Mehîr

Mehîr is an old Kurdish spoon dish: wheat pounded free of its husk is cooked in ayran, yoghurt thinned with water, and crushed garlic goes in once it cools. It is cooked in Qamishli and Derik in Ramadan and through the winter, and the city’s Armenian families put it on the table on the night of Easter.

How the wheat is prepared

The wheat is soaked lightly and pounded in a stone mortar until the husk comes away. In Kurdish the husked wheat is called dan. The grain is not boiled and cracked, and that is where it parts from bulgur.

Three kinds

• Mehîra Erdê: the dan is cooked in water, and ayran (dew) is poured over it once the water runs low.
• Mehîra Gerrandî: the dan cooks directly in ayran over the fire, stirred without a break.
• Mehîra Pincarê: wild herbs cook together with the dan; the best known are wild mint and gundelia.

Ayran made from sheep’s yoghurt is the one people prefer.

How it differs from kishk and harees

The yoghurt goes into mehîr as fresh ayran; it is not dried with bulgur and soured as in kishk. In the harees of Aleppo, cracked wheat is pounded with meat until it turns to porridge; mehîr has no meat and the grain is not pounded down. Its closest relative is hintiyye from the Arab and Syriac villages of Hasakah: husked wheat, ayran made from dried yoghurt, and ghee, cooked overnight in a clay oven.

Where to eat it

At home tables in Qamishli and in Derik (al-Malikiyah), at the north-eastern tip of Hasakah province. It is counted among the main dishes of the Derik area. There is no verified information about restaurants serving it.