoky Kurdish chili pepper of Şanlıurfa / Riha, the Kurdish-majority city of Bakur. Sun-dried by day and wrapped to sweat at night, izot develops flavours of raisins, chocolate, and tobacco — the defining dark spice of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Taskababi is the Kurdish onion and lamb stew of the winter clay pot — known in Kurdistan as “onion water,” slow-cooked for hours with dried lime, cinnamon, and pearl onions. A symbol of Kurdish comfort food at its most simple and nourishing.
Read article →Genim is the Kurdish word for wheat — and einkorn wheat, ancestor of all bread wheat, was first domesticated on Karacadağ mountain near Diyarbakır / Amed, in Kurdish Bakur. The Kurdish mountains are where farming began.
Read article →Zeytûn is the Kurdish olive — and a 2013 peer-reviewed study found that the olive tree was first domesticated in the Kurdish-region south Taurus Mountains. The world’s most iconic Mediterranean crop has its primary origin in Kurdish hands.
Read article →The Kurdish breakfast of Van is a spread of fifteen or more small plates — penîrê giyayî, kaymak, honey, reçel, bread, eggs, tahini with molasses, and endless tea. The elaborate breakfast tradition credited to Kurdish Van, now a beloved institution at Van Kahvalti Evi in Istanbul.
Read article →Pestil is Kurdish dried grape leather — grape juice thickened with flour and sun-dried each October at the communal vintage, to the sound of klams. The winter snack rolled around walnuts, the last preserve of the Kurdish autumn.
Read article →Mangal is the Kurdish charcoal grill — a social institution where families gather around coals on a Friday afternoon. The Kurdish kebab tradition includes kababî kurdî (Van kebab), şiş, kofta, and liver, all served with sumac onion, bread, and yogurt.
Read article →Qêsî is the Kurdish dried apricot — sun-dried in summer, stored through winter, and the heart of qayse w kishmish, the classic Kurdish festive stew of lamb with dried apricots and raisins. From the Zagros orchards to the Eid feast table.
Read article →Gûz is the Kurdish walnut — a tree whose wild ancestors grow in the Zagros mountains, the heart of Kurdistan. Used pickled, in syrup, in halva, and cracked with tea in winter, it is one of the most ancient and versatile foods of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →Hênar is the Kurdish pomegranate — cultivated in Halabja, Horaman, and Sharazur, sacred in both Yarsanism and Islam, and used as juice, dried arils, and autumn molasses. A Kurdistani fruit par excellence.
Read article →Nan is the Kurdish word for bread — and for food itself. Baked in the tenûr (Kurdish clay oven) by Kurdish women every morning, it underlies every meal in the Kurdish table, from breakfast with honey to the feast stew soaked into torn flatbread.
Read article →Somaq is the Kurdish name for sumac — the wild dark-red mountain spice at the heart of Kurdish sourness. Ground on grilled meat, steeped in water for sour stews like meftûne, and scattered on onions beside the kebab, it is the spice that underlies a whole cuisine’s love of acidity.
Read article →Rewas is the Kurdish name for wild rhubarb (Rheum ribes) — foraged in spring from the mountain slopes, eaten raw with salt and sumac, and known as the “Kurdish banana.” The sour spring snack at the heart of the Kurdish foraging tradition.
Read article →Rûn (rowan) is Kurdish clarified butter — made from butter churned in the mashk waterskin on the summer zozan high pasture, then clarified and stored in clay jars for winter. Praised since medieval times for its wildflower scent, it is the cooking fat at the heart of the Kurdish kitchen.
Read article →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.
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