My chicken dhansak, served in a beautifully spiced lentil curry with naan and rice, was just $11.95.
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Then there is the dhansak itself, here cooked with mutton, although the meat is secondary to the glorious sauce, uncompromisingly brown.
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The dhansak awaits at the far end of the room, where a waiter stands stoically blank behind three silver-domed chafing dishes.
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Then comes chicken, perhaps deep-fried with a lacy crust or in a red sauce heaped with sali (matchstick potatoes that snap), or lamb in a creamy white sauce of coconut and cashews; and pulao with dal and kebabs, uncannily close to dhansak — but not quite: Dhansak, while delicious, is considered inauspicious for a wedding, since it is customarily served on the fourth day after a loved one dies, to announce that mourning is over.
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CreditCreditAnthony Cotsifas TO TASTE DHANSAK at the Ripon Club in Mumbai — whose version of the slow-cooked, densely spiced lentil, vegetable and meat stew is one of the city's greatest pleasures — you must come on a Wednesday, and you must be invited.
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While dhansak is typically made with spinach, eggplant and squash, the Mumbai-born, 153-year-old chef Jehangir Mehta of the New York restaurant Graffiti Earth believes that "not being able to see the vegetables" makes Parsis more likely to eat them.
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I thought of dhansak and its heavy lake of sauce, repeatedly replenished from a seemingly endless buffet, and, so, too, the ritual of consuming the stew to break the fast after a loved one's death — as if only such a rich, torpor-inducing dish could properly stun you and let you expand, freed from the vise of grief.
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Back in New York at Graffiti Earth, Mehta, who rose to acclaim 15 years ago as a provocatively cerebral pastry chef at the city's now-shuttered Aix, has quietly introduced a few dishes that nod to the pleasures of home: a dhansak-like braise of beef ribs with brown lentils; squid or scallops in a sweet-and-sour tomato sauce; and a Persian toast that is his take on brun maska, with a sly wink at Parsis' penchant for whisky, pairing the bread with so-called butterscotch — in fact a butter-and-Scotch emulsion.
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Dhansak is also always had on the fourth day after the death of a near one. There is no meat consumed for three days after the death of a near one. And dhansak is used to break this abstinence on the fourth day. Hence, dhansak is never prepared on auspicious occasions like festivals and weddings.
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Dhansak is a popular Indian dish, originating among the Parsi Zoroastrian community. It combines elements of Persian and Gujarati cuisine. Dhansak is made by cooking mutton or goat meat with a mixture of lentils and vegetables. This is served with caramelised white rice, which is rice cooked in water, whole spices, and caramelized onions.
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Onion and garlic are browned to serve as the stew's base, and coriander leaves, green chilli and mint leaves are employed as garnish. While "dhansak masala" is sold as a ready-made mixture, the individual cook may make the spice mixture from scratch, altering the combination and proportion of spices based on personal preference. Within the Parsi community, dhansak usually contains goat meat or mutton; it is rarely made with other meats, such as chicken, or without meat. International recipe variants for the dhansak sometimes call for pineapple chunks to provide a sweet flavour, but traditional Indian recipes prefer the use of pumpkin, squash or gourd.
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The dal cooked with mutton and vegetables served with brown rice, altogether is called dhansak. The technique of extending a relatively expensive ingredient (meat) by combining it with vegetables and/or lentils in the same recipe is widely employed in Persian cooking ("Dhan" is Gujarati cereal dish mentioned in Kanhadade Prabandha in 1455 AD; "Sak" (derived from Gujarati "shaak" meaning vegetable greens or cooked vegetables). The Gujarati element of the recipe is the liberal use of a variety of Indian spices and condiments, in contrast to the more mellow Iranian recipes. In Parsi homes, dhansak is traditionally made on Sundays owing to the long preparation time required to cook the lentils and vegetables into a mush (in the days before pressure cooking was employed).
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The recipe has evolved over time. The Parsees, who are adherents of Zoroastrianism, came to Western India as religious refugees in the 8th century CE, after the Arab conquest of Persia and the fall of the Sassanid empire in 651 C. They brought with them the tradition of cooking meat with lentils and/or vegetables. However, tomatoes, chilies, pumpkin and potatoes are native to the Americas and were unknown in India until some time after the Portuguese (who in turn got them through trade with Spain) brought them to India in the 16th century CE. The dhansak is flavoured with a spice mixture called "dhansak masala", which is similar to "garam masala" except that the spices chosen are more aromatic and sweet rather than pungent. Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, dried ginger, coriander seed and cumin seed, as well as a pinch of asafetida, are among the spices employed.
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Mumbai cafés may serve bun maska (bread and butter) or brun-maska (hard buttered croissants), and paani kam chai (a strong Iranian tea, 'tea with less water'), or khari chai (very strong tea), mutton samosas, and kheema pav (minced meat served in bread rolls), akuri (scrambled eggs and vegetables), berry pulao, vegetable puff, vegetarian/chicken dhansak (a spiced lentil dish with meat and vegetables) and biryani, cherry cream custard, cheese khari biscuits, plain khari biscuits, coconut jam and milk biscuits and Duke's raspberry drink. Many Irani cafés offer sweet and salted biscuits like rawa (semolina), til-rawa coconut, nan-khatai (sweet, crisp flaky Irani biscuits), Madeira cake (tutti- frutti biscuits).
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Dhansak is made by cooking mutton cubes with a mixture of various lentils and vegetables. Traditionally, four lentils (arhar dal, Bengal gram or chana dal, red masoor dal and brown masoor dal) are used, but one or more of the lentils may be omitted or substituted. The vegetables include potato, tomato, brinjal, pumpkin and fenugreek leaves: again, substitutions, such as squash for pumpkin, and sweet potato for potato, may be employed: it depends on what vegetables are conveniently at hand. After prolonged cooking in the traditional recipe (or the use of a pressure cooker), the vegetables are more or less homogenised with the lentils, which are also broken down, so that the result is a thick stew rather than a curry.
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