Nigella

When we lived in Tunis, we would occasionally eat at the restaurant at the Hilton hotel where they served rolls that we loved. They had black seeds in them that were delicious. We asked what the seed were and were told they were “sinouj.” We learned that the seeds were, in fact, nigella (sinouj is the Arabic name). It is sometimes called black cumin, but that name also refers to another, unrelated, spice.

Nigella is not easy to find. My mother had bought some from a gourmet food store and would make an Armenian-style round bread with the seeds. One day I was in a mini mart in Andover that had half an aisle devoted to imported Indian food. I saw a big bag labeled “kalonji” that looked exactly like nigella. Since it was very inexpensive, I took a chance and bought it. It turns out that kalonji is the Hindi name for nigella, which is used in Indian cooking.

I love nigella, but I realize that I’ve never used it in anything but bread (photo of homemade breadsticks with nigella below). I’m going to have to change that and I welcome any non-bread recipes featuring nigella. Hopefully I’ll have at least one successful dish to share in a future entry.