Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Jewish Breads...

I had recently tried to made some Jewish breads like Challah, Matzoh and Bagels...

 
 

Bagels - traditionally made on Saturday evening by some Jewish family at the conclusion of the Sabbath

 
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Challah - it is also a sabbath bread , on Sabbath every Jew is commanded to eat three meals (one on Friday night and two on Saturday). In Judaism, a "meal" includes bread. Hence, Jews will traditionally eat challah at the beginning of their Shabbat meal. As with any other type of bread, the blessing "Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech ha'olam, hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz" is recited before the challah is eaten. Translated, it means "Blessed are you, Lord, our God, king of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth."
 

Matzoh -  is a cracker-like unleavened bread made of white plain flour and water. The dough is pricked in several places and not allowed to rise before or during baking, thereby producing a hard, flatbread. It is similar in preparation  Indian chapati. Its traditionally consumed during the Passover Seder.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Samaritan Hebrew Language


I use to scribble the Samaritan alphabets quiet often but not tried to write it as a calligraphic piece. After having an acquaintance with the language recently by seeing an article in the net about the language I thought of putting it up in paper using my pen.

 

It is written “Bereshit”( which means “In the beginning”) in Samaritan Hebrew language, as it is a beginning of  Samaritan Calligraphy, Bereshit is the most apt word. The Samaritan alphabet is the dialect of Old Hebrew or so called Paleo Hebrew, the alphabet was derived by the Samaritans. The characters or the alphabet, according to scholars is similar to the alphabet used for Torah before square Hebrew or Assyrian characters were introduced. The Samaritans themselves claim descent from the northern tribes of Israel. 
The Samaritan alphabet is still used by a few Samaritans in the city of Nablus and in the Samaritan quarter of Holon. This is a consonant alphabet, and vowels indicated with diacritics. And it is written from right to left in horizontal lines like Arabic and Hebrew.  Samaritan, an extinct Semitic language which is no longer a mother tongue, But it is still used to a limited extent as a liturgical language.The language is similar to Hebrew, but the pronunciation of Samaritans doesn’t give stress to the letters א, ע,ח , ה they uses only the letter ש as “sheen” and not “seen”. And some more difference like this do exists.
 
Hope i can go with more of Samaritan Calligraphy.and i will be coming up with more different calligraphies.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Cochin Jewish Cuisine - I tried out some

It was my academic research which put me in touch with the Cochin Jewish Cuisine, unto me its a cuisinette rather than a cuisine and I had a chance to prepare some of the Cochin Jewish dishes, last week.The menu which i chose was :

Plav
*   *   *
Mulagirachi
*   *   *
Mutta Salade

In picture a unleavened bread is given as a cracker 

  • Plav ( Yellow rice )

It is a Yellow rice, made with Basmati rice ( Indian long grain rice ). Rice is cooked in chicken stock with spices and then shredded chicken pieces is added. Turmeric is used for colouring agent. Its garnished with fried cashew nuts and raisins.

  • Mulagirachi ( Capsicum Chicken ) 

Its a hot and spicy chicken dish with lots of capsicum, green chillies, chilli powder and mint/coriander leaf . Its a bit tangy because tomatoes and tamarind pulp is even used in it. 
*        *       *

In picture the egg salade is used as a topping for rice pudding with lots of  dry fruits and nuts.

  • Mutta salade ( Sweetened noodle made of egg yolk )

Its actually a noodle shaped sweet dish made of simply egg yolk. its made to flow in a sting to simmering sugar syrup flavored with Cardamom powder. There is a same or exact similar dish for Malabari Muslims but named Mutta Maala ( Literally means " Egg necklace " )

These authentic recipes were presented in my own way to make it more acceptable for westerners. I hope it will work. There are more recipes with me which will be put up later...now I need some rest after a heavy dinner.

Courtesy to : Mrs Queenie Hallegua, wife of Late warden of Cochin Pardesi synagogue Mr Samuel Hallegua. for providing the above mentioned recipes.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

An accolade for my work - expressing my gratitude.



click the image to enlarge it

My sincere thank to Dr Navras Jaat Afreedi , for including my name in your feature published by Woolf Institute, studying relation between Jews, Christians &Muslims.
I am even thankful to the Editorial board,

Lucia Faltin, Ed Kessler, Editors
Dan Avasilichioaie, Marketing
Esther haworth
Trisha Kessler, Culture
Tina Steiner, News
Lucy Glendinning, Editorial Assistant.

Dr Edward Kessler, 
Founding and Executive Director


Monday, December 6, 2010

Rimon רימון - Pomogranate





This is a simple calligraphy which can be counted as an anatomic calligraphy of hebrew, The basic font used is the font used for writing the sta''m but the shape and size has been adjusted  for the final work, the nun at the end of the word helped me to put the crown shape as nun is one among the sha'atnezgets letter and the shape is almost similar to the floral tip or the blossom of the pomogranate. The crown was the driving factor which made me to design such.

Nahl (Honey bee) - A Sign from God

I had made a calligraphic piece of a honey bee which contains the verses from Quran, Surat al Nahl which itself means Honey Bee. The verses are given below :


68 And your Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees, and in habitations;
69 Then to eat of all the produce, and find with skill the spacious paths of its Lord: there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for men: truly in this is a sign for those who give thought.

Looking into the meaning of these verses actually made me to think about this creature. And as stated in Quran, the honey is a main ingredient in the Ayurvedic medicines. According to ayurveda is one of the five elixirs of immorality.

Jewish Kashurath law states pure honey is kosher even though its not from a kosher creature.

In Islam, Quran, Hadith states about this creature and in hadith Prophet Muhammed strongly recommend the healing properties of Honey.



Apart from that hope all of you liked this work.


Monday, November 29, 2010

Hebrew Anatomic Calligraphy

            
Recently the word גמל made me to think, there is a chance of anatomic calligraphy in Hebrew language. After just wasting two three papers I reached my destination, and understood that it was near to my finger tip. Just putting the letters in proper place and giving them a new look with maintaining the basic shape, and it happened to be a success, just before publishing the designs in the blog I had forwarded a calligraphic piece of Magen david, to Mr.Zeev Barkan ( who does research on that ) he published it in his flicker account. Soon he received a request from a person seeking permission to make it a tattoo, that made me more happy. The responds was so fast. Thank God.
Hebrew word גמל gamal, which means camel written in a shape of 

a camel



Hebrew word נבל nevel which means harp, written in the replica of 

a harp.




Hebrew word סוס soos which means horse.


Hebrew word אריאל which means lion of God, an alternate name of 

Jerusalem. in the shape of lion head.


מגן דוד Magen David, means star of David in hebrew, drawn in a 

exact magen david shape.


And i dedicate this work for the world peace.its written shalom, in a style of 7 branch Menorah.