Parsi Potluck

I count myself among the very, very, very lucky to be able to call Hungry a good friend of mine. She is a wonderful cook, and loves to share her creations with me (I’m also a willing guinea pig!), and even more amazingly… she invited me (along with a select group of lucky, lucky people) to her in-laws’ house to enjoy their cooking as well. You see, not only are they fantastic cooks, they are Parsi. Before I met Hungry, I’d never heard of Parsi – nor Zoroastrianism – but I’m discovering that just because I don’t ask people about their ethnic background, doesn’t mean it’s not out there. In any case, Hungry has posted about Parsi Indian food on her site many times. It looks so delectable and delicious and just amazing, and I’ve asked many times about where we can find such food… but unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any restaurants that offer such things. She teased us by bringing pattis to a potluck, and that just made us want more… and more…

Anyway, you want to hear about the food! I was over the top excited when Hungry extended the invitation, and the day couldn’t come fast enough.

First up, puffy chips – I didn’t get the name – but reminded me of shrimp chips, with less shrimp flavor. Chutney sandwiches with the tiniest bit of kick, which were a great starter, whetting our appetite.

Then onion fritters… or were they spinach? All I know is these were very tasty…

but I was way more focused on these, the kavobs. Meatballs – we were lucky enough that it was a nice day, so they were cooked on the grill (we were told that makes them better than baking). Holy !! they were juicy, moist, flavorful, with bright herbs seasoning the entire meatball, pokes of onion popping in, just absolutely delicious. I don’t know how many I ate, but it was a lot… and I was definitely the one to say “well, okay!” and take the last one. SO GOOD. I want to make my own version of these… so freaking good.

And then the main courses began – a whole platter of pattis! Seasoned ground beef encased within a thin layer of mashed potatoes, then deep fried – these are incredible. They’re also super gut bombs, so don’t be fooled… it’s pretty hard to eat more than 2 in a day. (I tried. I failed.) Delicious… and there’s a lot of skill involved to get the right ratio of mashed potato to meat mixture… too much mashed potato and you really can’t eat more than one. It’s like onigiri… which is definitely a skill that I don’t possess (I have onigiri molds to help with the shape, but I tended to pack them so hard that it was like eating a brick. That’s all I needed to eat to be full, a brick of rice, haha).

Salad to start things off! Hungry always says how delicious the salads are, and I think “it’s a salad… I love salad but can one really be THAT much better than others?” – and the answer is yes, yes it can be. I was sad when I was too slow for round 2 and missed out on more salad.

The spread was amazing. Shrimp and egg curry. Chicken marsala. A chutney of sorts, sweet and pickly. Naan. And of course, rice.

This is just my first plate – I foolishly ate more than one egg and was sooo stuffed. But it was all so delicious! I believe I had to stop at 2.5 pattis (don’t worry, the half wasn’t wasted; Dessert Zombie managed to help me… that’s what siblings are for, right?!). Seriously, looking at these pictures makes me want more right now.

The infamous Ms. Executive Pastry Chef brought her A-game and served this 7 layer chocolate mousse cake with dark, white and milk chocolates. It was super rich, and after two bites I had to relinquish this to Dessert Zombie again… just too much for my stomach to bear.

Everything was absolutely delicious, and I am eternally grateful to have wonderful friends like Hungry, and even more grateful that she’s got an awesome family who opened their home to a bunch of drunkies! Thank you to every one of you who made this possible!!!

I know, you’re jealous of my life 😉