Pumpkin Cake: a doorway to Italian Jewish Cuisine!

 If you look over this blog you will see I have have an abiding interest in cuisines of the Middle East ... food & recipes from Morocco, North Africa, Syria and Libya, Israel and Palestine.   One of the attractions for me, living where I am at present, is the affinity between Indian cuisine and many of the classic dishes from these regions; a similar use of rice and grains, spices, breads and savoury pastries and dumplings.  

In the course of my ''virtual culinary travels" I recently came across mention of a fascinating cookbook on Italian Jewish cuisine and its links with Jewish migration from many of the above countries (except Israel, of course - being a relatively new country in this region): "Cucina Ebraica: Flavours of the Italian Jewish Kitchen" by American writer and food historian Joyce Goldstein.     The introduction to the book looks at the migration and history of the Jewish people living in various regions of Italy and the food and recipes that developed over time with the meeting of these two cultures.

There has been a Jewish presence in Rome, southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia since the before the 2nd Century BC with waves of Jewish migrants from different parts of the world settling in Italy over the coming centuries.   Whilst many were forced to leave  the country during the Inquisition (those Catholics again!!), by and large they co-existed and integrated with the local communities (well, ok there WAS the Jewish Ghetto in Venice!) till the country was unified as one nation in 1848.   This rich blending of cultures continued through the 20th century until 1938 when Benito Mussolini joined forces with Hitler and his Italian fascist party suddenly embraced a policy of anti-Semitism almost as enthusiastically as the Nazis.   Porca Miseria!!

 As a consequence many members of the Jewish community were either killed or fled their homes and migrated to safer havens in other parts of the world.    Today the comparatively smaller Italian Jewish community mainly lives in areas around Rome, Milan and Turin but their history and influence within their adopted country can be still be seen quite dramatically in the legacy of a  distinctive Italian Jewish cuisine.

I have only just begun to explore Cucina Ebraica ... there are fabulous and unusual recipes for antipasti, meat & poultry and fish dishes.    But one recipe that immediately attracted me was in the Dolci or Desserts section ... a spice and fruit laden cake made with pumpkin puree, almonds, cinnamon and lemon zest.  I had never used pumpkin in a dessert before; perhaps I was put off by those sickly sweet sounding pumpkin pie recipes you read about in the US south?!   But as author Joyce Goldstein tells us, Torta di Zucca Baruca is a cake recipe "from the town of Treviso in the Veneto" and the use of pumpkin indicates  Sephardic origins.   (Sephardic Jews arrived in Italy starting in the 1490s when they were expelled from Spain.)

 The recipe is surprisingly simple to make once you have pureed the pumpkin.   I had to make some substitutes due to lack of availability of some ingredients in India: no candied citron so I left this out but increased the amount of dried fruit and lemon zest.   I also substitued dried cranberries for raisins (didn't have any in my cupboard!) and I used brandy instead of wine as it's too expensive to cook with in India!

The result was an impressive looking golden-hued cake with a lovely moist texture and a very subtle spicy - citrus taste ... goes perfectly with mangoes that were in season here the past few months.

Cucina Ebraica  was published in 1998 and is now unfortunately out of print. You can still get a copy on Amazon India for close to R10,000; but I managed to get a good second hand copy on the abebooks.com website (a second hand book portal with 35 million volumes) for US$5.00 plus postage to India.   A bargain if I ever saw one!

Torta di Zucca Barucca  (Pumpkin cake from the Veneto)

Ingredients:   I pumpkin or butternut squash around 1kg, 3/4 C unsalted butter, 3/4 C sugar, 1/2 C ground almonds, 1/2 C candied citron - minced, 1/3 C raisins soaked in 3T grappa or wine (I used cranberries soaked in brandy), grated zest of 2 lemons, I/2 C flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 t ground cinnamon, pinch of salt, 3 eggs - separated

Method:   Preheat oven to 160 dgrees C.  Butter a 9 inch cake pan & line base with parchment paper.

Peel and chop the pumpkin into 1/2 inch dice, discading seeds and fibres. Should have about 4 cups.   Melt butter in pot add pumpkin and cook covered for 25 mins till it is soft.   (At this stage I used a hand blender to puree it.)

Put in mixing bowl & whisk in sugar, almonds, citron, raisins (I chucked in the brandy too!) and lemon zest.    In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  

Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and blend together ... then add 3 egg yolks until thoroughly combined.    Whisk the egg whites in separate clean bowl until stiff peaks form.   Fold the whites thoroughly into the pumpkin mixture and pour into prepared cake tin.   Don't over beat!

Bake 45 to 60 minutes till cooked.   (We currently have a small dodgy Indian electric oven so I cooked it the full hour.)    Remove to rack to cool, then invert onto plate, remove parchment paper and turn back upright onto a serving platter.

As my Italian-Australian friend Josephine would have said: Bello gusto!!!

A Brief History of Chicken Chettinad

 

I recently discovered this beautiful Indian cookbook  – “The Bangla Table: Flavours and Recipes from Chettinad” – written by Sumeet Nair and Mrs Meenakshi Meyyappan.  Its a collection of recipes and stories from the Chettinad culture in South India’s Tamil Nadu state.                                                                                 The Nattukottai Chettinads were a people of traders who were known for their wide and adventurous travels – across India and other parts of South Asia, including Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia – in the 19th and early 20^th centuries. Phew!   Now their descendants live in 73 villages and three still functioning temples centred around the town of Karaikudi, some 400 kilometres from Chennai.   (It’s apparently about 7 hours drive --- from Chennai or Bangalore.)

Chettinad cuisine - a mixture of both veg and non-veg dishes – has been heavily influenced by the history of this unique community, including borrowing from Penang’s famous Straits Chinese cooking, the flavours and herbs of Vietnam and Laos, and the Buddhist culinary culture of colonial Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.  Christian, Muslim and Hindu cultures have all had there impact on the people and the food of the Chettiars, as they are known.

The other major influence on Chettinad cuisine was, perhaps not surprisingly, the British occupation and colonisation of India and surrounding countries in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.   Many traditional British recipes were either adapted for Indian conditions or somehow evolved into what is known as Anglo-Indian cuisine – or “butler cuisine”, as its also known due to the fact that chefs and staff in the homes of both the British and the wealthy Chettiars were known as butlers and these staff were over the years shared between the two cultures.

The source of the recipes in “The Bangala Table” comes from one single family-owned business ...  a heritage boutique hotel (or ‘stay’ as they are known in India) known as The Bangala.   This is an early 1900’s mansion now converted into a 25 room hotel run by the MSMM family (in Tamil culture families are known by the initials of each succeeding generation) and the matriarch of the current family is Mrs Meenaskhi Mayyappan, who is also the co-author of the book.

My Chicken Chettinad Pepper Masala

This week I cooked one of the signature dishes from this book ... Milagu Masala Kozhi or Chicken Chettinad Pepper Masala, described as the “flag bearer of Chettinad cuisine”.    


The masala is dominated by a slighlty numbing mix of black pepper and chillies which gives the dish a very dark and viscous appearance.   But the taste was sublime - especially when paired with two other recipes from the book – Beetroot Poriyal, a wonderfully fresh tasting and crunchy beetroot dish cooked with mustard seeds, more chillies and grated coconut and Mathulampazham Thayir Pachadi  (try ordering that in a restaurant!?) or pomegranate raita.


There are a number of other fantastic looking recipes in book including Crab Curry Masala, a Mutton Ball Curry, Quail 65, Fish Kozhambu, Crab Rasam and Eggplant Masala.  
All of these recipes have a distinctive South Indian flavour to them with heavy spicing and the sour taste of tamarind, common to many Tamil recipes of the region.

Here is the recipe for the famous Chicken Chettinad!

Chicken Chettinad Pepper Masala   (Milagu Masala Kozhi)

The thick pepper & chilli masala

Ingredients:

Wet Paste:   1 t fennel seeds    2 t black peppercorns (I used 3)   1 t cumin seeds    4 dried red chillies    1 t coriander seeds    ½ t tumeric powder    1 t grated ginger and ½ t grated garlic  (I simply used ginger-garlic paste that we make up each week in our kitchen)  ½ C vegetable oil   2 inch piece of cinnamom   2 green cardamom pods (crack open the pod)   1 ½ red onions, finely chopped   ½ C tomato puree or paste   1 t sea salt   600 gms of chicken (1 small – medium chicken cut into 8 or more pieces)

The chicken pieces cooking in the curry mix

Method:

 Dry roast fennel, peppercorns, cumin, and dried red chillies in fry pan on low heat.   Grind them and then add a little water along with turmeric, garlic and ginger.   Leave aside.

 Heat large frypan on high heat and add oil.   Add cinnamom, cardamom and onion and cook for 4 mins.   Add tomato puree and cook further minute.   Add wet masala and stir.   Cook 10 – 12 minutes, till oil separates from masala.   Add salt and stir.

 
Add chicken and coast with the masala ingredients in pot.   Cook 2 mins and then add 1 ½ cups water.   Boil on high heat for 4 mins then reduce heat to low and cook for 15-20 mins, stirring occasionally.    Sauce should be reduced to thick coatening on chicken.

 Serve with Beetroot Poriyal and Mathulampazham Thayir Pachadi .


       


Beetroot Poriyal

Pomegranate Raita.

 

Tony saab, Hyderabad Jan 2015