DINAH SAMUeLS Mum’s Jewish (and Indian) recipes

A Cook Came From Multiple Influences

turned 60 – recording the recipes that had made memorable family meals through the years.

In a cherished tribute to her mum Kitty’s cooking, Sydney-based writer Dinah Samuels has produced a cookbook of treasured family recipes. Titled Made With Love From Kitty’s Kitchen, the book contains 92 recipes that Kitty made her own, following her travels in Burma, India and Australia, as well as traditional Jewish favourites.

Dinah, 68, recalls how she helped stir the pot and chop veggies like a little ninja for her mum.

“Our house was always open to all our family, mum and dad’s friends as well as my brother and my own friends,” Dinah remembers. “Every Sunday, we’d have people coming over and my mum would make delicious foods for them. I was by her side in our extremely small kitchen doing all the menial jobs - peeling potatoes, cutting onions and watching her create fabulous dishes.”

Lucky for her, being part of a Jewish kitchen meant her mum was precise with what she created. “Whatever dish she made was fantastic, as she simplified many recipes,” Dinah tells Indian Link. “I always wanted to try and recreate them.”

Through the cookbook, Dinah has followed her mum’s wish to keep up her family’s heritage and traditions, passing on the Jewish food culture to future generations, as well as the flavours she so loved in her formative years.

The story of Kitty’s life is worth telling.

She was born in Rangoon, Burma.

“Dad was in the British Army in Rangoon and relocated to Mumbai (then Bombay) after the Japanese invasion,” Dinah shares.“At 13, mum left Rangoon with her mother and four brothers. She completed her Senior Cambridge (General Certificate of Education examinations held in India during the British regime) and went on to be a secretarial assistant for the manager

Hameem

(Baked chicken and rice)

Traditionally made prior to the Sabbath and cooked overnight

Serves: 8

Ingredients n 2 tbs oil (any kind except olive oil as it is too dense) n 1 large onion, thinly sliced n 1 tsp (heaped) ginger n 1 tsp (heaped) garlic n 410 g tin tomato puree (liquid not paste) n 2 cups basmati rice n 1 tsp each salt and pepper n 1 tsp turmeric n 1 large stick cinnamon, broken into 3 pieces n 2 cardamon pods, whole n 4 cloves n 1 whole chicken skinned and cut into pieces – each thigh cut into 2 and the breast cut into 6 pieces n 6-8 giblets, cut in half (optional) n 2 cups fresh chicken stock (this gives it a rich flavour) n 2 cups water

“This was fun, as everything (ingredients) was ‘a pinch of this’, ‘a handful of that’,” Dinah laughs.“I had to convert this into imperial as well as metric measurements!”

When Kitty turned 87, she made Dinah promise that she would convert this collection into a cookbook. “This was very important for me,” an emotional Dinah says.

She’s kept the promise faithfully, but sadly her mum didn’t live long enough to see the published version. Kitty passed away at 91.

So what is her mum’s dish that Dinah remembers even today, we ask.

“She made the best Ohn No Khao Swe (Burmese chicken and noodles) and Mohinga (fish soup from Myanmar).” of British manufacturing company Lever Brothers. In Mumbai she met my dad Jack. They wed at Byculla’s Magen David Synagogue.”

Kitty and Jack left Mumbai for Sydney in 1948. Dinah was born in Bondi. She worked in the travel industry for 35 years, visiting Mumbai and all the places her parents loved – Colaba Causeway, Regal Cinemas, and so on.

Retiring at 60, she began the job she had promised her mum when she herself had

While she was alive, aloo bonda (potato snack), pholouries (fried dough ball) and vegetable samosas were common on Sundays. “Her dinners were fabulous –mahashas (stuffed vegetables with mince), alu chops (potato and mince cutlets), chicken curry, and we loved khichdi with alubartha and fish fry. As we had a mango tree in our back garden, mum would make aamchur pickle too.”

Dinah started collating the recipes in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown. It took nine months for the book to be proofread, edited and designed.

“So far, I have sold 280 copies – some at London and Los Angeles.”

The proceeds are donated to the Sephardi Synagogue in Sydney in memory of her parents. Priced at $30, the only way to order a copy is through Dinah directly. Write to her dinahs@bigpond.net.au

Method n Preheat oven to 150°C n Using a large oven-proof pan with a lid, over a medium heat, heat oil and fry onions with ginger and garlic until light brown n Add in tomato puree and cook for about 3 minutes then stir in rice and allow to cook for 5 minutes n Add in salt, pepper, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamon pods and cloves n Mix in the chicken until coated then add in the stock and water n Turn up the heat, bring to the boil and allow to cook until half of the liquid has evaporated n Cover and transfer to the oven. Cook for approximately 2 hours then reduce the heat to 100°C and continue to cook overnight n At this point, you may wish to stir gently (without disturbing the chicken as it may break) n If you do not want to cook overnight then allow another 5-6 hours on the low heat. The longer it cooks the more flavourful it will be.

Ialways refer to the Indian spin triumvirate of the sixties and seventies, and smile to myself whenever anyone talks about a quartet.

The same as I used to smile to myself whenever an Indian talked about Erapalli Prasanna being dropped for Srinivas Venkataraghavan. I also thought, “I hope he has some influence in selection.” There was no comparison between Prasanna and Venkat as bowlers. Pras was the best opposition spin bowler I played against; he was seeking your wicket every ball he bowled and you knew you were locked in a serious mental battle each time you faced him.

His flight was impeccable. There were many times when I left my crease, certain that I was going to get to his flighted delivery at least on the half volley. It never happened: my estimated time of arrival never coincided with Pras’ appointed destination.

Years after our many on-field battles I organised a meeting between Pras and Australian off-spinner Gavin Robertson. During the meeting Pras said to the evereager Robertson; “Gavin, it’s not an invitation to be hit into the grandstand. It’s a request to be lofted into the outfield.” That was how Prasanna thought about flight, “The higher up the bat you hit, the more loft on the shot and the less distance it will travel.”

Prasanna was an engineer by trade and he applied that the same sort of thinking to his bowling. I met him at a friend’s barbecue party when he was living in Sydney many years ago and we talked about spin bowling for about twenty minutes. At the end of the discussion, I said to him, “Now I know why I