Black cumin fruits (often called seeds)
Used plant part
Fruits. Both the dark brown colour and the slender crescent shape
are characteristic.
In Kashmir, the root is eaten as a vegetable.
Plant family
Apiaceae (parsley family).
Sensory quality
The fruits’ aroma is earthy and heavy, not pleasant at all. On frying or
cooking, the taste changes to nutty.
Main constituents
Ripe black cumin fruits are reported to contain an essential oil (up to 7%)
rich in monoterpene aldehydes; the main components are cuminaldehyde,
p-mentha-1,3-dien-7-al and p-mentha-1,4-dien-7-al
(up to one third each); terpene hydrocarbons are the main components
of fruits collected in the wild or harvested unripe (γ-terpinene,
p-cymene, β-pinene, limonene). The latter compounds are thought to
reduce the quality of the spice.
(J. Essent. Oil Res., 9, 597, 1997),
(J. Essent. Oil Res., 14, 161, 2002,)
(Food Chem., 41, 129, 1991)
In a more recent paper, the authors extracted the fruits with supercritical
carbon dioxide. They found the oil domated by only three compounts:
γ-terpinene (38%), cuminaldehyde (11%) and 1-phenyl ethanol (α-methyl benzenemethanol) (26%).
In hydrodestilled oil, they also found p-cymene.
(J. of Food Composition and Analysis, 18, 439, 2005 )
Origin
Central Asia to Northern India
Etymology
The Hindi name shahi jira [शाही जीरा] Imperial cumin
refers to the
popularity of black cumin in the imperial (mughal) cuisine of Northern India; yet I found that
caraway, a spice rare in India, is sometimes referred to by
similar names. Note that names with the similar literal meaning king’s cumin
in Arabic mean another spice,
ajwain.
The name kashmiri jira [काश्मीरी जीरा] is rare in Hindi,
but the analog form kashmiri zireh [کشمیری زیرہ]
is the standard denomination in the Kashmiri language.
It refers to the mountainous region Kashmir in North-Western India, where the
Moghul Emperors (and later the British colonial officers) spent their
summers to escape the heat in the Indian plains; thus, Moghul cooking has a
strong foothold there. Moreover, Kashmir is the only region in India where
black cumin is produced. A similar motivation lies behind Nepali
himali jira [हिमाली जीरा] Himalayan cumin
,
which falls into line with Farsi zireh kohi [زیره کوهی] mountain cumin
.
The most common Indic name for this spice is
kala jira [काला जीरा] black cumin
, archaically spelled kala jeera;
the same name is, most often in English, sometimes given to an entirely
unrelated spice, nigella (also called onion seed).
Bengali kalo jira [কালো জিরা]
and similar names in South India actually refer to nigella.
Nigella is popular in the Middle East and Northern India, particularly
Bengal.
Hindi shahi jira [शाही जीरा]
for black cumin should not be confused with the similar looking sajira [शाजीरा],
which denotes the olfactorically somewhat similar caraway. In some other Indian
languages, the names might have different meaning, or mayby just mislabeling is very common.
Selected Links
Francesco Sirene: Spices & Herbs (Catalogue)
Sorting Bunium names (www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au)
World Merchants: Kala Jeera
Penzeys Spices: Kala Jeera
Herbie’s Spices: Kala Jeera
INDU-Versand
Recipes: The Great Art of Mughlai Cooking (klett-verlag.de) (PDF)
Recipe: Rogan Josh [रोग़न जोश] (recipesource.com)
Black Cumin, in India also called Kashmiri cumin, is not much
known outside Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the western part
of Northern India (Kashmir, Punjab). It is preferred to ordinary
(white) cumin for some Northern Indian
meat dishes (korma [कोरमा]) and rice dishes
(biryani [बिरयानी]);
if unavailable, toasted white cumin is an acceptable
alternative.
In speaking about Northern Indian cookery, often the Moghul cooking
is meant exclusively, although this does injustice to other distinct
Northern Indian cuisines (Kashmir, Punjab, Bengal). Inside and outside
India, Moghul food is particularly successful in restaurants.
Moghul cuisine is much affected by Islâm and by the cooking
style of the imperial court in Delhi (later Agra), the great
influence of which was difficult to ignore even for Hindu rulers.
The Moghuls, Emperors of Northern India in the
16.th and 17.th century, gave name to this new cooking style which combines
elements from Iranian and Arabic-style Central Asian cuisine with native
Indian cooking
traditions. Beside a bias towards non-vegetarian food, Moghul cuisine is
characterized by little pungency, large amounts of aromatic spices and dried
fruits, and rich and full-flavoured gravies.
Sauces and gravies are usually based on onion (see
there for details), garlic and fresh ginger, as in the rest of India. Their intensive
fragrance is due to cinnamon, cloves, black and even
more often green cardamom; these tough spices are
fried in hot butter fat (ghi [घी]) at great heat until they darken
and begin to release their fragrance. Then, heat is reduced, and one adds onion,
garlic and ginger (and possibly some
Indian bay leaves) and fries until the spices turn light brown. After the mixture has been quenched with yoghurt and several more
spices (black cumin, fennel,
paprika) have been
added, meat or vegetables are cooked in the gravy until tender. The sauce may
be thickened with some ground poppy or grated almonds.
Food prepared in this way, i. e., by braising in a previously spiced sauce,
is often referred to as korma. The term
korma is of Persian origin; in Iran, ghorme
is a thick sauce made of dried herbs and vegetables often used as a basis for
long-simmered stews (see fenugreek).
Moghul recipes are very popular in Indian restaurants in the West, e. g.
rogan josh [रोग़न जोश, less correctly written रोगन जोश],
mutton braised in a creamy and spicy yoghurt sauce with much red paprika and fragrant garlic,
which is actually a Moghul-style adoption of a much hotter,
chile-laden epinymous local Kashmiri recipe.
Other Moghul favourites include
kabab husaini [कबोब हुसैनी]
(minced mutton stuffed with a subtly flavoured mixture of raisins and almonds)
and biryani or biriyani [बिरयानी],
a complex rice dish (see Indian bay-leaf)
often flavoured with saffron.