Characteristic picture (R) pic credit: Kalyan Karmakar
I wish to inform you concerning the lunch I had final Sunday.
Purple, ochre, and vivid pink hues danced throughout my eating desk; all because of the unfold that adorned it. Farida Nanavaty of Mumbai-based Karrylicious Kitchen had warned me that she could be sending an additional field of affection with the order. Nicely, let’s simply say there was much more than love in it.
The feast started with fried mind cutlets whose crisp exteriors had been deceiving; the minute they made contact with the palate, they melted into buttery mushy and creamy notes. Simply as I started suspecting that this meal may simply outdo each different non-vegetarian feast I’ve beforehand indulged in, I used to be confirmed proper by the salli botti (a gravy of boneless mutton served with crisp potato flakes).
Its velvety textures had been the right envelope for the candy, spicy and bitter profiles of the gravy. The gravy’s ancestors would nod in approval.
I used to be full. However the crimson strawberry jam and custard cake wouldn’t have any of those excuses. It demanded to be given its fair proportion of consideration. And I obliged.
Now that I’ve (maybe) made your mouth water, let me inform you concerning the chef who made mine do the identical. Farida Nanavaty alongside together with her daughter, Karishma, has been on the helm of Karrylicious Kitchen, delivering 150-year-old Parsi recipe-based dishes to the individuals of Mumbai.
Within the face of fading genuine traditions, Farida is constructing a true-to-its-history model.
If I needed to speak in confidence to you, I’d inform you what a activity it was to pick only a starter, predominant course and dessert from the brilliantly-designed menu there (Instagram: @karrylicious_kitchen).
As I scrolled by means of the colorful album of things, rooster Russian cutlets, fried Indian salmon, Parsi prawn biryani and the prawn patia competed for my consideration. And I needed to battle off the urge to order all of Farida’s dishes!
Amazement at what this Parsi-born and bred girl has created colored my opinion. However the extra I found about her story the extra it left me in awe. Three issues are of be aware right here – Farida’s recipes are true to her great-grandmother’s secrets and techniques; she didn’t know easy methods to beat an egg till she obtained married; she’s going to go away no stone unturned in giving her prospects contemporary and the perfect meals — even when it takes her a few days to make a dish.
And no I’m not taking part in ‘Two truths and a lie’ with you. I guarantee you concerning the verity of those information.
Of a 150-year-old legacy
Nostalgia is the by-product of Farida’s cooking. That is what meals author Kalyan Karmakar re-iterated in a single episode on his YouTube channel ‘Finely Chopped’ the place he sat in entrance of a desk that was lined to the sides with attractive dishes.
It was whereas scrolling by means of YouTube on a random afternoon that I got here throughout this gem of content material. As I listened to Karmakar narrate the story of Farida’s rooster curry, it left me intrigued. “A 150-year-old recipe led to this dish,” Karmakar identified. And in that second I knew I needed to discover the girl who was championing her ancestral magic in her residence kitchen.
Thus started the hunt to search out Farida Nanavaty.
A Google search was inconclusive. As Farida later instructed me, “I don’t like being within the limelight. I steer clear of promoting about my work. It’s all phrase of mouth.” After I complimented her on this Parsi meals empire she has created — all within the small area of her residence — she laughed. She then regaled me with how culinary brilliance has run within the household DNA.
However a enjoyable truth is that cooking was not one thing she had thought of. “I had all my meals served to me on the desk,” she smiles. It was solely after getting married on the age of 19, that she started to check her expertise. “Every so often, my mother-in-law and I’d strive a dessert collectively. Lemon souffle was our favorite.”
With time, as she started cooking extra regularly, she realised the gene had certainly handed onto her. “My children would inform me that they beloved my meals,” she notes. This realisation that her children beloved the age-old recipes that she had grown up consuming as a baby when her mom and aunt ready them was heartening for Farida. And she or he tapped into this sentiment whereas cooking.
But it surely was solely in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic that the eagerness undertaking blossomed right into a small enterprise.
It was round this time {that a} buddy of Farida’s brainstormed and instructed she might channel her cooking expertise into one thing fruitful.
“This is able to be a pleasant approach of staying occupied, spreading happiness and feeding individuals healthful meals as many eating places had been shut on the time,” recounts Farida.
Thus she and her daughter may very well be seen distributing meals among the many poor and feeding stray animals who had been going through the brunt of the lockdown. And shortly, earlier than they knew it, Karrylicious Kitchen was receiving love from individuals throughout Mumbai.
Individuals would place orders effectively prematurely for the Russian cheese rooster and herbs cutlets, the patra ni macchi (steamed fish topped with chutney and wrapped in a banana leaf), mutton biryani with dhansak daal (mutton cooked in a mixture of lentils and greens) and lagan nu custard (a Parsi dessert).
Heritage is the key ingredient
‘Completely-done and true to element’ this designation would mark out each dish cooked by Farida’s grandmother and great-grandmother. Although she was born after they handed, her mom and aunt’s tales served as references.
“They’d supervise every ingredient. All of the non-vegetarian elements had been cleaned and washed with gram flour and salt or vinegar earlier than marinating, for hours. These had been then slow-cooked for the perfect outcomes,” her mom would inform her.
Meals was a celebration.
“There was no haste to complete the cooking course of; every dish was cooked with love. I learnt by no means to compromise in any approach whereas cooking as a result of meals binds individuals. You might be virtually sharing your vitality with the one that is consuming what you cook dinner,” she notes.
Rising up, Farida’s summer time holidays could be spent with the entire household. For 2 months, the neighborhood would collect, keep, cook dinner and revel in collectively. “All the children could be served their meals earlier than the others and I nonetheless bear in mind the aroma, style, happiness, culinary excellence, enjoyable and frolic within the massive residence,” she says.
She notes that although the kitchen was full of a lot of girls cooking their specialities, there was no trace of competitors. It’s these reminiscences which have remained within the folds of Farida’s recipe books. “In the present day, no matter now we have achieved at Karrylicious Kitchen is due to our roots and authenticity with out which it wouldn’t have been doable.”
Parsi meals has loved an itinerant historical past. Farida underlines how each Parsi residence has its personal repository of culinary secrets and techniques. She gestures in direction of dhansak. “Each residence has its personal recipe for this dish. And the style additionally differs throughout households, however the style quotient can be superb no matter which residence you eat it in.”
That being stated, style profiles additionally change throughout generations. Farida agrees. “After I began cooking I used to remain precisely true to my great-grandmother’s and mom’s recipes. However now I permit myself a little bit variation, a little bit additions right here and there and a change in approach.”
One instance is the strawberry jam and custard cake wherein Farida has deviated barely from the unique recipe and added an alternative choice to the same old milk. One other instance is the salli rooster the place she has added just a few extra elements and adjusted the strategy of cooking the onions within the masala.
It’s difficult to vary recipes which can be merchandise of heritage, she says, including that she woes the recipes which have been misplaced just because they weren’t written down. Certainly one of these is khattu gosht (a spicy and bitter mutton gravy). “None of us have the recipe. I grew up consuming it on Sundays and auspicious days, however now the ladies in my household don’t appropriately recollect the precise set of elements and hand-pounded masalas that went into it.”
Whereas Farida credit the matriarchs of the household for educating her about cooking, she says she additionally learnt one other vital lesson from them. “Don’t do something half-heartedly.”
“It doesn’t matter what time it’s, if I’m making an order and I realise on the final minute that I’m in need of even one ingredient, I’ll run to the shop and get it. I gained’t deem a dish completed till I’m glad that its style matches the unique model,” she says.
You possibly can order your feast at 8879132817 or 7506192017.
Edited by Padmashree Pande
