Kubbat Ḥamuḍ ShalghamTurnip and Swiss Chard Chowder, Iraqi Style Nawal Nasrallah (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution An ancient Babylonian recipe for cooking turnips survived in one of the three cuneiform tablets dating from around 1700 BC. THIS IS A SUBSTANTIAL DISH of a creamy vegetable soup with meat-filled rice dumplings, which can be served as a main meal. The name is a combination of kubba (the filled dumplings), ḥāmuḍ (sour)—on account of the lemon juice used—and shalgham (turnips). It nourishes and satisfies with its harmonious flavors, exciting textures, and a welcoming aroma that says this is home. Admittedly, it is not easy getting people all excited about the humble turnip, let alone the prehistorically giant chard leaf, but I do hope that my enthusiasm toward them will prove to be contagious, because they are really worth trying—quietly tasty and a good-for-you kind of food. And they have been around in Iraq from time immemorial, even etymologically. In the ancient Akkadian, language of the Babylonians and Assyrians, turnip was called laptu, from which the Arabic lift was derived (the present-day Iraqi dialectal shalgham for turnip was derived from the medieval Persian loan word, sh/saljam). Regarding the chard, its Arabic name, silq, was derived from the Akkadian silqu, which designated the beetroot and the chard. What is really fascinating is that an ancient Babylonian recipe for cooking turnips survived in one of the three cuneiform tablets dating from around 1700 bc. They were discovered in the early twentieth century on the site of ancient Babylon (see Jean Bottéro, The Oldest Cuisine in the World, 2004). The best preserved of these tablets contains twenty-five recipes of stews written in a telegraphic style. One of them uses cultivated turnips with no meat, in addition to water, onion, arugula, cilantro, and Persian shallots (Allium stipitatum). Toward the end of cooking, the dish is flavored, enriched, and thickened with the addition of bulb leeks (Allium porrum) mashed with garlic, and bread crumbs mixed with blood (later prohibited by both Judaism and Islam). The Babylonian stew dishes most probably reflected the kind of daily fare offered to the elite household members for their nourishment and sustenance—as we still do today. Evidently the turnips were deemed important [End Page 5] enough to be included in this high-cuisine collection of recipes. Click for larger view View full resolution As we move further in history, we learn more about these two vegetables. In the medical opinion of the medieval physicians and botanists, for instance, who followed the tenets of the Galenic theory of the four humors, prevalent at the time, both chard and turnip were valued as an effective cure for cold-related ailments, on account of their hot and humid properties. They were also held in high regard for increasing blood and semen, and were said to work as aphrodisiacs. In the medieval kitchens, they were used in the most delicious of ways, based on the two medieval cookbooks that survived from Baghdad. Chard, for instance, as described in the thirteenth-century Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh (Cookbook), by al-Baghdadi, was boiled and mixed with drained yogurt and garlic, and served as a side dish. Turnips were cooked in white sauce, as described in the tenth-century Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh, by Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq. The dish, this time over, was richly thickened with crushed chickpeas, ground almonds, milk, and rice. Meatballs made with lean meat pounded into paste were thrown into the simmering pot. This is not quite dissimilar, I dare say, to how we continued to cook the turnips. In Iraq today, Kubbat ḥāmuḍ shalgham is a winter treat because both turnips and chard are available in that season only; and as in medieval times, we also swear by their power to soothe cold symptoms. Interestingly, the traditional Jewish Iraqi version of it replaces the turnips with another ancient root vegetable, the beet. There is no satisfactory reason for why this is so. However, it is my suspicion that this was a culinary tradition that the Babylonian Jews of Baghdad preserved from their continual presence in...
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Jun 27, 2024
N Aslantürk 
Open Access
