Hanukkah has always been my favorite Jewish holiday. I love all of it: Friends and family gathering together, watching children open their presents, cheery songs to sing when lighting the candles, the celebration of triumph over evil and the opportunity to eat fried food and happily justify it. Of course, no Jewish holiday is complete without each family’s edible traditions.
Our family are Bagdadi Jews from Bombay and Calcutta, and have wonderful culinary traditions from Iraq and India for every Jewish holiday. For example, cheese sambusak are always served to break the Yom Kippur fast, and leek fritters are always served at our Rosh Hashanah seder. On Hanukkah, we enjoy all sorts of delicious fried food, from latkes and donuts to zalabia; however, I am always on the lookout for something new to add to our repertoire.
My Aunty Ruby who grew up in Calcutta, India recalls being taken as a child by her parents to KC Dass, a sweet shop close to where they lived, after Passover to have gulab jamun: a small, milky donut which has been deep-fried and soaked in cardamom and saffron syrup. She said they would dream about the little creamy treats all Passover, and would count down the minutes until they could eat them.
This got me thinking that they would make an amazing addition to our Hanukkah table: They’re fried, to symbolize the oil lasting eight days; they contain dairy, to celebrate the heroism of Judith, slayer of the general Holofernes; and they’re soaked in syrup — well there doesn’t need to be a reason to eat anything soaked in syrup!
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Gulab jamun is one of India’s most famous deserts, though it was introduced by the Persians around 500 BC. The word “gulab” is derived from the Persian words “gol” (flower) and “ab” (water), which refer to the sweet’s rose water-scented syrup. Interestingly, gulab jamun is commonly served at Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, which, much like our own festival of lights, Haunkkah, celebrates bringing light into the world and good triumphing over evil.
Want to learn how to make Gulab Jamun and other fried Indian Jewish sweets? Join Joanna Nissim for a live class on Sunday, December 3rd at 7:00 pm! You can sign up here for the class.
I was making gulab jamun 30+ years ago from a recipe in a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook but until just now never thought of it as a Chanukah treat, thanks!
I gave away one too many cookbooks, and that one was buy Madhur Jaffrey. Could you. send me the name of the cookbook with her recipe for gulab jamun? Maybe I can still find it. Better yet, if you are willing, I would LOVE to have the recipe itself.