Cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews
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The cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews is an assortment of cooking traditions that developed among the Jews of The Middle East, North Africa, Asia, and Arab countries. Mizrahi Jews have also been known as Oriental Jews (Mizrahi is Hebrew: Eastern or Oriental). Jews of the Mizrahi communities cook foods that were and are popular in their home countries, while following the laws of kashrut. The cuisine is based largely on fresh ingredients, as marketing was done in the local shuk. Meat is ritually slaughtered in the shehita process, and is soaked and salted. Meat dishes are a prominent feature of sabbath, festival, and celebretory meals. Cooked, stuffed and baked vegetables are central to the cuisine, as are various kinds of beans, chickpeas, lentils and burghul (cracked wheat). Rice takes the place of potatoes.
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[edit] History
Mizrahi Jews are the Jews of the Middle East, and points south and east, largely along the Mediterranean coastal areas and the levant. In some countries, there was much mixing of populations after 1492 with the Jews of Spain who were exiled after the expulsion of the edict.
As the cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews, these culinary styles are the cuisines of the Jews of India, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran (Persia), Afghanistan, Bukhara (Uzbekistan), Burma, The Maghreb, The Berber communities, Kurdistan, The Eastern Caucasus and Georgia. Some of these communities and cuisine styles overlap with Sephardic communities who fled to many Eastern, Middle Eastern, and North African countries after the expulsion.
[edit] Mizrahi cuisine basics
Coming from the Mediterranean and "sunny" climes, Mizrahi cuisine is often light, with an emphasis on salads, stuffed vegetables and vine leaves, olive oil, lentils, fresh and dried fruits, herbs and nuts, and chickpeas. Meat dishes often make use of lamb or ground beef. Fresh lemon juice is added to many soups and sauces. Many meat and rice dishes incorporate dried fruits such as apricots, prunes and raisins. Pine nuts are used as a garnish. Pomegranate juice is a staple of Persian Jewish cooking. Kubbeh, a meat-stuffed bulgur dumpling, features in the cooking of many Mizrahi communities. It is served in the cooking broth, as a kind of soup.
[edit] Breads
Flatbreads of many varieties are the staple of the Mizrahi diet. Various flatbreads such as pitas, laffa, malawah, and lavash are used instead of challah. Lahoh is a flatbread of the Yemenite Jews with a spongy texture.[1]
[edit] Herbs, spices and seasoning blends
Mizrahi cuisine uses a lot of cumin, pepper, sesame seeds, and other spices commonly found in all Middle Eastern cuisines[2]. Saffron, a staple of Sephardic cuisine is also featured in certain Mizrahi dishes as well. Another major focus of flavoring dishes are the seasoning blends, pastes, and sauces of a light consitency. Hilbe, a paste made from fenugreek seeds and hot pepper, is added to soups and other traditional Yemenite dishes. Skhug, a hot pepper sauce, comes in two varieties, red and green. A diluted version of skhug is spooned over felafel. Hawaij is a Yemenite spice mixture that comes into two varieties. One, a blend of powdered ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, is added to coffee and baked goods. The other, a blend of turmeric, black pepper, onion, cumin, cardamom and cloves, is added to soup. Pastes and sauces are very often served on the side in small dishes on the table during meals, to be added by each person as the wish. Combinations of certain spices to flavor a variety of dishes are often particular to certain countries such as coriander and cumin in Egyptian cuisine[3].
The shuks of the Middle East and North Africa sell ready made spice blends sold in bulk, but traditionally, Mizrahi Jews bought fresh herbs and prepared their own blends at home to maintain kashruth, fearing insects in the premade blends sold in the open air bazaar[4].
- Adeni Hawaij (Aden, Yemen) - cumin, coriander, black pepper
- Adeni Tea black tea spice (Aden, Yemen) - cardamom, cinnamon, cloves
- Advieh-e Halegh Halegh (Charoset) Spice (Iran) - It may contain: cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom (optional)[5]
- Hawaij (Yemen) - black pepper, cardamom, turmeric, saffron
- Kama (Morocco) - black pepper, cumin, ginger, turmeric, nutmeg
- Quatre épices or Four spices (Egypt) - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves
- Za'tar or zahtar - roasted sesame seeds, ground sumac berries, wild thyme or hyssop, salt.
[edit] Desserts
Hot sahlab, a liquidy cornstarch pudding originally flavored with orchid powder (today invariably replaced by artificial flavorings), is served in cups as a winter drink, garnished with cinnamon, nuts, coconut and raisins. Arak is the preferred alcoholic beverage. Rosewater is a common ingredient in cakes and desserts. Malabi, a cold cornstarch pudding, is sprinkled with rosewater and red syrup. Ikaddaif or kadaif is a very sweet pastry similar in style and technique to baklavah. It consists of shredded dough, which is wrapped around crushed nuts, baked and then soaked in syrup. It is common in various parts of the Middle East and is served at festive meals[6].
[edit] Cooking techniques
As cooking on Shabbat is prohibited. Mizrahi Jews take advantage of slow cooking techniques, such as baking on a low temperature over night, to have available, hot dishes on the sabbath. This technique is virtually universal to all Jewish cuisines. One staple of this technique is Hamin or Chamin (from the word "kham," which means "hot"). In north Africa this dish is known as Dafina. There are many varieties of hamin and Dafina, as particularly local spices and ingredients are used, as well as the method of preparation. Some varieties are denser than others, and some use rice as a staple instead of the common root vegetables. Bourekas are often served on Shabbat morning. In Yemenite cooking, Shabbat dishes include jahnun and kubbanah.
[edit] Shabbat
Sabbath foods are often slow cooked prior to Sabbath, and kept warm overnight once cooked, as cooking is forbbiden on the Sabbath by Jewish Law. In Yemenite cooking, Shabbat dishes include jahnun and kubbanah.
[edit] Passover
Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Passover cuisines have little in common. A main reason for this, aside from the general differences in the respective styles, is the fact that Mizrahi cuisine allows the use of kitniyot, which is forbidden with increasing stringency amongst the Ashkenazim. Kitniyot, are legumes and some grains, which include rice and a variety of beans and pulses. One consequence is that many Ashkenazim prefer not to eat at the homes of Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, although according to traditional Jewish law, it is totally permissible, and one only need eat around the kitniyot, as it is not hametz. This issue has been the source of much confusion in the Jewish community.
Mizrahi Jews prepare charoset in a wide variety of ways using many different ingredients, Charoset is one of the symbolic foods eaten at the Passover seder. Whereas charoset in Ashkenazi homes is a blend of chopped apples and nuts spiced with wine and cinnamon, Mizrahi charoset is often based on dried fruits, especially dates and is much thicker in consistency.
Other Mizrahi Jewish dishes are tebit, a chicken and rice dish, and ingriyi, sweet and sour meat topped with aubergines, both from the cuisine of Iraqi Jews.
[edit] Special dishes
- Baba ghanoush
- Baklawa
- Bourekas
- Chamin
- Chreime
- Couscous
- Falafel
- Ful
- Gondi
- Halva
- Hilbe
- Hummus
- Jachnun
- Kadaif
- Kibbeh
- Kubbaneh
- Kubbeh Hamusta
- Kubbeh Matfuniya
- Lahoh
- Malaby
- Malawah
- Ma'amoul
- Matbucha
- Moroccan cigars
- Moussaka
- Mufleta
- Sabich
- Sahlab
- Sambusak
- Shakshuka
- Skhug
- Stuffed cabbage
- Tabbouleh
- Tagine
- Yaprah
[edit] References
- ^ See Kosher and Traditional Jewish Cooking: Authentic recipes from a classic culinary heritage: 150 delicious dishes shown in 250 stunning photographs, Marlena Spieler, Lorenz Books, UK 2008, p. 218
- ^ See The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, Claudia Roden, Knopf 1996, p. 232
- ^ The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, Claudia Roden, Knopf 1996, p. 232
- ^ See The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York, Claudia Roden, Knopf, 2006, pg 234
- ^ See BFruitfull's recipe for Persian halegh
- ^ See Kosher and Traditional Jewish Cooking: Authentic recipes from a classic culinary heritage: 150 delicious dishes shown in 250 stunning photographs, Marlena Spieler, Lorenz Books, UK 2008
[edit] See also
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Wikibooks Cookbook has a recipe/module on |
[edit] External links
- Persian MIRROR - Cuisine: Basic Cooking
- Aromas of Aleppo
- My Jewish Learning - Sephardic Cuisine, The Middle East
- My Jewish Learning - Sephardic Cuisine, The Maghreb: Northern Africa
- A recipe for Yemenite hilbe on AOL fod</ref>.
