That 70's Show

The CC is absolutely obsessed with collecting recipe books that date back to the late-60's and early-to-mid 70's.

Why the 70's?

It's the first transformation of many of these societies into the modern consumer world and it set off a wave of rather "naïve" cookbook writers almost all women who were documenting the recipes of an earlier age.

The naïveté shouldn't be taken as a pejorative. It's actually a compliment. They were literally writing down what they knew without any filter. These are really amazing documents.

These cookbooks have been updated but they have never been bettered. They are actually the source of inspiration to most modern cookbook writers who all down to a fault refuse to acknowledge the immense amount of ideas that they have nakedly stolen from these earlier writers.

The CC is always collecting these things as he travels. (They tend to be rather cheap.)

There are a few commonalities which are just extraordinary.

One is that they all tend to be obsessed with a level of precision. It is very important to them that the reader make the dish perfectly. The instructions tend to be rather precise and detailed. (This, of course, just warms the cockles of the CC's cold analytical heart.)

The other is how they were marketed. Not through the traditional channels. Often via "nail salons" or "beauty parlors" which was the domain of women. It was word-of-mouth and viral marketing at its earliest and finest.

The third is the primitiveness of the publishing industry at the time. They are frequently published in indifferent editions. Pictures are rare. The print is not glossy. The binding is falling apart. Spelling mistakes abound. However, the passion just jumps off the page!

The fourth is a level of awareness of nutrition. It's not the modern gluten-free fat-free version but they are rather interested in the fact that in an era where budgets are tight that the food not only be delicious but also nutritious.

Last but not least is the obsession with the pineapple. No, the CC is not joking. Hawaii only became a US state on Aug 21st, 1959. There was a massive global marketing campaign to sell pineapple across the world. You can see the obsession everywhere from Life Magazine to newspapers and magazines in all the corners of the world. Think "Mad Men". These women were not exempt from the pull of the siren song. Rest assured that there will be a recipe or three for pineapple in these books!

The CC has had plenty of books go in and out of his kitchen but you will take these books out of his cold dead hands!

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Here's an extraordinarily incomplete list — roughly going westwards:

Middle-East

Arto der Haroutunian (Middle-East at large)

Afghanistan

Helen Saberi

India

Tarla Dalal (Gujarati vegetarian)
Ummi Abdulla (Kerala Muslim)
Joyce Fernandes (Goan)
Kamalabai Ogale (Maharashtrian)
S. Meenakshi Ammal (Tamil vegetarian)
Katy Dalal (Parsi)
Minakshie Das Gupta (Bengali)

Sri Lanka

Chandra Dissanayake

Taiwan

Fu Mei-Pei

Philippines

Enriqueta David-Perez

Caribbean

Babette de Rozières

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R.I.P. Katy Dalal

This is clearly two years too late but the CC just found out.

One of the doyennes of Parsi cooking passed away.

She was an archaelogist by training, and a cookbook writer by avocation. Her books are accurate and detailed as would befit a scholar. Produced in the days where substance matters more than form, they are tough on the eyes but delicious in the belly. Even the title was inviting Jamwa Chaloji (Let's Partake).

Farewell.

(Link: Obituary.)

Dhansaak

This is a traditional recipe of the Parsis, almost always served along with paatra ni macchi at a wedding.

The recipe is long and complicated, and is going to take the better part of a day. However, only those that have eaten the real deal can appreciate why the CC loves it made the traditional way.

The title literally means "wealth (=dhan) of vegetables (=saak)", and as you can expect from the title and the context, it consists of a rich stew of lentils, cooked with vegetables, and meat (traditionally lamb but frequently goat), served alongside with a spicy caramelized rice. There are traditional accompaniments — a cucumber-tomato raita and/or kachumber (diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions with salt), and fresh slices of salted cucumber and carrots.

The ingredient list is long so the CC will break it up into its functional components. The CC will try and indicate what actually makes the dish the dish, and what parts are frequently substituted by local fresh vegetables, etc.

The spices are absolutely critical (do not deviate!)

A quick note about the spices. They are really a combination of two spice mixtures in a 3:2 ratio. If you're just making this recipe, you can combine them because they follow the same procedure (roasting + grinding) but just be aware that they really are two logically different spice mixes that just happen to be combined in this specific recipe.

(Yes, this is anal-retentiveness of a superlative nature. Deal with it!)

Please read the instructions. If you read them carefully, you can streamline the recipe. In the modern day with modern equipment, you will not need to spend all day in the kitchen. However, that requires more than a little attention to detail.

There is nothing like this in the literature — caramelized rice with heavily spiced lentils and lamb with the occasional complimentary hit of sweetness from the pumpkin and carrots.

Routine recipes are all fine and dandy but this one is for the betterment of your soul.

Magic awaits!

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Ingredients

Lentils

1/4 cup vaal (absolutely critical!)
1/4 cup whole masoor (brown french lentils — also absolutely crucial!)
1/4 cup toovar (pigeon peas.)
1/4 cup whole moong

Meat

1 lb lean lamb (cut into bite-size pieces)
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
2 tbsp garam masala
4 tbsp ginger-green chilli paste

Vegetables

1 tiny pumpkin (chopped coarsely — traditional)
2 eggplants (chopped coarsely — traditional)
1 carrot, etc. (chopped coarsely — seasonal)
2 tomatoes (chopped coarsely — seasonal)

Fresh Spices

1 large red onion
2" ginger
8-10 Thai green chillies (substitute by 5-6 serranos)
1 tbsp turmeric

Spices

Dhansaak Masala

1 stick cassia
2 tbsp coriander seeds (critical!)
1/2 tbsp cumin seeds
8 dried red chillies
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
1/4 tsp cloves
4 green cardamom
1 black cardamom (badi elaichi)
1/2 tsp caraway seeds (shahi jeera)
1/2 tsp fenugreek
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 strand mace
1 tsp dagad phool
1 tsp naag kesar

Parsi Sambhar Masala

1 tsp chilly powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1/4 tsp cloves
1 star anise
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 stick cassia

Garnish

1/2 cup cilantro leaves (chopped fine)

Other

oil
salt

Rice

1 cup basmati rice
2 large red onion (cut into thin half-moon rings)
1 stick cassia
6 cloves
10-12 peppercorns
6-8 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups water
salt

Recipe

Wash and soak the four lentils overnight in an excess of water. The excess is necessary since they absorb a lot more than you think they will.

For the meat, blend the ginger and green chillies with the cilantro leaves, and toss with the lamb, yogurt and garam masala. Refrigerate overnight or at least for 6-8 hours.

In the morning, drain the water from the lentils. Re-soak.

If you have a pressure cooker (highly recommended!) toss the lentils in with some water, and salt. Pressure cook for no more than 10 minutes. Set aside.

Please be aware that the vaal and the toovar are going to "decompose". This is part of the point of the recipe. The "stew" portion, if you will.

(If you don't have one, cook them until the hardest two lentils — masoor and moong are edible. Roughly 60 minutes.)

Meanwhile, chop the fresh spices (ginger, green chillies, onion) in a food-processor. They should be coarsely chopped not ground to a paste because you need to fry them. Set aside.

Heat a dry skillet on medium-heat till it's hot. Dry roast all the spices — the trick is to toss them in order of size, and add the next batch before the previous is well-done. This is a skill, and needs some experience. You could just roast each one separately but that wastes more time. Make sure you don't burn the poppy seeds.

Put them in a bowl, and allow them to cool. When cool, grind to a fine powder in a coffee grinder. Set aside.

First, make the lamb.

Heat some oil in a skillet. When it shimmers, toss in the lamb pieces straight out of the marinade into the oil. The yogurt will look very disturbing interacting with the oil. Ignore this. Keep adding the lamb with the yogurt coating, and letting it cook with the oil. Slowly, toss in the rest of the marinade. Roughly 6-8 minutes in, you will notice that the lamb is well-done, and there's a lovely brown slurry in your skillet. Set the whole thing aside.

Heat some oil in a stock pot. When it shimmers, add the onion-ginger-green-chilli paste, and fry languidly. When it's fried but not caramelized, toss in the vegetables and fry for a bit. Add the lentils. Mix together, and let it heat up. Add the spices. Then the lamb and the sauce.

Let it all simmer together at very low heat for at least 15-20 minutes. The lentils must be "melting" but the vegetables must still retain their identity.

Now, we make the rice.

Fry the onion half-moon rings in some oil. When limp, add the sugar, and coat and let it cook till they are nicely caramelized. Toss in the spices, and the rice, and let the caramel and oil coat the rice grains. Add in water to let the rice cook, and let it cook at a medium-low heat covered till the rice is done.

Serve the rice along side the stew garnished with cilantro leaves.

Akoori

A spicy Parsi breakfast recipe.

Classic Indian (North Indian and Gujarati) spices combined with French technique.

Toss in the tomato and you have multiculturalism before the word (and world) even knew it existed.

There are probably as many recipes as there as Parsi families, and there are all kinds of variations ("fried cubed potatoes") but why let details stop us from enjoying a classic meld of New World elements, Indian spices and French technique?

Ingredients

6 eggs (beaten)
1 finely diced onion
4 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
3 green chillies (diced into very thin rounds)
2 large tomatoes diced
2 tbsp cumin seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Recipe

First up, the CC should observe that all egg recipes should only be cooked at two temperatures -- low, and medium low, and the latter is reserved for omelettes. If there is one piece of French technique that will serve you exceedingly well, it's this one.

The mise-en-place.

Fry the onion at medium low heat.

Add the ginger-garlic paste, and fry for a bit. At each time, you want to control the wetness of the dish making sure you are actually frying not steaming in the released water.

Add the green chillies, and the cumin. Fry for a bit.

Add the tomatoes, and fry for a bit. Turn the heat down to low.

Add the eggs. Since you are scrambling, pull in the cooked eggs from the outer edge to the center and scrape the bottom of the center to let the eggs cook.

Akoori (with toast)

Comparing Parsi Cookbooks

Well, a few months ago, the CC was cooking traditional dhan-saak (recipe to follow) for some friends, and had the opportunity to actually sit down and compare all his Parsi cookbooks.

There were three in all.

A tiny book by Bapsi Nariman, a recent one by Niloufer Ichaporia-King, and two books published in India by Katy Dalal.

Right off the bat, the CC noticed that Katy Dalal's books are written for other Parsis so you can only understand it if you already know how to do it, or have eaten it before. There is no hope for a beginner here.

Niloufer Ichaporia's is excellent but she has lived in the US way too long starting at a time where things were not easily available. Now that they are trivially available everywhere, she has not actually gone back to the originals. The recipes are top-notch, and the explanation of technique is impeccable but why substitute when you don't need to?

For example, she excludes vaal from the dhan-saak recipe. The CC considers it utterly crucial. While the CC agrees that the soul of dhan-saak comes from the masoor, the sweetness comes from the vaal so to get that effect, she adds sweet potatoes but starch has very little place in a meat-lentil dish.

No matter what she thinks, balsamic vinegar is not a substitute for tamarind + sugar. It just isn't. No one would ever confuse the different tartnesses of lemon, lime, vinegar, and tamarind. They are just too different. And fine vinegars taste nothing like the much cruder coconut vinegar necessary for certain Indian dishes.

She only states the importance of masoor in a traditional Parsi household in a throwaway sentence or two on page 302. If you were someone who already knew what masoor was, you'd probably just miss the sentence. The CC only found it because he went looking for that sentence, and that particular cultural interpretation.

The other two state it upfront.

Many Parsis will simply not eat a meal without a side helping of masoor, and they have tons of creative ways of cooking it to avoid boredom. Virtually every culture or sub-culture has a signature dish, and it behooves a good cook to know cultural details of this nature.

Bapsi Nariman, on the other hand, gives the recipe straight. No messing around, very minimalist but he takes other short-cuts which are not right. For example, it is important that the meat and vegetables be cooked separately, and then combined. The CC knows why his short-cut would work in India but it won't work here because you have fattier meat.

Oddly enough, Ichaporia's masalas are much more detailed and authentic, and "correct". However, she makes them in industrial sizes. Anything that starts with 1/4 cup of cumin is doomed. You'll never use that up in this lifetime.

But they are absolutely amazing and delicious!

The CC also hopes her readers know that if you toast cloves, cumin and poppy seeds, you need three rounds of roasting because if you toss them all in, the poppy seeds will burn. (It's a simple size thing.)

So what's a beginner to do?

Use Ichaporia but cross-check with Nariman. Adopt her techniques for the spices but check his basic ingredients first.