How One Cook in Switzerland Is Preserving the Flavors of India’s Baghdadi Jews

Shared by Elli Benaiah
Recipe Roots: Kolkata, India > London > Ramat Gan, Israel > Toronto > Ra’anana, Israel > Basel, Switzerland

Last week, Elli Benaiah shared his family’s Shabbat dinner recipes with us. To see those recipes and learn more about the origins of the Baghdadi Jewish community, check out this story. 

In the 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Jewish families from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria migrated to India. Working with the British, they established ports of trade in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Kolkata, and business in Pune. As cooks from the community migrated with their families, they brought Middle Eastern culinary traditions with them along with Jewish customs. Here, Indian-Bagdadi Jews or the Baghdadi Jewish of India, as they are known, created a unique community and cuisine, unlike the one they left in the Middle East and unlike the one they settled into in India. 

Elli Benaiah, a lawyer and caterer who lives in Basel, Switzerland is a descendant of this community and determined to preserve its unique culinary traditions. Using ingredients available in local markets, he explains, Indian-Baghdadi cooks created a new cuisine. “They incorporated Indian spices into Iraqi cuisine and that created a unique Jewish Indian kitchen that is very different from what Indians know,” Elli explains. “A lot of the food was created for Jewish festivals [and] for Friday nights.”  

In his childhood home in Israel and his grandmother’s home in England, the Friday night menu was always the same. Elli likens the tradition to returning to a beloved restaurant and ordering the #72 each time. “It was always the same and it was always good and we always looked forward to Friday nights,” he adds. 

There was chicken with bamboo and coconut, potatoes fried with turmeric called aloo makala, stuffed tomatoes and onions, and rice pilau made fragrant with cardamom and cinnamon and turned golden with turmeric. With leftovers on some Saturdays, the potatoes were repurposed to make an elaborate Shabbat salad. Added to the mix were chicken, hard boiled eggs, green onions, chili, and cilantro, served with halba, a sauce made with fenugreek, ginger, and cilantro. Today, this dish is reserved for special occasions in Elli’s family. 

Elli has kept other recipes from his community alive through his catering company Numnum Dellicious, which will soon take over the culinary operations of a kosher restaurant in Basel that will offer his food for take-away. On his menu there will be kachori or fried dumplings filled with peas flavored with garam masala, fennel seeds, and chili that were served in the Baghdadi Jewish community for special gatherings. 

Elli also hopes to prepare them along with other small bites for an interfaith gathering of Muslims, Jews, and Christians, to honor the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther later this year. He says, “That way I can keep the memory of these foods by broadcasting it internationally.”

Shabbat Salad (Chicken, Potato, and Egg Salad)

Makes: 4 servings
Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients
4 pieces of chicken from spayty chicken curry (recipe here)
8 leftover potatoes from aloo makala (recipe here), chopped into 1 inch pieces
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 scallions, finely sliced or chopped
1 jalapeño, finely sliced or chopped1 bunch fresh cilantro, finely chopped (including stalks)
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation
1. Separate the chicken meat from the bones. Discard the bones and any cartilage. Chop the chicken into 1 inch pieces.

2. Place the chopped chicken, aloo makala, hard boiled eggs, scallions, jalapeno, cilantro, lemon juice, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are evenly distributed and coated with lemon juice evenly.

3. Serve at room temperature.

Halba (Fenugreek Relish)

 Makes: 6 to 8 servings
Total Time: 15 minutes active + 6 to 8 hours inactive

Ingredients
1 tablespoon whole fenugreek seeds 
1 cup boiling water
4 tablespoons room temperature water
1 bunch fresh cilantro including stalks
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeño, stem removed
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, finely grated
Juice of ½ lemon
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Preparation
1. Place the fenugreek seeds into a small boil. Cover with boiling water. Set aside for 6-8 hours. Drain the water and rinse the fenugreek three times to eliminate any bitterness. 

2. Place the fenugreek seeds into a food processor. Add the room temperature water and process the mixture until a frothy paste is formed, about 3-5 minutes.

3. Add the cilantro, garlic, jalapeño, and ginger to the food processor. Blend for another 5 minutes until the mixture forms a paste.

4. Transfer to a bowl and add lemon juice, salt, and mix until combined. 

5. Serve at room temperature with fried potatoes.

Kachori (Spiced Pea Dumpling)

Makes: 18 to 20 dumplings
Total Time: 1 hour

IngredientsFor the filling:
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon asafetida
2 cups fresh green peas or frozen peas, defrosted
1 large jalapeño, finely chopped
1 medium piece ginger (about 2 tablespoons), finely chopped or grated
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon coarsely ground fennel seeds
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon sugar
Juice of ½ lemon

For the dough:
1 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon canola oil or ghee
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons semolina
⅓ to ½ cup water to bind the dough
6 cups vegetable oil for frying

Preparation
1. Make the dough: Place the flour, salt, oil or ghee, lemon juice, and semolina into a large bowl. Gradually add ⅓ cup of water stirring the mixture together with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. Knead the dough until it is smooth, about 3 to 5 minutes. If the dough feels dry, continue adding water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is semi-stiff and not too sticky. Cover with a towel and set aside.

2. Make the filling: Place the olive oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Add the asafoetida and once it sizzles, about 2-4 minutes, add the peas. Add 4 tablespoons of water to the peas, cover and let cook for 5-6 minutes until the peas are tender and the water has evaporated. Add the jalapeño, ginger, garam masala, fennel seeds, salt, sugar, and lemon juice and stir. Cook the mixture until the jalapenos have softened and the mixture is evenly coated with the seasonings, approximately 10-15 minutes. Coarsely mash the mixture off the heat with a potato masher and set it aside to cool, about 15 minutes.

3. Place 6 cups of vegetable oil into a medium-sized pot over medium-high heat. Heat the oil until a thermometer inserted into the oil reads 350 degrees for when the oil gently simmers.

4. Make the dumplings: Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a very thin circle, about 1/16 inch in thickness. Cut out 2 ¼ inch circles from the dough, using a cookie cutter or the edge of a glass cup. Take a circle of dough and roll it out to about 4 inches in diameter. Place 1 tablespoon of the cooled filling into the center of the dough. Using your fingers, bring up the edges of the dough towards the center, over the filling and form a little basket shape by crimping the edges together to seal the dumpling. Continue with the remaining dough and filling. 

5. Fry the dumplings: Using a slotted spoon, gently place about 4 or 5 dumplings into the oil once it is hot. Fry the dumplings for about 5 minutes until they are golden brown, flipping them occasionally in the oil. Transfer the cooked dumplings onto a towel lined plate and continue frying the rest of the kachoris.

6. Serve hot with a side of mint raita (yogurt with mint).