Indian-Jewish Cooking

[Stone]

All this talk of Indian food made me dig out a cookbook my Mom gave me years ago. "Indian-Jewish Cooking." I've never cooked anything out of it, and the recipes seem fairly simple. But there's a good amount of new and interesting stuff in there.

The author is Jewish-Iraqi, born in Calcutta. The book has a brief summary of three Jewish communities in India (Bombay, Calcutta and Cochin.)

It's published by the author in England:

Hyman Publishers

10 Holyoake Walk

London N2 0JX

[anil]

.......

The author is Jewish-Iraqi, born in Calcutta.  The book has a brief summary of three Jewish communities in India (Bombay, Calcutta and Cochin.)  

.....

The Bagdadi-Jewish community in Calcutta is different culinary wise than those from Mumbai. Having eaten in homes of folks from both communities, I have to admit that the culinary delight is extra-ordinary. The community in calcutta has been influenced by Bengalis' in their adaption of techniques from Bengal, while the community in Mumbai show influences of the Konkan region.

There used to be some good Bagdadi restaurants in Calcutta (or Kolkatta) which I vaguely remember about .

[polly]

The fabulous Claudia Roden gives quite a bit of information about Jewish communities in India in her book 'the book of jewish food'.

Maybe we can share some of the more unusual or unique recipes.

I'd be interested in hearing more about jewish Indian food from those who know.

[Fat Guy]

Here's a site that seems loaded with information:

http://www.haruth.com/AsianIndia.html

[anil]

Here's a site that seems loaded with information:

http://www.haruth.com/AsianIndia.html

Excellent collection under one URL (a.k.a roof )

[LaNiña]

Copeland Marks' "Sephardic Cooking" has a section on Indian Jewish cooking, and his "Varied Kitchens of India" has some Indian Jewish stuff as well.

I have some recipes from Jewish Indian families that were handed down to me by the women in an ex's family (he's a Jew from Bombay, family is in Israel now, as are most of the world's Indian Jews). If anyone's interested, I'll dig them out.

[Suvir Saran]

Jewish Cuisine From India

The Jews of India are a very small community today. They settled in Bombay Cochin and Calcutta. What began as a small trickle in as early as the thirteenth century, became a large immigration in the mid 1800s. India was in the height of British rule and it became easier for the Jews to settle in India. They acted as middlemen in trade between the British, the Arabs and the Chinese. All across the globe one was seeing a heightened acceptance of things new. There was experimentation happening in all fields. Culinary fusion was just as prolific in this period. The introduction to the many tropical vegetables and spices was a fascinating encounter for these immigrants. They embraced most all of these spices and added them to their repertoire and created a Jewish cuisine that became only so much richer. The fusion of the cooking of Baghdad and those of the many Indian regions took place. The earlier part of the last century saw a high point in the Jewish culture of India. This was true also for the foods of these people. In that last several decades many of these people have emigrated to other parts of the world. Not for any fear of persecution, but simply to pursue another life. The recipes that were created in the first 100 years after they moved to the Indian soil, have remained. They combined the best of the Maharashtrian, Bengali and the southern Indian cooking. Thus Jewish cooking of India was a mix of sweet and sour with spicy and hot. Also common throughout most Indian Jewish cooking is the use of sugar and coconut milk. Like the Parsis, the Jews of India gave up eating beef to show respect for their Hindu neighbors. Some even believed that beef was not kosher. Many non Jewish houses in Calcutta, Bombay and Cochin are still cooking these Jewish-Indian dishes. And every time these recipes are created, one lives the memories of these people. In fact the cooks that worked in the Jewish homes were most sought after. They were most often muslim men who cooked for the Jewish families under the tutelage of the ladies of the homes. In Bombay as also in Cochin and Calcutta, one still is able to find a rare few cooks that belong to that lineage.

[Suvir Saran]

The Book of Jewish Food (Knopf) by Claudia Roden is an excellent book. It has the kind of information that is essential if one wants to transcend the barriers of time, place and social makeup.