Mumbai food: Savour Jewish delicacies from Kolkata during this pop-up

While flourishing adult in Kolkata, 63-year-old Bandra-based Pia Promina Dasgupta Barve, who goes by prepare Pia Promina, spent most of her time during a home of her Jewish friend, Esther Silliman, a associate lady director during Loreto House. Promina clearly recalls tucking into a delicious Aloo Makalla, Bamya Khatta (pickled ladyfingers), cakes, cookies and other Jewish delicacies prepared by Esther’s mother, Flower. “She was also my cookery clergyman in school. we learnt many Jewish recipes from her. She would order us with a hang since we were a unruly lot though we were always acquire during her home,” says Promina, flipping by 86-year-old Silliman’s Three Cups Of Flower, a multi-cuisine cookbook featuring Middle-Eastern, Far-Eastern and Jewish recipes.

Aloo Makalla featuring confit potatoes and Roast Chicken

Promina, who shifted to Mumbai post her matrimony in 1975, and worked in food estimate and trade departments during Mafco and Britannia, stayed in hold with Silliman. In fact, she even asked her to representation in with recipes for Calcutta Cookbook, presenting a story of a city by food, co-authored by Promina’s late mom and epicurean chef, Minakshi Das Gupta, behind in 1993. “She and we are tighten friends now. She, and her daughter Jael Silliman, have strived to revive a Jewish village in Kolkata, and she is still full of beans. Recently, she was consulted for a Jewish menu during an arriving grill there,” informs Promina, who now runs her possess bakery called Pia’s Food Boutique, provision cakes and cookies to Nature’s Basket. This weekend, she will horde a lunch pop-up, Jewish Kitchens Of Calcutta, organized by a city-based dining knowledge curator, Authenticook.

Chef Pia Promina Das Gupta Barve

What’s a origin?
While Jewish pockets are found in opposite tools of India, their cuisines vary, formed on a state/region. “The Jewish village would never be a ghetto. They non-stop their homes for Sabbath and blending from other communities. For instance, a Bene Israelis, who staid in Alibaug, blending to Maharashtrian-style of cooking while Cochin’s Jews, one of a beginning Jewish settlers in India, use coconut milk,” informs Promina.

Challah

Meanwhile, a cuisine of Calcutta’s Jews is a mélange of dishes, with fry chicken, lamb, fish and steep though sans pork. “They also blending from Bengali cuisine. For instance, one of a Jewish women [I don’t know who she was] saw Bengali women make a slight Aloo Bhaja and began to use potatoes with a Roast Chicken. That’s how Aloo Makalla, a standard Calcutta Jewish creation, was born,” reveals Promina, who will offer it during a pop-up, with Helbeh (a coriander and fenugreek chutney).

Israeli Cheesecake

The Jew cross-over
The menu also facilities dishes like Anjoli, a cold fish plate done with coconut milk, Chopped Chicken Liver and Mahashas, another classical Calcutta Jewish plate featuring pressed vegetables. “In a aged days, Kolkata was a melting pot of communities with a British, Armenians, a Jews, Anglo-Indians, etc. So, there’s certain to be a cross-over in cuisines too. Stuffing vegetables is a Middle-Eastern and Anglo-Indian concept. Mahashas might have been blending from a Bengali Potoler Dolma (stuffed parwal) or a Anglo-Indian Tomato Farcies. The Jews things a vegetables with rice, fish or meat. Traditionally, it was baked on chullahs; now, in ovens,” says a home cook, adding that Jewish cuisine facilities elementary cooking techniques (“stove-top cooking or frying”) and is abounding in whole spices, instead of grounded variety. “You will also find a lot of tomato and tamarind in Calcutta Jewish dishes since they adore khatta-meetha, that is also loyal of Iran’s Persian cuisine,” Promina signs off.

On: Jun 26, 1 pm
At: Bandra (W)
Call: 9819497968
Cost: 1,200

What’s on a menu?

Cheese Sambosak: A specialty of Kolkata’s long-standing Jewish bakery, Nahoum and Sons, it’s a Middle-Eastern baked samosa (“more like karanji”) with a inexhaustible cheese filling.

Chopped Chicken Liver: A typically Iraqi Jew plate done with steep liver, tough boiled eggs, boiled onions. The Bengali Jewish chronicle is spicier.

Anjoli: Traditionally baked with Bhetki and coconut milk, a cold, soupy fish plate eaten with rice.

Aloo Makalla With Roast Chicken: Cooked usually by Calcutta Jews, a plate facilities pan-roasted joints of steep with confit potatoes and served with Helbeh (coriander and fenugreek chutney).

Mahashas: Vegetables pressed with rice filling.

Israeli Cheesecake: A cheesecake, presumably sole on a streets of Israel, featuring a cake but a crust.

Challah (pronounced hallah): A special Jewish braided bread eaten on holiday meals.

Bamya Khatta: Pickled ladyfinger. “I learnt a plate from a friend’s mother, Aunty Sybil. The ladyfinger is pressed with ginger, mint, coriander and chillies and preserved in vinegar,” she adds.

Did we know?
Flower Silliman’s good grandfather, operative with Hong Kong bank in Kolkata, was invited to Hong Kong and desired their rickshaws. He brought one back, that became a antecedent to make a rickshaws in Kolkata.

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