Six Generations of Bukharan Cooks Celebrate the Flavors of Samarkand

Shared by Ilana Efrati
Recipe Roots: Samarkand, Uzbekistan > Jerusalem and Petah Tikva > Tel Aviv 

Artist and fashion designer Ilana Efrati’s early memories of the food of Samarkand, a city in modern day Uzbekistan where her family traces their roots, are from memorial gatherings for those who passed away in their community in Israel. In Bukharan tradition, these meals are meant as a way to celebrate the person who has passed. “It’s another [way] of thinking about death,” Ilana explains. It is a celebration of life. 

Up until Ilana was five years old or so, her mother Shulamit only prepared simple food for the family like meatballs and stewed meats with potatoes, she says. These were dishes that Ilana’s father, a Sephardic man who grew up in Jerusalem, liked. Seeing that Ilana enjoyed Bukharan flavors at the memorial meals, Shulamit started to adapt her cooking to reflect her family’s history. She made dumplings with thin skins and rich vegetable soup with beets. 

She also made oshi bakhsh, a dish of rice, meat, and fresh herbs. “The recipe gives the atmosphere of the season,” Ilana explains. In spring, lamb might be used. If pomegranates are in season, as they often are around Rosh Hashanah, they will be used to finish the dish and the cook will know it is the end of summer. “This is a philosophy of cooking that touched me very much,” Ilana explains, and one that reflects the culture of the region of Central Asia where Bukharan Jews lived for generations — and a few still do. 

Ilana’s grandfather Hananya (middle-front), Ilana’s grandmother (middle-left), and Ilana’s mother Shulamit (middle-back) in Tel Aviv in the 1940s.

Ilana’s family went back and forth between Samarkand and Jerusalem for nearly 50 years, between the middle of the 19th century and the early 20th century, on horseback. Her great-grandfather Zion and his father Abraham Asherov were the first arrivals and among the founders of the “Buchari Streets,” of Jerusalem, which comprised the first modern neighborhood outside of the old city’s walls, a family website explains. 

Still, part of the family remained in Samarkand for a time. Zion’s son, Hananya who was Shulamit’s father, was born there but grew up on the stories of Zion’s travels to Jerusalem. Coming from Samarkand where Jews and Muslims lived in close quarters peacefully, Zion referred to his journey to Jerusalem as Haj, the word in Islam for one who makes a religious pilgrimage to Mecca. 

In 1927, the family completed their move, holding close to the traditions, flavors, and sounds of Samarkand. They built a rich life in Jerusalem and later lived next to an orange grove in Petah Tikva that they owned. Like in Samarkand, the family built two kitchens in Petah Tivka, one inside for winter cooking and another outdoors with a taboon for summer feasts. They enjoyed a slower paced lifestyle with large meals served in the middle of the day, they made their own grappa, and celebrated Bukharan clothing and craftsmanship. Generations later, this lifestyle influences Ilana’s work and life, which she splits between Tel Aviv and Umbria, Italy where she maintains a garden and finds inspiration. 

A holiday dinner in Shapira, Tel Aviv in Hananya’s home in the 1950’s. Hananya is on the left side earring a Joma, a Bukharian silk coat that is customary on the holiday. His children and grandchildren sit around him.

Shortly after the founding of Israel, however, Shulamit wasn’t certain that she wanted to live in this lifestyle. In 1949 she met her future husband Yitzhak. “He offered her a very different lifestyle from that of her family’s: local, simple, and at times austere. But she wanted to be local, not ‘Samarkand’ or ‘Bukhara,’ and found his promises very attractive,” explains the family’s website. 

Years later, Shulamit started to return to her roots. As she started to cook Bukharan dishes for her family, Ilana enjoyed them, but didn’t help prepare them. Still, she absorbed some of them. The recipes were finally written down and passed to another generation when Ilana’s daughter Or Rosenboim was in middle school. Or spent the afternoons with her grandmother and for a school project, started to document Shulamit’s recipes as well as recipes from her other grandmother from Riga, Latvia. As an adult Or created The Migrant’s Supper Club, a culinary project in London that explores migration routes in Europe, the Mediterranean, and drawing on her family’s roots, Central Asia.

Continuation of tradition is an integral part of this family. When Shulamit passed away, Ilana prepared a memorial meal for her mother. “I continued this tradition I saw as a child,” she says. She gathered people who knew and loved Shulamit and together they cooked and ate Shulamit’s recipe for oshi bakhsh along with a thin bread from a Bukharan baker. They sang songs Shulamit loved and remembered her.

Oshi Bakhsh (Rice with Lamb and Herbs)

In some Bukharian homes oshi bakhsh is prepared by first sautéeing the meat in oil and then adding water. Ilana and her family prefer to cook the ground lamb in water from the beginning for a more tender result. 

Makes:  6 to 8 servings
Total time: 1 hour

Ingredients
1 ¼ pounds ground lamb meat
2 cups water
2 bunches cilantro, finely chopped
1 bunch mint leaves, finely chopped
¼ to ½  cup olive oil 
1 ½ cups basmati rice (or other long grain), rinsed and drained
2 to 3 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 cup of pomegranate seeds
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Preparation
1. Place the lamb meat into a large pot over medium heat and add 2 cups of water. Cook the meat, breaking and crumbling it frequently with a wooden spoon until it is cooked and becomes brown, about 10 minutes. 

2. Add the cilantro, mint, and olive oil, and mix evenly. Add the rice and salt and stir well. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Cover the pot with a small kitchen towel or paper towel and place the lid above the towel. Reduce the flame to low and cook until all the liquids are absorbed and the rice is done, about 35 to 40 minutes.

3. To serve, transfer the oshi bakhsh into a wide serving platter and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds mixing some into the rice and sprinkling the rest of the pomegranate seeds on top. Serve the oshi bakhsh hot with some lemon wedges on the side.