DHANSAK - A PARSI DELICACY

Parsi cuisine is a mix of vegetarian Gujarati cuisine and non-vegetarian Iranian cuisine.Parsi dishes are famous for their deliciously blended with the flavor s of Gujarati and Irani cuisine. So that the cuisine is very nearby to our Indian cuisine.Dasicaly Parsis like to have their lunch with rice and lentil s and a curry which is made by vegetables and coconut and Kachubar (a salad made with chopped onions and cucumber. Lentils, potatoes, brinjals (Aubergine), carrot and tomatoes are widely used in vegetarian Parsi cuisine; in that list Dhansak is one of the very popular dishes in Parsi cuisine. Dhansak is mainly made with lentils and lots of vegetables and greens in Parsi dhan means lentils sak means vegetables and greens. traditionally dhansak is made with seven verity of lentils, but here I have only 5 verity of lentils so I used only 5 lentils and coming to the vegetables I used is brinjal, carrot, one small potato and a small cup of chopped spinach (you can use fenugreek leaves also in this recipe with spinach).And dhansak is made with chicken and mutton also and its very popular too. Here I go with the recipe for DHANSAK……….

Lentils I used in Dhansak…………….

Toor dal – Yellow pigeon peas – Kandi pappu ---- ¼ cup

Masoor dal – Red lentils – Masoor pappu ---- ¼ cup

Moong dal – split mung bean – pesara pappu --- ¼ cup

Urad dal – Black gram – minappappu --- ¼ cup

Channa dal – split chick peas – senaga pappu – ¼ cup

Vegetables I used in Dhansak….

Brinjal – 1 small (what we use for bingan bhartha) cut in to 1 inch cubes

Carrot – 1 cut in to 1’’ cubes

Potato – 1 small cut in to1’’ cubes

Spinach – 1 bunch chopped (for this recipe you can use 1 cup chopped)

Onion – 1 big sliced

Tomato -1 cup chopped seeds removed

Other ingredients…………

Freshly grated coconut – 1 tab sp ground in to a smooth paste or you can use ¼ cup of coconut milk also

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tab sp

For dhansak masala powder...

Red chilies – 2

Cinamon – ½ inch piece

Black pepper – 10 no.

Bay leaves – 2

Nutmeg – a small piece (you can take a ¼ piece of medium sized nutmeg)

Cloves – 8

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tea sp

Sesame seeds – 1 teasp

Mace – ¼ inch piece

Cumin seeds – 1 tab sp

Coriander seeds – 1 tab sp

Dry roast all above in gredients in a fry pan one at a time and grind in to a fine powder in a coffee grinder or mixee and store it in an airtight container. This will stay fresh for one week. You can use this powder as Garam masal in any non-vegetarian dish.

Instead of making this powder you can use garam masala in this recipe but freshly ground masala gives a great aroma to the dish.

For garnishing…….

Chopped coriander leaves – ½ cup.

Method ……

Mix all lentils in a bowl wash well and add 1 cup of water and soak for half an hour.

After ½ hour add ½ more cup water and carrot and potato pieces to lentils and cook till they become soft and mash. Mash lentils well.

You can cook lentils in a pressure cooker for 2 whistles

Now in a pan add onion slices, chopped tomato, chopped spinach and brinjal pieces stir for a while and cook till vegetables become soft.

When the vegetables become soft switch off the heat and mash the vegetables little bit (traditionally they mash vegetables in to a fine past but I didn’t mash them in to a paste. I just mash them with a spoon a little bit)

Now heat a other pan add cooked lentils then add ginger garlic paste(traditionally parsis don’t use oil in Dhansak but if want you can use 1 tab sp of oil here and season with 1 tea sp cumin seeds and then add lentil mixture) stir well and let it cook for 5 min. in a low flame. Stir in between.

After 5 min. add cooked vegetables and spinach, coconut paste or coconut milk stir well and cook for 5 more min .Now you can see the mixture reduced and become like a paste.

Now add dhansak masala mix well to blend and salt to taste, 1cup water and cook in a very low flame for ½ hour. Here if you want to add chicken or meat cook it and add with its stock mix well and let it cook for ½ hour mix in between. If the mixture is very thick then add ½ cup more water mix well bring to a boil and remove from the heat. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve Dhansak with BROWN RICE and KACHUBAR.

THIS DHANSAK IS ON THE WAY TO RCI-PARSI AT MEERA S ENJOY INDIAN FOOD EVENT BY LAKSHMI