ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – When Muslims break fast at sundown during the holy month of Ramadan, every Kurdish dinner table ought to have a selection of delicious local sweets. Okra baklava, made from the humble green vegetable, is a particular favorite.

“I prepare 250 kg of this kind of sweet every day,” says Younis Abbas, 27, who has been making sweets for 10 years. 

His shop, Shayan Sweets in Erbil, has been doing a roaring trade since coronavirus lockdown measures were eased last week. 

“Preparing the okra sweet requires plenty of skill and time,” he tells Rudaw while busying in his kitchen. “Its ingredients include sugar, oil, flour, floral waters, egg, vanilla, and citric acid.”

Making a single batch of okra sweets can take up to six hours. 

“What we produce is very healthy because it does not contain any unnatural ingredients,” he says. This also means they should be eaten within two days so they don’t spoil. 

Peshmraw Salam, a customer, tells Rudaw the sweets are “delicious” and not too sweet like other kinds of baklava. 

“The price is good too,” Salam says. “We buy one kg for 4,000 dinars ($3.40).”

Ahmed Karim, who owns Shayan Sweets, says protecting the quality of their products is far more important than boosting production to meet the high demand. 

“There is high demand for okra sweets and people ask me to open more branches so as to increase the production, but I do not want to lower the quality of my business,” Karim says.

“What is really important is that I want to make my costumers happy. What really matters to me is the quality of the work, not more profits.”

Photos by Bilind T. Abdullah