Parsi cuisine
Encyclopedia
Parsi Cuisine is an eclectic northwest-Indian recipe tradition native to the Parsi
s of India
and Pakistan
.
s or a curry
. Curry is made with coconut
and ras without, with curry usually being thicker than ras. Dinner would be a meat dish, often accompanied by potato
es or other vegetable curry. Kachubar (a sharp onion-cucumber salad) accompanies most meals.
Popular Parsi dishes include:
Also popular among Parsis, but less so elsewhere, are the typical Parsi eeda (egg) dishes, which include akuri
(scrambled eggs with spices) and the pora ("Parsi" omelette
). Also, main dishes (such as those listed above) are often served with an egg on top.
Traditional breakfasts during the 1930s in Mumbai or in many South Gujarat villages consisted of khurchan (offal meats cooked with potatoes in a spicy gravy), and some variant of the ubiquitous deep-fried, fried or half-fried eggs. In agrarian communities this would be washed down by copious quantities of coconut toddy, often straight off the tree.
Although in the not-so-distant past, vegetables were considered a 'poor peoples food', there is a presently a trend towards light eating, no red-meat and even vegetarianism.
and Urdu-speaking communities. Wedding feasts traditionally include lagan nu custard.
Parsi
Parsi or Parsee refers to a member of the larger of the two Zoroastrian communities in South Asia, the other being the Irani community....
s of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
.
Primary meals
The basic feature of a Parsi lunch is rice, eaten with lentilLentil
The lentil is an edible pulse. It is a bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds...
s or a curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...
. Curry is made with coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
and ras without, with curry usually being thicker than ras. Dinner would be a meat dish, often accompanied by potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
es or other vegetable curry. Kachubar (a sharp onion-cucumber salad) accompanies most meals.
Popular Parsi dishes include:
- Chicken farcha (fried chicken)
- Patra ni machhiPatra ni machhiPatra ni machhi is a dish in the Parsi cuisine, which is made from steamed fish topped with chutney and wrapped in a banana leaf.-External links:* from Parsicuisine.com...
(steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf) - DhansakDhansakDhansak is a popular Indian dish, especially popular among the Parsi Zoroastrian community. It combines elements of Persian and Gujarati cuisine. In Parsi homes, dhansak is traditionally made on Sundays owing to the long preparation time.-Ingredients:...
(lamb, mutton, goat or chicken and/or vegetables in lentil and/or toor daal gravy) - Sali murghi (spicy chicken with fine potato crisps)
- Jinga no patio (shrimp in spicy tomato curry)
- Khichri (rice with toor daal and/or moong daal)
- Saas ni machhi (yellow rice with pomfretPomfretPomfret are perciform fishes belonging to the family Bramidae.They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and the largest species, the Atlantic pomfret, Brama brama, grows up to long....
fish fillets in white sauce) - Jardaloo sali boti (boneless mutton in an onion and tomato sauce with apricots and potato strips)
- Tamota ni russ chaval (mutton cutlets with white rice and tomato sauce)
Also popular among Parsis, but less so elsewhere, are the typical Parsi eeda (egg) dishes, which include akuri
Akuri
Akuri is a spicy scrambled egg dish eaten in Parsi cuisine. The spices used are ginger, coriander, chopped chilis, and black pepper; minced tomatoes are commonly added. Akuri is traditionally eaten with pav or double roti and for this reason is somewhat liquid in texture.The popular dish egg...
(scrambled eggs with spices) and the pora ("Parsi" omelette
Omelette
In cuisine, an omelette or omelet is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat , or some combination of the above...
). Also, main dishes (such as those listed above) are often served with an egg on top.
Traditional breakfasts during the 1930s in Mumbai or in many South Gujarat villages consisted of khurchan (offal meats cooked with potatoes in a spicy gravy), and some variant of the ubiquitous deep-fried, fried or half-fried eggs. In agrarian communities this would be washed down by copious quantities of coconut toddy, often straight off the tree.
Although in the not-so-distant past, vegetables were considered a 'poor peoples food', there is a presently a trend towards light eating, no red-meat and even vegetarianism.
Desserts
Common desserts include sev (vermicelli), ravo (semolina). Also popular are faluda and kulfi, both of which are adoptions from the cuisines of the IraniIranian languages
The Iranian languages form a subfamily of the Indo-Iranian languages which in turn is a subgroup of Indo-European language family. They have been and are spoken by Iranian peoples....
and Urdu-speaking communities. Wedding feasts traditionally include lagan nu custard.