Appetizers include samosas as well as a delicate spinach and chickpea dumpling, a bell pepper-and-chickpea dumpling and those sensational stuffed peppers.
One specifically Jewish dish, served at the start of Sabbath dinners for centuries, is gundi, a plump chicken and chickpea dumpling, flavored with cardamom and tinted with turmeric, that is cooked in chicken broth.
Unconventional appetizers like bhelpoori (rice crisps with lentil vermicelli and salad of tomatoes, onions, cabbage and coriander in a vinaigrette) and gol gappa (coriander-scented chickpea dumplings with yogurt) make a great prelude to standard entrees like lamb vindaloo.
RECOMMENDED DISHES -- Samosas, spicy shrimp and scallops, boondi/kheera (yogurt with chickpea dumplings); rogan josh, rista (sausage), yakhni (meat in white sauce), shikar (game bird), salmon, koshur chaaman (grilled cheese balls), darmaloo (potato balls); rice pudding, mango lassi.
It features dishes like Ethiopian doro wat, a spicy chicken stew served with cottage cheese and a rubbery bread called injera; rack of lamb seasoned with a pungent West African spice known as grains of paradise; and chickpea dumplings, inspired by the Italian influence in Ethiopia.
Particularly on holidays, dumplings are served with the soup, such as the kneidlach (matzah balls) of the Ashkenazim or the gondi (chickpea dumplings) of Iranian Jews, or kubbeh, a family of dumplings brought to Israel by Middle Eastern Jews.
It comprises bits of chickpea-flour dumplings afloat in a shallow pool of spiced liquid yogurt, given extra crunch and character with grated cucumber.
Ottolenghi makes Iranian dumplings with chickpea flour, as well as vegetable fritters, flatbreads and biscuits.
EATING A good friend cooked gundi for me, a round dumpling, a bit like a matzo ball, made of minced chicken, chickpea flour and sweet spices and served in chicken broth.
Pork dumplings come with tomato-chili sauce (sweet/spicy), grapefruit confit (sour), and fried chickpea noodles (crunchy).
