Coastal influences in Zoroastrian cuisine

Sometime back, we had invited a couple of our bachelor friends for a simple dinner. I was making the simple but delicious Parsi shrimp curry whose recipe I had acquired from my mother-in-law. It's my favorite curry and the one time that I hog on rice, which, I normally treat with abandon.

The curry itself is made with fresh ingredients including the masala making it rich enough for company while not breaking the bank at all. I typically make it with seafood because I think that the flavor of the meat marries well with the mild spices of the curry. And the best part, one batch serves four easily, so there is no extra effort for a couple of friends and the dish itself goes down well with everyone!!

Anyway, as I was cooking and chit-chatting with my friends, one of them, who is a Maharashtrian, commented that the curry resembled, in texture and method, the Malvani version. This latter curry is made apparently not of a sophisticated recipe but is nevertheless very flavorful!! So much so, that I could see the light of delight in his eyes when he mentioned it and my husband who has also tasted the same, vouchsafed for the taste :).

So, this got me thinking about the intermingling of cultures, society and inevitably of course cuisine. Now, that I think about it, the curry that I believed to be traditionally Parsi of course must have had influences of indigenous coastal cuisine. Well, I believe, Parsis, who are Zoroastrians, are unique to India (those still in Iran or descended from them are still referred to as Iranian Zoroastrians). Although their traditions are rooted in Iran, they have definitely been influenced not insignificantly by Indian (especially Gujarati, where they first landed) customs.

I have been told a legend about the first Parsis who fled the autocratic Moslem rulers of their ancestral country, Iran, and swept on to the shores of Gujarat. As the story goes, the priest of this refugee group approached the ruler of the state for shelter. The benevolent ruler indulged them on the condition that they will not try to convert Indians to their religion. This condition was accepted and the priests went to further demonstrate their adaptability by asking for a cup of milk and a spoon of sugar and mixing the sugar into the milk. The symbolism of course represents how the new arrivals would blend into existing society.

By the way, it is quoted that the ruler's condition for a welcome is the reason that the official rules of the Parsi religion prohibits conversion into Zoroastrianism and also bars entry for non-Parsis in their places of worship - the fire temples.

So I suppose it is not far-fetched to consider that the Malvani recipe somehow influenced the Zoroastrian one resulted in the nth generation curry that I relish. Notwithstanding all the evolution in the lineage of the said curry, it stands the test of time in taste!!! After much discussion on the above and other sundry topics, during which the curry came to a good boil and shrimp well-cooked, we sat down to a casual and terrific dinner..

As a hostess, am happy to say that the curry bowl was almost clean at the end of the dinner and we all went to bed with full and satisfied stomachs while our tongues were still reminiscing on the tingles of flavor :)