After more than a year in Kurdistan, who would have thought that only now (now that I have stopped eating out) that am I starting to discover a wider spectrum of Kurdish (and general Iraqi) culinary delights! This is partly because I am not very good at saying no when invited out... and partly because I am not very good at saying no when people intimate an interest in being invited to my house. This week I ate/cooked my way though the following: After more than a year in Kurdistan, who would have thought that only now (now that I have stopped eating out) that am I starting to discover a wider spectrum of Kurdish (and general Iraqi) culinary delights! This is partly because I am not very good at saying no when invited out... and partly because I am not very good at saying no when people intimate an interest in being invited to my house. This week I ate/cooked my way though the following:
- Lablaby (dinner at my house); one of my guests - the guest of honor- was from Baghdad, and I noted on several occasions, how much he loved lablaby (Arabic for chickpeas). So anyway, to supplement meat, rice, salad and a Ceylon-style eggplant dish, I found and adapted a lablaby recipe. I replaced boullion cubes with real chicken and will add garlic the next time. The results? My guest said, "I kiss your lablaby!" Unfortunately, I also learned that although big chunks of meat are acceptable dinner food, rice is considered too heavy... and I always serve rice! I learned that when some Iraqis with intestinal problems are operated on, the doctors sometimes have to remove 5kg of rice (which was eaten greasy and partially crispy). Is it possible? At least I don't cook rice Iraqi style.
- Perda Pilau (dinner out): I went to Haji Mohammed's brother's house... only to get a phone call the next day from H. Mohammed complaining that I haven't been to his house recently and insisting that I come immediately. I couldn't get out of it until I cried. Anyway, his brother served Mosul style kefta and PURDA PILAU! I am not sure if this is Kurdish, Iraqi or Persian, but it was interesting. Pilau (rice similar to biryani) cooked inside a pastry covering (or perda/veil).
1 comment:
Perda pilau: I think you might have a Turkish dish on your hands, or at least one that there is a Turkish version of. Your description sounded very familiar, so I checked my books, and Claudia has a recipe for Pardeli pilav (or at least that what I think I scribbled last night (g)) in her book Arabesque (on Turkish, Lebanese and Moroccan food).
Her recipe says the pastry (a big square on which the rice is placed and the 4 corners brought together on top) should be formed into the shape of an Ottoman dome!
On the wider spectrum of Kurdish food you might see if you take up invitations to dine with folk: I imagine Iraq is a lot like Iran in that the array of food on offer in restaurants is only a miniscule portion of the entire canon.
I would snap up any and all invitations to eat with locals *immediately* because you're only going to see the best the cusine has to offer in people's homes. I'm green with envy (g) that you can, and hope you'll keep us up-dated with your tasting notes (g).
W in Tokyo
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