It’s Hanukkah time! Hanukkah is observed to commemorate the victory of the Maccabees, a Jewish guerrilla force in Judea, over their oppressors, the Syrian Greeks, in the second century BC. The Hanukkah dinner celebration includes delicious dishes and is also celebrated in India by Indian Jews.
Significance of Oil
Before diving right into the dishes, let us know the significance of this festival and how it leads to the preparation of fried items.
The holy oil used to light the holy menorah (candelabra) was tainted by the Syrian-Greek army during their conquest of Jerusalem’s Second Temple. There was very little oil left that was pure enough to use when the Maccabees took back the temple. This is what they used to light the menorah, but amazingly, it was sufficient to sustain the fires for the eight days it required to get fresh anointing oil. Hanukkah commemorates both this miracle and the Second Temple’s rededication.
In Jewish tradition, oil is very important, especially olive oil. Because it always rises to the top of whatever it is combined with, it is thought to represent the pinnacle of human wisdom. And it is believed that the purest and best quality of all is wisdom acquired from the sacred texts. Oil has a long history of being used at the rededication of the Second Temple and is now a staple of Hanukkah festivities.
This explains why, throughout the eight days of Hanukkah, fried foods are a mainstay.
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10 Dishes Served On Hanukkah Dinner In India
Here are some dishes that are served at Hanukkah dinner in India.
1. Latkes
Latkes, or potato pancakes, and sufganiyot, or jelly-filled doughnuts, are traditionally made in the West for the Hanukkah feast. However, the Jewish communities in India’s Northeast, West Bengal, Kerala, and Maharashtra have combined the significance of these celebratory delicacies with local influences.
2. Jelly-Filled Donuts
3. Bombil Fry
For example, the Hanukkah cuisine of the Bene Israelis in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra is likely to include samosas, fried fish like bombil (Bombay duck), bhajiyas, and pakoras. They also make sat padar puri, a seven-layered, deep-fried, crescent-shaped pastry with a filling of semolina, almonds, and cardamom.
4. Sat Padar Puri
5. Ariselu
Jews from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh rely on ariselu (similar to the anarsa), purnalu (dumplings made of rice flour, jaggery, dals, and dry fruits), and pakam (medu vada-like doughnuts) to sweeten their Hanukkah menu. Piyaju is a type of onion or cauliflower fritter (with a chickpea flour base) made by Kolkata Jews.
6. Purnalu
7. Piyaju
8. Neyyappam
Pakoras and vadas are staple foods for Kochi and Baghdadi Jews in Kerala, but they also enjoy fried treats like neyyappam (sweet rice dumplings) and pazham pozhi, which are prepared from the long Kerala banana known as nendra pazham.
9. Pazham Pozhi
10. Jam Donuts
The cuisine of the Jewish populations in the states of Mizoram and Manipur is largely influenced by Western cuisine, with baked goods competing for table space with sweet pancakes and jam doughnuts.
The more savoury fried meals are represented by the ubiquitous pakoras and potato chips. The variety of Hanukkah cuisine found in India is a symbol of the Jewish communities’ absorption into the areas and communities they have lived in for many centuries.
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Which of these have you tried?
Cover Image Courtesy: Canva
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