Cochin kosher: The fragrant foods of India's Jews

Arjun · 06-18-2006, 10:51 PM

A FORK ON THE ROAD
Cochin kosher: The fragrant foods of India's Jews
Linda Bladholm food@MiamiHerald.com

Thu, Jun. 08, 2006

SCHOLARS: Ellen Goldberg and Nathan Katz learned to cook kosher Indian dishes in the South Indian state of Kerala 20 years ago.

* Recipe | Cochin chicken roast (main dish)
* Online-Only Recipe | Hamin (Cochin Jewish chicken and rice pulao)

If you've never heard of kosher Indian food, you're not alone. Not many people know there are Jews in India, albeit in very small communities.

Nathan Katz and his wife, Ellen Goldberg, regularly cook and serve kosher Indian dishes like turmeric rice with chicken, okra with chickpeas or chicken cooked with cardamom and cloves for the Sabbath meal in their Miami Beach home. They learned these specialties of the Jewish community of Cochin (now Kochi) in the South Indian state of Kerala 20 years ago while on a Fulbright fellowship.

Katz and Goldberg began their research into Jewish identity in India with anthropological detachment, but over the course of the year embraced the customs of the Orthodox Jewish home in which they lived. They returned to the United States with a renewed commitment to their faith -- and extra poundage, having conducted much of their research sitting around tables talking and eating.

The couple, who met at Temple University in Philadelphia, moved to Miami in 1994 when Katz was hired to chair the Center for the Study of Spirituality at Florida International University. He is an internationally recognized authority on South Asian religions and spent many years in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. Goldberg is a program director for the Greater Miami Jewish Federation.

Jews are believed to have sought refuge in Kerala around 500 B.C. after the destruction of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Many were involved in the spice trade and were familiar with the Malabar Coast and its tolerant Hindu rulers. Cochin Jews are Sephardic, meaning their food is closer to Middle Eastern than Eastern European.

They eat no beef or lamb, as the last shokhet (ritual slaughterer) left Cochin more than 30 years ago. Fish and chicken are the main meats, marinated in lime juice instead of yogurt and supplemented by vegetables and rice.

Kosher mai (fresh grape wine) is made for Kiddush, the blessing after Shabbat. Matzoh is made with the help of a Hindu mill owner. Jews have always been respected here, and are included in community festivities, with their Hindu, Muslim and Christian neighbors preparing kosher vegetarian food for the occasions.

Spicy fish curries and rice cooked with coconut milk, saffron and almonds is common in Cochin kosher cuisine. Sabbath meals may start with fish balls in curry or fried fish smeared in spices and koobe rice-flour dumplings stuffed with potato and dipped in coriander sauce.

Next comes the hamin (''hot'' in Arabic), the Indian version of cholent -- a slow-simmered meat dish that cooks overnight because of the prohibition against cooking on the Sabbath. In Kerala, that means chicken sautÃ©ed with onions, tomatoes and spices, and placed in a pot with rice and water. The sealed pot cooks over low heat until the chicken is almost melting.

The Jewish community in Kerala is dwindling, but Cochin Jews in Israel keep the culinary tradition alive, as do Nathan Katz and Ellen Goldberg.

Linda Bladholm's latest book is Latin and Caribbean Grocery Stores Demystified.

FYI: Kashrut, Caste and Kabbalah: The Religious Life of the Jews of Cochin by Nathan Katz and Ellen Goldberg (Manohar, $41.95) is available at bookstores including amazon.com.

1.5 million · 06-19-2006, 07:18 AM

Very interesting. I'm not much of a fish eater myself - and in fact love beef, lamb and pork foods - but not be an observant anything I have the freedom to defile myself in any way that I wish eh? I just love Curries BTW - Thai, Indian etc...doesn't matter - I crave the stuff...and it can't be too spicy for me either...though I enjoy the mild ones as well...still I tend to pour on the dried pepper to any yellow curry to give it a bit more kick...

I have a very good friend who used to own and run a Kosher Chinese restaruant in Paris - and my the food was outstanding (no pork fried rice - can't say I missed it much)...he has sold the place (and all his other retarants & pubs he has had over the years I think...though he may still be an investment partner in some of them) - he now runs all the restaurants in the Louvre! Which I find to be pretty cool (for a corporate kind of a gig...)...we were at one of his places once helping to clean up in the evening when he got hit up by some kind of French mafia types...not a pretty scene...I was ready to fight these guys - but in hindsight just letting him pay off the protection money was probably the best course of action...in part I think this is one reason he has gotten out of running his own places...

redcake · 06-20-2006, 02:32 AM

That's interesting. I like in one of New York's three Little India's and there have always been a couple curry houses with Kosher certification, frequented by Orthodox Jews. There's always a small group of Yarmulkes and ankle length skirt wearing Jews making chit chat on the street, after what i gather are special occasion lunches for them. I figured it for a novelty since most of the other Indian/Pakistani joints use Halal certification which is vaguely similar, and it struck me as a really New York idea. Now that there's been a boom in Southern Indian cuisine, which is mostly vegetarian (and starchy breads!) it's pretty standard to have the kashrut letter stuck in the window. That article puts a new spin on it for me though.

karan · 06-20-2006, 05:16 AM

Now that there's been a boom in Southern Indian cuisine, which is mostly vegetarian (and starchy breads!)

Southern India is famous for non-veg as well as veg dishes. Kerala is very famous for fish curry whereas hyderabad for its chicken recipes. (Including the famous hyderabadi biriyani).