Fauna and flora

To enhance your appetite — and the pleasure of satisfying it — with the permission of renowned culinary author and chef Dr Katy Dalal, Parsiana offers a selection of vegetarian and fish recipes from two of her books — Vitality: fruit and vegetable recipes for healthy living and the recently launched Seafood Fiesta (see "Fishy fare,” pg 244). We wish you bon appétit.

Parsi Sekta-Ni-Sing Nu Dohroo

(Sweet and sour drumstick gravy)

Serves: 6-8

Drumsticks (12 — stringed and cut into 3-4 pieces each)

Jaggery (2 cups — crushed)

Tamarind pulp (1½ cups)

Gram flour (1 cup)

Onions (3 large — finely chopped)

Tomatoes (3 large — finely chopped)

Coriander (½ bunch — fresh, finely cut)

Curry leaves (3 sprigs)

Salt

Peanut oil or refined sunflower oil

Grind very fine with ½ cup water

Coconut (½ — fresh, grated)

Red chillies (8 — deseeded)

Green chillies (4 — deseeded)

Peanuts (3 tbsp — broiled)

Coriander (2 tbsp — broiled)

Cumin seeds (1 tbsp — broiled)

Black mustard seeds (½ tsp — broiled)

Asafoetida (½ tsp)

Clean, cut and boil the drumstick in boiling salted water till tender.

Place the onions in a large pan and add ½ cup oil and the curry leaves and allow the onions to cook till soft. Add the tomatoes and fresh coriander till they become soft.

Add the ground masala to the onions, lower flame and mix vigorously till red hot. Then mix the gram flour with two cups of water and stir so that no lumps remain and add it to the masala. Lower the flame and mix well. Add salt, taste and bring to a strong boil. Then add the tamarind pulp and the jaggery and mix well and let the jaggery melt in the gravy. Add the drumsticks to the gravy and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir, taste for salt and serve with white ghee rice or khichdi.

Raw Papaya Salan with Green Peas

(PALAK) SAAG MAKKHANI

Serves: 4-6

Palak leaves (700 g — plucked and washed)

Onions (2 — skinned and ground)

White unsalted butter (½ cup)

Cream (½ cup)

Ginger (1 tbsp — sliced and cut into fine julienne strips)

Soda-bi-carb (1 pinch)

Salt

Grind fine

Cloves (6 large)

Ginger (1” piece)

Kashmiri chillies (5)

Cinnamon (1” piece)

Black peppercorns (10)

Green cardamoms (4 seeds only)

Cloves (2)

Coriander seeds (1 tbsp — broiled)

Cook the palak in one cup of water and a pinch of soda-bi-carb for five minutes. Drain and grind fine and set aside.

Place the onions and the white butter in a vessel over a low fire. Allow the onion pulp to cook till red. Then add the ground masala and salt and cook for five minutes, stirring all the time. Now add the ground palak and cook, stirring, for another five minutes.

Lightly whisk the cream and pour it over the cooked palak and stir for two minutes. Remove from the fire. Serve hot.

This vegetable should be had with makke-ki-roti.

TOMATO AU GRATIN

Serves: 10

Oval shaped potatoes (5 large)

Red tomatoes (5 large — skinned and cut into half, sliced and deseeded)

Rich milk (½ liter)

Butter (½ cup)

Strong cheese (1 cup — grated)

Parsley (2 tbsp — finely chopped)

Self-raising flour (¼ cup)

Cheese (¼ cup — grated)

Chilli powder (½ tsp)

Eggs (2 — whipped)

Salt

Melt the butter and add the flour. Mix well and roast the flour till it becomes ivory colored. Add the milk and mix vigorously till you get a smooth thick sauce. Add the cheese and eggs and whisk. Taste for salt. Add the parsley when cool.

Peel the potatoes and slice them and cook them till soft in boiling salted water. The slices should not crumble but remain intact.

Grease an oval baking dish and place one tomato slice overlapped by a potato slice. Cover the whole dish in this manner.

Pour the sauce gently over the vegetables so as to leave the tips of the tomato and potato slices exposed.

Sprinkle the extra cheese over the surface and bake till golden at 350oF.

COCONUT AND VEGETABLE PULAO

Serves: 10

Basmati rice (700 g)

Small carrots (100 g — sliced)

Small potatoes (100 g — sliced)

Green peas (150 g)

Capsicum (1 — cut into juliennes)

Bay leaves (3)

Milk of 2 coconuts

Soda-bi-carb (1 pinch)

Mix together

Sugar (2 tsp)

Sour limes (2 — juiced)

Onions (2 large — chopped)

Bay leaves (3)

Eggs (5 — boiled)

Cashewnuts (1 cup — broken or whole, salted and fried)

Salt

Ghee

Grind to a paste in a little water

Red chillies (3 dried — deseeded)

Ginger (1” piece)

Coriander seeds (1 tbsp — broiled)

Coriander leaves (½ cup — chopped)

Cumin (½ tsp)

Turmeric (1 tsp)

Parboil the sliced carrots and potatoes and set aside. Half cook the green peas in salted water. Add a pinch of soda-bi-carb to it and drain in a colander. Set aside.

Take the chopped onions and place them in a large vessel. Add three tablespoons of ghee and cook the onions till soft and pink. Add the bay leaves. Remove the vessel from the fire.

Grind the masala very fine and mix it with the amount of coconut milk you will need to cook the rice with.

Replace the vessel with the cooked onions on the fire and when they get hot, gently add the sliced carrots, potatoes and peas and shake the vessel from side to side. If desired, add 1 more tablespoon of ghee to it. Then after five minutes, gently add the washed rice to the vegetables as well as salt and cook the rice for five minutes more. Transfer the rice to the rice cooker and then add the coconut milk with the masala mixed into it. Taste for salt and switch on the cooker till the rice is tender. Open the cooker lid, pour in the sour lime and sugar and close the lid at once.

Remove onto a flat dish whilst still hot and decorate the sides with the boiled eggs. Sprinkle the top with the cashewnuts.

Accompaniments

Potato and nut vegetable, salad of spring onions and capsicums, mango pickle and fried/roasted papads, green and red almond halwa

RAW PAPAYA SALAN WITH GREEN PEAS

Serves: 4-6

Papaya (1 large, semi-ripe)

Onions (2 large — ground)

5-Spice leaf (1 — if possible fresh from the garden)

Tomatoes (2 large — skinned and finely chopped)

Green peas (1 cup — boiled)

Sugar (2 tsp)

Curry leaves (2 sprigs)

Salt

Sesame oil

Grind in a little water

Sesame seeds (1 tbsp — broiled)

Coriander seeds (1 tbsp — broiled)

Grams or dalia (2 tbsp — skinned)

Kashmiri chillies (6)

Turmeric powder (½ tsp)

Cardamoms (2 — seeds only)

Black peppercorns (6)

Peel the papaya and cut the flesh into ½” cubes. Soak them in water for 20 minutes. Drain in a sieve.

Place three tablespoons of oil in a vessel. Heat over a medium flame. When hot, add the curry sprigs and 5-spice leaf. When they heat, add ground onions and fry them till pink and cooked through. Add the ground masala and lower the heat and fry till red hot. Sprinkle a little water, if necessary.

Whilst the masala is being cooked, boil a pan of water, add salt and cook the papaya pieces till almost soft. Drain and add to the cooked masala along with the tomatoes. Cook over low heat till almost dry. Add the green peas, stir well and taste for salt.

Serve hot with green mango chutney and parathas.

Tomato Au Gratin and Indian Hot Tomato Sauce with Italian Potato Gnocchi; Right: Prawn Fried Rice and Prawn Stuffed Omelettes

PRAWN STUFFED OMELETTES

Serves: 4-6

For the Omelettes

Eggs (8)

Pepper (¼ tsp)

Chilli powder (½ tsp)

Salt

Ghee

For the Stuffing

Celery (1 stalk — finely chopped)

Prawns (1 cup — deveined and washed)

Tomatoes (2 large — skinned and deseeded)

Green chillies (2 — deseeded and finely chopped)

Spring onions or a packet of chives (4)

Chop the spring onions, celery and skinned tomatoes finely and cook in two tablespoons of ghee till soft.

Add the prawns, chilli powder, deseeded green chillies and salt to taste and cook till the mixture is thick and prawns soft.

Beat the eggs, two at a time, with a pinch of pepper powder and salt in your mixie and pour into a non-stick pan in which you have heated 1 tablespoon ghee. Shake the pan and allow the omelette to cook over a slow fire till settled.

Divide the prawn mixture into four portions. Place ¼ of it on ½ of the omelette as it is cooking. When the bottom side is fairly firm, place a spatula below the omelette which has no filling and invert it over the stuffed half. Cook for a couple of minutes more, overturn and then slide it onto a plate and serve immediately. Make the three other omelettes in the same manner.

POMFRET SLICES WITH BUTTERED MUSHROOMS

Serves: 4

Pomfret fish (8 — sliced)

Mushrooms (1 packet fresh)

Sour limes (2 — juiced)

Pepper (2 tsp — ground)

Salt

Butter

Marinate the fish in salt, lime juice and pepper.

Place two tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and add washed, sliced mushrooms. Stir till mushrooms are cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add more butter to the same pan and fry the fish in two batches. When cooked, remove to a flat dish. Reheat mushrooms and place over the fried fish.

Mackerels in Hot Gravy

MACKERELS IN HOT GRAVY

Serves: 8

Mackerel tails (16 large, with the portion above stomach level chopped off)

Onions (2 large — sliced)

Tamarind pulp (¼ - ½ cup)

Triphal (5 — crushed)

Kokam (7)

Curry leaves (2 sprigs)

Salt

Coconut oil

For the ground masala paste

Fresh coconut (½ — grated)

Kashmiri chillies (20 — deseeded)

Green chillies (4 — deseeded)

Turmeric (1” piece)

Ginger (2” piece)

Cumin seeds (2 tsp)

Coriander seeds (2 tsp)

Wash and salt the mackerel tails.

Grind the masala very fine. Place the onions in a thick-bottomed vessel and add three tablespoons of oil and heat on the stove.

When the oil sizzles, add the curry leaves and sautée the onions till pink and soft. Add the masala and mix vigorously for three minutes. Add the crushed triphal and the kokum and place on a low heat along with a sprinkling of salt.

Arrange the mackerels neatly over the masala and pour the tamarind pulp mixed with one cup of water over the mackerel.

Shake the pan, holding it with two kitchen napkins, until the thick masala comes up on top. Gently turn over the mackerels once. Taste for salt.

Remove from the fire once the mackerels are cooked.

Serve with dal and roti or plain rice or vegetable khichdi.

FRESH BOMBAY DUCK CURRY

Serves: 6-8

Bombay Ducks (12 large tail pieces or 20 whole baby Bombay Ducks)

Coconut (1½ — fresh milk)

Onions (2 large — finely chopped)

Tomatoes (3 large — skinned and finely chopped)

Kokum (6 pieces)

Salt

Peanut oil (½ cup)

For the ground masala paste

Green chillies (12-14 — deseeded)

Grams (½ cup — skinned)

Cumin seeds (1½ tbsp)

Garlic (12 large cloves)

Black peppercorns (5)

Coriander (½ cup)

Apply salt over the cleaned Bombay Ducks and keep aside.

Fry the onions in oil in a thick, flat-bottomed vessel, till soft and pink.

Add the ground masala and stir for five minutes over a low heat. When cooked, add the tomatoes and allow them to soften stirring all the time. Then add the coconut milk and bring to a fast boil. Add the kokum.

Add the Bombay Ducks to the gravy and cook for five minutes over a high flame. Taste for salt. Simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve hot with rice and papad.

TANDOORI GHOL FISH FILLETS

Serves: 6

Ghol (12 large — 4” fillets)

Sour limes (3 — juiced)

Aji-no-moto (1 tsp)

Black pepper (1 tbsp — powdered)

Coriander (1 tbsp — chopped)

Salt

Oil

Apply a mixture of aji-no-moto, pepper and salt to the fish.

Mix the lime juice with an equal amount of peanut oil and apply all over the fillets. Sprinkle with coriander and marinate for four-six hours.

Cook over hot coals, basting the fish with extra oil and cook till tender and golden in color.

Serve hot with hot and spicy tomato sauce.

SALMON CUTLETS IN

BUTTER

Serves: 6

Salmon or ghol fish (9 large — sliced)

Parsley sprigs

Black pepper (1½ tsp)

Green chillies (2 tsp juiced — fresh and strained from a fine sieve)

Sour lime (slices)

Butter (300 g)

Peanut oil (3 tbsp)

Wash the thick fish slices gently. Salt them and apply black pepper powder and the green chilli juice and allow to stand for 30 minutes.

Just before serving the fish, place butter and peanut oil in a large non-stick pan and heat over a medium flame.

When hot, fry the fish slices gently, three at a time, covering them for five minutes on each side. Then cook them uncovered till golden brown.

Place them on a flat dish and top with the left-over butter-oil gravy. Garnish with parsley sprigs.

Serve with hot, fluffy, mashed potatoes.