Iraqi cuisine is a Middle Eastern cuisine that has its origins in the ancient Near East culture of the Fertile Crescent.http://www.thingsasian.com/stories-photos/3592 Foods of Iraq: Enshrined With A Long History. Habeeb Salloum. Tablets found in ancient ruins in Iraq show recipes prepared in the temples during religious festivals—the first cookbooks in the world. Ancient Iraq's cultural sophistication extended to the culinary arts.
The Iraqi kitchen reached its zenith in the Islamic Golden Age when Baghdad was the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 AD).
In Northern Iraq pomegranate is added to dolma. In Southern Iraq, fish is a staple. The center of the country is known for its rice dishes and sweets.
In terms of agriculture, Iraq harks back to ancient Mesopotamia, growing wheat and crops requiring winter chill such as apples and stone fruits. Lower Mesopotamia grows rice and barley, citrus fruits, and is responsible for Iraq's position as one of the world's largest producer of dates.
Pork consumption is forbidden to Muslims in Iraq, in accordance with Sharia, the Islamic law.
History
Archaeologists have found evidence from excavations at Jarmo, in northeastern Iraq, that pistachio nuts were a common food as early as 6750 BC. Among the ancient texts discovered in Mesopotamia is a Sumerian-Akkadian bilingual dictionary, recorded in cuneiform script on 24 stone tablets about 1900 BC. It lists terms in the two ancient Iraqi languages for over 800 different items of food and drink. Included are 20 different kinds of cheese, over 100 varieties of soup and 300 types of bread, each with different ingredients, filling, shape or size.
The world's oldest recipes are found in Mesopotamia of modern-day ancient Iraq, written in cuneiform tablets. One of three excavated cuneiform clay tablets written in 1700 BC in Babylon, south of present-day Baghdad, contains 24 recipes for stew cooked with meat and vegetables, enhanced and seasoned with leeks, onion, garlic, and spices and herbs like cassia, cumin, coriander, mint, and dill. Stew has remained a mainstay in the cuisine. Extant medieval Iraqi recipes and modern Iraqi cuisine attest to this.
Ingredients
Some characteristic ingredients of Iraqi cuisine include: Vegetables (e.g. eggplant, tomato, turnips, beans, shallots, okra, onion, lentils, cress, potato, cabbage, courgette (zucchini), spinach, lettuce, leeks, artichokes, garlic, peppers and chilli peppers). Cereals (e.g. rice, bulghur wheat and barley). Pulses and legumes (e.g. lentils, chickpeas, green beans, green grams, and cannellini beans). Fruits (e.g. olives, dates, raisins, apricots, plums, figs, grapes, melons, pomegranates, apples, cherries, quinces, and citrus fruits—oranges, lemons and limes). Cheeses (e.g. baladi, feta and halloumi). Herbs and spices (e.g. cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, cumin, oregano, mint, tarragon, thyme, saffron, dried lime, cassia, dill, turmeric, baharat, advieh, sumac and za'atar). Nuts and seeds (e.g. sesame, pistachios, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and pine nuts).
Other Iraqi culinary essentials include olive oil, sesame oil, tamarind, vermicelli, tahini, honey, date syrup, yogurt and rose water.
Lamb is the favorite meat, but chicken, beef, goat and fish are also eaten. Most dishes are served with rice—usually timman anbar, a yellowish, very aromatic, long-grain rice grown in the Middle Euphrates region.
Bulghur wheat is used in many dishes, having been a staple in the country since the days of the ancient Assyrians. Flatbread is a staple that is served with a variety of dips, cheeses, olives, and jams, at every meal.
Common dishes Mezza
Meals begin with appetizers and salads, known as mezza. Mezza is a selection of appetizers or small dishes often served with a beverage, like anise-flavored liqueurs such as arak, ouzo, rakı, sambuca, pastis, or various wines, similar to the tapas of Spain, or finger food. Mezza may include: Iraqi sumac salad, a typical Iraqi salad with the addition of sumac berries. Baytinijan maqli, a dish often served cold, consisting of fried aubergine (eggplant) with tahini, lettuce, parsley and tomatoes, garnished with sumac and served on pita bread or sliced bread, often grilled or toasted. Variations include bell peppers, or a garlic-lemon vinaigrette. Fattoush, a salad made from several garden vegetables and toasted or fried pieces of pita bread. Tabbouleh, a salad dish, often used as part of a mezze. Its primary ingredients are finely chopped parsley, bulgur, mint, tomato, scallion, and other herbs with lemon juice, olive oil and various seasonings, generally including black pepper and sometimes cinnamon and allspice. Turshi, pickled vegetables in the cuisine of many Balkan and Middle East countries. It is a traditional appetizer, mezze for rakı, ouzo, tsipouro and rakia.
Dips Baba ghanoush, a dish of baked aubergine (eggplant) mashed and mixed with various seasonings. Hummus, a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. Jajik, an appetizer, also used as a sauce for shish and döner kebab. Jajik is made of strained yogurt (usually sheep's milk or goat's milk in Greece and Turkey) with cucumbers, garlic, salt, usually olive oil, pepper, dill, sometimes lemon juice and parsley, or mint added. The cucumbers are either puréed and strained, or seeded and finely diced. Olive oil, olives, and herbs are often used as garnishes.
Soups and stews Various stews served over rice form a major part of Iraqi cuisine. Fasolia yabsa (Iraqi white bean stew), made up of tender lamb or veal, white kidney beans (also called cannellini beans), tomato sauce and served over rice. Fasoulia, a soup of dry white beans, olive oil, and vegetables. Harissa, similar to keşkek, a porridge made of stewed and boned chicken and coarsely ground soaked wheat. Kebabs, a dish consisting of grilled or broiled meats on a skewer or stick.ʻAlī Akbar Mahdī, (2003) p.40 -41 The most common kebabs include lamb and beef, although others use chicken or fish. Lentil soup, may be vegetarian or include meat, and may use brown, red, yellow or black lentils, with or without the husk. Maqluba, an upside-down rice and aubergine (eggplant) casserole, hence the name which means "upside-down". It is sometimes made with fried cauliflower instead of aubergine and usually includes meat—often braised lamb.Jacob (2007) p.4 Margat bamia or simply bamia, a stew made with okra and lamb or beef cubes in a tomato sauce.Fair, (2008) p.72 Margat baytinijan, an aubergine-based dish of the Balkans and the Middle East. All versions are based primarily on sautéed aubergine (eggplant) and tomato, usually with minced meat.
Masgouf, a traditional Mesopotamian dish made with fish from the Tigris.Taus-Bolstad, Stacy (2003) Iraq in Pictures, Twenty-First Century Books, p.55, It is an open-cut freshwater fish roasted for hours after being marinated with olive oil, salt, curcuma and tamarind while keeping the skin on. Traditional garnishes for the masgouf include lemon, chopped onions and tomatoes, as well as the clay-oven flatbreads common to Iraq and much of the Middle East. Pomegranate soup, called shorbat rumman in Iraq. It is made from pomegranate juice and seeds, yellow split peas, ground beef, mint leaves, spices, and other ingredients.Jacob (2007) p.2 Qeema, a minced meat, tomato and chickpea stew, served with rice. Traditionally prepared at the annual Ashura commemorations in southern Iraq and can also be served in funerals, weddings, etc. The name qeema is an ancient Akkadian word meaning "finely chopped".
Quzi, stuffed roasted lamb. Hikakeh is a thin crust of slightly browned rice at the bottom of the cooking pot.
Tashrib, a soup made with either lamb or chicken with or without tomatoes eaten with Iraqi nan; the bread is broken into pieces and the soup is poured over in a big bowl.
Tepsi baytinijan, an Iraqi casserole. The main ingredient of the dish is aubergine (eggplant), which is sliced and fried before placing in a baking dish, accompanied with chunks of lamb/beef/veal and/or meatballs, plus tomatoes, onions and garlic. Potato slices are placed on top of the mixture, and the dish is baked. Like many other Iraqi dishes it is usually served with rice, along with salad and pickles.
Dumplings and meatballs Dolma (sarma), a family of stuffed vegetable dishes. The grape-leaf dolma is common. Courgette (zucchini), aubergine (eggplant), tomato and pepper are commonly used as fillings. The stuffing may or may not include meat.Fair, (2008), p.71 Falafel, a fried ball or patty made from spiced chickpeas or fava beans. Originally from Egypt, falafel is a form of common fast food in the Middle East, where it is also served as a kind of mezze and more commonly eaten with samoon with a salad and usually Amba (condiment) as dressing Kofta, a family of meatball or meatloaf dishes in Middle Eastern, Indian, and Balkan cuisines. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced or ground meat—usually beef or lamb—mixed with spices or onions. Vegetarian varieties include lauki kofta, shahi aloo kofta, and malai kofta. Kubba, a dish made of rice or burghul, chopped meat, and spices. There are many varieties and variations of kubba. One of the best-known varieties is a torpedo-shaped burghul shell stuffed with chopped meat and fried. Other varieties are baked, poached, or even served raw. They may be shaped into balls, patties, or flat.
Samosa, a small fried or baked pasty, which may be either half-moon shaped or triangular.
Processed meat Pastırma, a highly seasoned, air-dried cured beef in the cuisines of the former Ottoman countries. Sujuk, a dry, spicy sausage eaten from the Balkans to the Middle East and Central Asia.
Rice dishes Long-grain rice is a staple in Iraqi cuisine. Iraqi rice cooking is a multistep process intended to produce just-tender, fluffy grains. A prominent aspect of Iraqi rice cooking is the hikakeh, a crisp bottom crust. Before serving, the hikakeh is broken into pieces so that everyone is provided with some along with the fluffy rice.
Dolma, vine leaves stuffed with a mixture of ground lamb or beef with rice cooked with many fillings in the same pot, with pomegranate juice prominently added by North Iraqis to give it a unique taste. The Assyrians of Iraq may either call it dolma or yaprekh which is the Syriac term for stuffed grape leaves. Iraqis usually serve dolma without yoghurt. Often chicken or beef ribs are added to the cooking pot, and sometimes served with the dolma instead of masta or khalwah. Iraqi dolma is usually cooked and served in a tomato-based sauce. Dolma is very popular in Iraq. In Mosul they include courgettes (zucchini), tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplant, and grape leaves. They are occasionally steamed. Biryani, several rice-based foods made with spices, rice usually basmati and أرز عنبر and meat/vegetable, collectively popular in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and among Muslims in Sri Lanka. Mutabbaq samak (Arabic: مطبق سمك), fried fish served over stocked rice. Pilaf, similar to that of Iran. Quzi, a rice-based dish served with very slow-cooked lamb and roasted nuts and raisins. Tibeat, a Jewish-Iraqi dish made for Shabbat, slow-cooked chicken stuffed with rice, tomatoes, dried apricots and raisins, with a strong cardamom flavor.
In Iraqi Arabic, rice is called temmen, which is an assimilation of English "ten men" (a brand of Indian basmati rice). According to a common folktale, the word originated after World War I when Iraqi farmers declined to provide the British with rice to feed their soldiers in Basra. Thereafter, the British imported "Ten Men" instead. As such, when Iraqi porters used to hear British soldiers requesting them to carry the pouches of "Ten Men", they thought it meant rice in English. The word temmen has since entered the Iraqi vocabulary, and today, Iraqis still use that word for rice.