Homemade!

Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan

My last evening in Erbil: a lovely dinner with friends, fun math projects--and homemade yogurt to admire. My friend just finished "setting" the yogurt when I arrived--made from sheep's milk from a family member's farm. Truly farm to table...

Qormeh sabzi for dinner, again

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Monday, September 28, 1009

You're in Mongolia, and you've just come home with a great slab of beef from the market. What to do with it?

You just happen to have stashed a huge bag of dried Persian limes in your suitcase from the States--and a little baggie of fenugreek. Oh, and cilantro and green onions are some of the few fresh spices you can get here...

Yes, it's time for qormeh sabzi. Again.

And just what exactly is qormeh sabzi? Well, it's pretty much one of Iran's national dishes, and one that we came to love while living in Kurdistan. The dried limes give it quite a distinctive flavor which is, perhaps, not to everyone's taste.

But, strangely enough, it's just the thing for that slab of steppe-raised Mongolian beef.

Strawberries & Green Almonds

Erbil, Kurdistan, N. Iraq

Saturday, April 4, 2009

About four days ago suddenly two new items appeared on the "evening fruit" menu at our friends' houses: strawberries and green almonds. Certainly it seemed strange to me that strawberries were being sold everywhere--where in the world are they being imported from? Talk about ones carbon footprint.

And why NOW? Did a truck full of strawberries somehow make it over the border from Turkey? Or in from Iran? But, in any case, you'll be hard pressed to convince me that it's strawberry season in either of those countries.

As for the green almonds, I bet you've never tasted those before. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but they're really not bad, as long as you're not expecting something sweet. And at least I can imagine that they only had to travel from Iran--and not Mexico or California!

Kebabistan

Massif-Salahaddin, Kurdistan, N. Iraq
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

No, it's not a joke: we are here in Kebabistan. Until recently, kebab restaurants were almost the only option for eating out here in the Kurdistan region--and they are everywhere.

Ground meat is combined with a variety of spices, moulded onto metal skewers, and cooked over open coals. Kebabs are usually accompanied by fresh, sliced onions, roasted tomatoes, Kurdish flat bread and sumac, for additional flavor.

Last night we were invited for the first time to a friend's house for kebabs. BBQ a la Kurdistan!

To learn more about the sumac (a spice)--it's interesting! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac

Dolma, Kurdish-style

Salahaddin, Kurdistan, N. Iraq
Saturday, March 28, 2009

Many of you have probably eaten dolma before, but Kurdish dolma are something special, indeed. Wikipedia informs us that "Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire and surrounding regions, including Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Albania, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, the Balkans, Greece, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Northern Sudan, Central and South Asia."

Although I generally consider wikipedia.org to be a great source of information, I find its entry on dolma to be sadly lacking in that it fails altogether (until my recent addition) to mention the contributions of Kurds to this delight of Middle Eastern cooking. You can refer to this entry for good general information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolma.

Yesterday I dined at the center of dolma heaven: the home of D's mother. Kurdish dolma include stuffed grape leaves, yes, but the stuffed grape leaves are just the beginning--there are also stuffed tomatoes, onions, cabbage leaves, eggplant, squash and zucchini. The stuffing generally includes rice, bits of ground meat and a variety of spices. Bits of chicken (or beef) often dot this great mound of delicious food. Dolma are usually eaten warm, but they are still delightful at room temperature as leftovers. On the side there is often a cucumber & yogurt "raita"...

Dolma heaven, indeed--

As if you had room

Salahaddin, Kurdistan, N. Iraq

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Last night Frank and I enjoyed a lovely dinner with friends. All the food was wonderful but two
things stood out: several delicious Iranian and seasonal Kurdish dishes. The Kurdish dishes were based on several plants that are only available for 2-3 weeks in the brief (but glorious) Kurdish springtime. One of my favorites was ganggruk which are the shoots of some kind of thistle plant. Preparing these can be murderous on the fingers, but they are delicious when cooked and prepared as a kind of raita.

Even though Frank and I paced ourselves and only tried modest samplings of the various dishes, we were completely full by meal's end.

But then.

We had forgotten the delightful Kurdish tradition of "evening fruit". After dinner, the family
gathered in the sitting room and out came the fruit--and nuts--and sweets. As if we had room!

This tradition is common to most Kurdish families, whatever their station in life. The variety of fruits, nuts, and other items varies according to season, a family's resources, and, I think, the "status" of the guest.

Last night it was apples, bananas, oranges, cucumbers (always a popular item), dates, giant pistachios (festaq), mixed nuts--and a new one for me: tamarind. Although I know tamarind as a drink and a flavoring for cooking, I didn't know that you can eat them. Longish, brown pods that are broken open to reveal irregularly shaped seeds covered with a dark, chewy fruit. Delicious, really! Also on offer for those with super strong teeth were the dried flower pods from the ganggruk thistle plant (mentioned above).

We sat, we watched Kurdish television (which features endless Kurdish dancing especially in the Nawroz season), we nibbled from the trays of fruits and nuts, and we "chatted" in a mixture of broken English, Kurdish, and Farsi. A thoroughly pleasant tradition.

Even if we didn't have room for more.

Breaking the fast with friends

Salahaddin, Kurdistan, N. Iraq
November 1, 2005

Since we arrived in Kurdistan a week ago, eating--and not eating--has been a major theme. In the Islamic world, it is currently Ramadan, the month of fasting that commemorates the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Mohammed. Traditionally, people get up before dawn to eat and then they neither eat nor drink until the sun sets again. This evening we waited until after 11pm for news of the sighting of the moon (which ends the month of Ramadan). Just now, I received a text message from one of my friends telling me that the fast will be extended by one day--as the moon was not yet sighted.

The observance of Ramadan (and in particular, fasting) is a bit of a patchwork experience in both Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan. In Turkey, many restaurants remained open during the day, at least in the bigger, more western cities we were in. In addition, certain categories of people have exemptions from fasting, such as children, old people, and travelers. At any rate, there were certainly a good number of Turks eating in restaurants during the day.

The Islamic calendar is based on the lunar calendar which means that the month of Ramadan moves from year to year. Fasting is more difficult when Ramadan falls in the hot summer months, when the hours of daylight are longer and the weather is so brutally hot.

Here in Kurdistan, all restaurants are closed during the day during Ramadan (except those in Christian neighborhoods). Nonetheless, fasting remains a very personal/individual decision, and I have been surprised to learn which of my friends fast and which do not. In any case, around 4:30pm or so, there is a mad rush to get home for sunset (around 5:10pm by now), to break the fast with a big family dinner.

Over the past four nights, we have been invited to "break the fast" with four different families. Meals traditionally include rice, bulgur, Kurdish flat bread (see picture), tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, fresh herbs, lamb, chicken, dolma (vegetables stuffed with rice and meat), lentil stew--or some combination thereof. Some families eat on the floor in their living rooms, some eat at tables. Some families eat together and others have men in one room and women in another. At one family's house, I chose to join the women for dinner although I was welcome to eat with the men. It was only after we left that Frank learned that there were 10 women in the house. Over the course of 4 hours, Frank had only seen one. Most Kurdish families, however, are not so shy between men and women. At another friend's house, our dessert was a cake (see picture) which had just arrived from Baghdad with her mother. I just kept looking at that cake and wondering how it made it all the way to Kurdistan in such good shape...

So, one more day of fasting and then the three day holiday of Aed-al-Fatr begins--a time for visiting friends and family--and for eating sweets and drinking more tea--

To learn more about Ramadan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan