Jardaloo Salli Boti (with chicken)

Salli Boti is one of my favourite Parsi dishes, and I absolutely love this version with Apricots. Like the Parsi community itself, this recipe is a perfect blend of Persian flavours (apricots and vinegar), and Indian spices.
The store bought salli (shoestring potatoes) adds that extra crunch which makes it positively divine!

500 gms boneless chicken cut into cubes

For marinade1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

3 large onions chopped fine
½ tsp chilli pwd
½ tsp haldi pwd
½ tsp jeera pwd
½ tsp dhania pwd
¼ teaspoon Garam Masala pwd
1 ½ tsp sugar

3 medium tomatoes, finely chopped

2 cups water
5 apricots soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes, and chopped
2 tbsp vinegar
Salt to taste
Cooking oil (about 2 tbsp)

Salli or shoestring potatoes or crushed potato chips, as a topping

Method
 Marinate the chicken with ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oil and sauté the onions till they start turning brown.
Add the chicken, and sauté for about 5 mins.
Add dry spices and salt, mix well and sauté for 5 minutes (if the spices start sticking to the pan, add a bit of water)
Add the diced tomatoes, apricot, salt and water. Bring this mixture to a boil and cook covered for 10-12 minutes till the water is absorbed, and the chicken and tomatoes are cooked through.
Add vinegar, and simmer for another 3-4 minutes for the flavours to blend.
Top with Salli or shoestring potatoes before serving.

Parsi Choi

Everyone knows I love my beverages. Chai or coffee, tea or kapi, I am indifferent. As long as it is hot, and comes with a book, I'm a contented puss.
So, when I have lemongrass, guess what I make- the Parsi Choi. Tastes amazing with the latest Martin Beck book!

200 ml water
100-125 ml milk
1 tsp Society tea powder
1 tsp sugar, or more, as per taste
¼ -1/3rd tspn black pepper powder
 long shoot of lemon grass, cut into 2 inch pieces (I prefer a wee bit more)
15-17 mint leaves

Method:
Wash the lemon grass n mint n keep aside.
Heat milk n water.
Add the tea powder, pepper powder, the washed herbs, sugar n bring it to a rapid boil. 
Once it comes to a rapid boil, cover it for a couple of minutes, then pour it out.
Enjoy with a lovely book on a drizzly day. 

Parsi Mora Dal (Everyday dal)

"Mora dar chaval—plain dal with rice—is a dish with tremendous significance for Parsis. It may appear anytime, but it has to be eaten on any occasion out of the ordinary..... The underlying lesson is that life cannot be led without experiencing both joy and sorrow in some measure, and we mustn't make too much of either, for both are fleeting."
When I read this excerpt from 'My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking' by Niloufer Ichaporia King, I knew I just had to make mora dal to celebrate the Parsi Food Weekend on IFF. Dal is a staple in my house, and while I don't claim to be an expert, I do know that nothing can beat a dal well made.

1 cup red lentils (masur dal), husked split pigeon peas (tuvar dal), or mung beans (mung dal)
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon (or more) salt
1 onion, quartered (optional)
1 green chile (optional)
4 cups (or more) water
1 to 2 tablespoons ghee or butter
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion or shallot (optional)

Pick over the dal to remove stones and chaff. Rinse the dal and transfer to a pot; add the turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon salt, quartered onion, and chile, if using, along with at least 4 cups water. Bring to boil; reduce the heat and simmer, partly covered, until the dal is tender. (Masur and mung dals soften in about half the time it takes to cook tuvar dal, which needs a good 45 minutes to 1 hour.) Watch out for overboiling, even with the heat down.
When the dal is soft and mushy, pass through a sieve or a food mill or liquefy in a food processor or with an immersion blender, which saves you the trouble of pouring and transferring. The texture of the dal should be thick, smooth, and pourable. Taste for salt.
To finish, heat the ghee in a small skillet over medium heat. Sizzle the seeds, garlic, and onion, if using, until the garlic begins to brown around the edges and the seeds start to crackle. Tip the vaghar into the dal and stir.
Note: In my mother's house, it was considered good practice to send dal to the table in a tureen with the vaghar floating on top, a last-minute affair, although the flavors have a better chance to combine if you stir in the toasted spices ahead of time. If you're having dal as a first-course soup, you can serve individual portions with a little vaghar poured over each one.

Wafers par Eendu

What do you do when you have half a packet of wafers that got crushed when your child sat on it? If you have a friend like Jenifer guiding you, you make the most delicious brunch anyone can think of with it!

1 tbsp butter
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 green chilli
1/3 tsp jeera powder
1/3 tsp red chilli powder
1/3 tsp turmeric powder

A handful of potato wafers- crushed
1 egg

Heat butter. Add ginger garlic paste, green chillis, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and cumin powder, and fry lightly. You do not need to add salt, because the wafers have enough salt to go around.
Mix the crushed wafers, sprinkle water, and toss around till soggy.
Meanwhile, beat the white of an egg till well aerated, add yolk and beat some more.
Pour the egg batter on the wafers, cover the pan, and let it cook in it's own steam till done.

Papeta par Eendu

Two monsoons ago, a group of friends and I went to Lonavala for a weekend run. We left at the crack of dawn, and by the time we returned after running through the clouds to Amby Valley and back, we were so ravenous we could have eaten anything. Since the time of our return was uncertain, the cook at the Masonic Lodge where we were staying had prepared a brunch of boiled eggs, toast and something that I was told was a Parsi preparation. It tasted wonderful, but wouldn't anything taste wonderful after you have run more than 20 miles? Busy as I was with gobbling the food, I didn't take the recipe from the cook, and soon forgot all about it.
It was when we started talking about preparing Parsi dishes over the weekend, that I remembered the dish, and asked Jenifer if it was indeed an authentic Parsi dish, or just an urban myth. She assured me that it was an authentic dish, and even gave me the recipe. My kids and I had it with (store bought) ladi pav for dinner, and after licking my plate clean, I was left asking for more.

4 potatoes boiled and cubed
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 green chilli
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste


3 eggs

Heat butter. Add ginger garlic paste, green chillis, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, and salt, and fry lightly.
Add the cubed potatoes, mix well, and fry till it starts browing.
Meanwhile, beat the white of an egg till well aerated, add yolk and beat some more. 
Layer the potatoes in the dish, add abou 1/4 cup water, and pour the egg batter. Cover the pan, and let it cook in it's own steam till done.

Parsi brown rice

I got this recipe from a Parsi colleague of mine, and though it is not the traditional accompaniment for dhansaak, I choose to make the two together.

Wash and soak the rice and keep aside.
Heat 1 tbsp ghee and temper bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, peppercorns, cloves and 1 onion cut into long slices. When the onions are browned, remove everything, and add to the rice.
In the same pot, put about 1 tsp sugar, and heat till it melts and then caramalizes.
Pour in the rice, tempering and sufficient water.
Bring to boil, reduce flame, and let it cook till done.

Serve with dhansaak.

Vegetarian dhansak

My mother got this recipe from the mother of one of her classmates, and I grew up knowing this as dhansaak. After I moved to Bombay, I ordered it at Jimmy Boy and all the other Parsi restaurants, but none of them tasted quite the same. This then, is the authentic version of my mother's dhansaak, even if the jury is out on whether or not this is the "real" thing.

1 cup tur dal
1 small brinjal
1 bunch methi leaves
1 medium potato





1 onion
ghee
2 limes

For ground masala
dhania patta
6 deseeded green chillis
2 pods of garlic
1 tsp jeera
sugar
salt
haldi powder
1 tsp dhania powder
5 cloves
10 peppercorns
 

Pressure cook the dal, brinjal, methi leaves and potatoes till soft. 
Beat in mixie to get smooth consistency.
Grind together everything listed under "ground masala", and keep aside
Dice the onion and fry in ghee till brown, add ground masala, fry till rawness goes, add to the dal, cook till it boils. 
Remove from fire, add juice of 2 limes.

I serve it with Parsi brown rice.