My Bombay Kitchen

26-Mar-2008 by shantihhh

My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking

This amazing book by local well known food-guru Niloufer Ichaporia King has been nominated for the James Beard Asian Cookbook Award for 2008.

I am so hoping she wins!

This is undoubtedly the best Parsi cookbook to be published in the US. Parsi cuisine is a delightful subtle meshing of Persian and Indian flavours. I was first introduced to this very special cuisine by a Parsi friend when she brought a wonderful food of her culture from a visit to India as a gift for me.

Parsi food is a mix of hot, spicy and sweet and sour dishes. This mix of flavours and aromas makes the cuisine even more irresistible. Dhansak Masala is the personality of Parsi cooking, it is a complex spice mixture composed of dhana jiru and sambhar masala, each complex mixtures in their own right, with endless variations as numerous as there are cooks. You could search for days and weeks not be able to top the recipe in this book .

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Her explanation of making Patrel could save you endless hours trying to find out that Colocasia leaves are actually taro root leaves. She lays out the techniques in a clear style reminiscent of Julia Child of exactly how to assemble this dish. I know that reading each recipe cover to cover is such a treasure trove of information.

When I heard that Niloufer Ichaporia King had been nominated for James Beard Award for Asian Cookbook of the Year I was both ecstatic and proud. She has been a favourite local of mine for years.

She is especially known for her ritual celebrations of Navroz, the Parsi New Year, on the first day of spring, when she creates an elaborate, ceremonial meal based on the auspicious foods and traditions of her vanishing culture.

Often she and the chefs of Alice Waters' legendary restaurant, Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California just 15 minutes from me, collaborate on this ritual feast together. Niloufer Ichaporia King lives in a house with three kitchens-can you imagine? Three glorious kitchens. I must admit we have a great kitchen with an eight burner Viking gas stove and stations for 6 cooks to prep and assemble and cook. We also have a nice outdoor kitchen with a large barbeque, grill including Tepanaki style griddle. We are planning to add a much larger gas wok station and prep counter and sink.

King ventures through at least six farmers markets here in the SF Bay Area a week in search of unusual greens, roots and seeds, traditional food plants from every immigrant culture in the Bay Area. It is a joy to see her digging through piles of produce for the very best. Such enthusiasm and passion is rarely seen in todays' world of quick cooking.

King is an anthropologist, a kitchen botanist, a one-of-a-kind cook, and a writer. A Parsi from Bombay living in San Francisco.

"The book easily transports readers to the household of the Ichaporia family in Bombay (now Mumbai) and submerges them in the scents and tastes of Parsi food. As talented a writer as she is a cook, the author manages this with charm (enhanced by old-time family photographs) but without sentimentality. Her approach to cooking is traditional in the manner of Parsi cooking over the centuries: absorbing new ideas and influences without losing its essential Indo-Persian character. . . . Interesting, reliable and beautifully written."–San Francisco Chronicle

To read much more of this facinating woman and the Parsi traditions:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88505980

shanti/mary-anne

Comments

Comments: 3 | Add a Comment

nehapaul says :

Very nice book review.

Posted on: 5 April 2008 - 3:22am

paris221966 says :

Very impressive Mary-Anne! Next time I'm at B&N bookstore, I'll buy it! Thanks for the recommendation :-) Liz

Posted on: 21 April 2008 - 10:26pm

2pr says :

such a nice blog mary-anne! i fell in love with the author, i'll add it to my list of things to buy. just hope i could find it here though...wish me luck! ^_^

Posted on: 27 April 2008 - 4:18pm