Persian Pride at Shaheen Daruwala's Table

Shaheen Daruwala is an excellent cook who had to be drawn out of her shy and reticent state to cook for UpperCrust, Persian fare which is as enticing in looks as tingling in taste. Evolved cooking at its best!

Text & Photographs: Farzana Contractor

I have known Shaheen, since her Durazi days. When we all studied at St. Xaviers, Bombay. She and her band of friends, which included her future husband, Roozbeh Daruwala, were a happy lot, I would say. Not boisterous or loud like some other groups, but a seemingly good bunch who stuck to each other.

Shaheen was always the reserved one. She still is and it’s only years of coaxing that got her to actually commit to cooking for my camera.

I first learned of her cooking prowess from her brother, the famed fashion designer, Shahab Durazi, who lives in my apartment block and who proudly told me. “Oh, my sister is such a good cook!” When I did actually eat at her home the first time, and truly enjoyed her cooking, all Shaheen said was, “My cooking is nothing. You should eat food that Shaida cooks, she is fantastic!”

Shaida who lives in New York is another sibling of Shaheen and Shahab. And there are two more, Shakeel and Iqbal which completes the Durazi brood into a close-knit family. Theirs was a large family. Their father, Mohammed Jaffar, used to export perishable foods to the Middle East. Though he and even his father were born in India, his forefathers came from Duraz, a town in Bahrain. Shaheen’s mum’s family came from Busher and Shiraz in Iran and that’s where the cooking influence came from, too.

“I think, belonging to a large family had a lot to do with the kind of food we grew up eating. We were and are a large and loving family, Masha’Allah. And my mum, who is unfortunately no more, was an excellent cook. She took great pride in her kitchen, a value system which got inculcated in us. Believe me, nothing ever came from a store for us, no jams, no sauces, pastes, no nothing. Just raw material. Everything was cooked or made at home. Even sherbets and pasta! So I did the same when my children were growing up.”

The Durazi kids never went eating out as children. The best was offered at home. Treats only meant chocolate pastry from Bombelli’s and occasionally they were taken to have tomato soup at the then iconic now defunct Touché at Breach Candy,  which was their neighbourhood.

Love happened to Shaheen and she was engaged even while she was at college and got married soon after. Roozbeh, as you guessed, is Parsi and Parsi food was unfamiliar cuisine for Shaheen. Keen to introduce her in-laws to Persian food, she decided to start cooking. That’s how her tryst with hands-on cooking started. From then till now, she says the kitchen has dominated her life and she is happiest spending the maximum time in that part of her home.

Today, they all love Persian food. Who wouldn’t? I love it, too. My favourite has always been Fesenjoon-e-Marg and Tahdig. Which was very much on the table, except I forgot to tell Shaheen to add the potatoes to it. It’s a rice dish where the bottom part is cooked to perfect crispiness and the rice bowl inverted in a dish to its downside up. And if potato slices are added, that’s what you see, crisp and golden brown.

Persians/Iranians  are robust eaters. And meat has to be part of the meals. To be specific, mutton or if you prefer lamb. We get both in India. There is a certain debate on what constitutes mutton and lamb. As I understand it, one is goat meat and the other sheep.

“That’s true. Iranians will not enjoy a vegetarian meal. Lamb shanks, kebabs… goosht (meat), has to be on the table. Though we do use a lot of brinjals, turnips and lady fingers, beetroot,” says Shaheen. But I remind her that though they use veggies it is usually dunked into mutton to make it appetising. “Yaaa… true,” she says sheepishly.

We go on to discuss an incident involving her son Junaid, when he was at school. Shaheen did say I should not mention it, for her son would kill her! But I think it is harmless enough and has reference to the context, and Junaid who now runs his own business retailing fish and other seafood, is old enough to not mind. As it happens a tiffin used to be sent to school to Junaid everyday with all the goodies his mum would prepare. Just once, once in all his life at school, she sent him a tiffin where there was no non veg in it and Junaid came home crying bitterly, “Mom, how could you do that. How could you? No meat, not even one piece. Could you not have included just one piece??” Shaheen laughed as she recalled that incident. Needless to say that was the first and the last time that Junaid was sent a meat-less tiffin! Today he is more a fish eater. Off the Hook, an offshoot of his dad’s business which is seafood export, is his retail business. Launched just over a year ago, Off the Hook already  has customers who swear by what Junaid offers from his stores at Bandra and another at the gas station at Warden Road.

So what are the early memories of food for Shaheen? “Well, my mum used to make great aash with reshta. Aash is a mix of lentils, cooked in greens like spinach, to which is added reshta, which is like fettucine. She also made amazing Polo Kalam, which is Shahab’s favourite, thick slices of cabbage in lamb meatballs, also Polo Adas, which is black lentils with kheema (minced meat) and something else, I can’t remember the Iranian name, but it had vermicilli with dates!”

“The kitchen in her time was very active from early morning, and by mid morning all the food for the day was prepared so that the rest of the day was free. I practise the same thing,” says Shaheen, who sends tiffins to her brothers' and dad’s office every day, while husband and son come home for lunch.

The family favourites are Baamiyeh Goosht (Bhendi Gosht) and Aab Goosht. The latter is something that is eaten all over Iran. It’s soupy stock with fatty mutton pieces on the bone, to which is added potatoes, tomatoes and kabuli chana (chickpeas). In streets and restaurants the sieved stock is served separately into which they dunk and soak the big rotis. The concoction left back becomes a broth which is taken away, mashed and brought back to the table. Sometimes wooden mallets are given to you so you can do your own pounding!

Persian cuisine comprises mainly of dry food. Barbecues, roasts, not curries and gravies. Olive oil is used in plenty, as also butter. They enjoy fresh cottage cheese, Feta and love mint and cucumber, which is part of the salad, along with beetroot. Fruits, they can eat before and after meals. Kebabs are ate with hung curd to which is added crushed mast and museer (shallots and garlic). Chello kebab is top of the list. But there is no comparision between what you eat in Iran and even the best in India. “It’s the difference in the quality of meat, called goosefand (sheep meat). There it is very moist and fatty. Chello kebabs have only salt and pepper and served on a bed of buttery rice with grilled tomatoes. As for desserts, I can’t say we have anything really outstanding. We make bakalava and  falooda. But tea, black tea with lemon juice and saffron, with nabaat (candy sticks), is a must when we have guests over."

Between December and March it's like open house for Shaheen, when family and friends from overseas descend upon Bombay. “We can have as many as 20 to 24 people at one time! It’s chaotic but so much fun. That’s when cooking is on full-time, along with shopping and going out for dinners, to the movies and for weekends to our family home in Khandala.” I guess it must be super when you have the family children who are studying in the USA and other parts of the world come down for the holidays. Three of them I know since they were kids, Shahab’s two girls, Amaesha and Ashyaan and Shaheen’s daughter, Zeeba who is doing her PhD in New Science from Cornell in Manhattan.

If the table I shot is any indication of what Shaheen is capable of dishing out, I can only conclude it’s a gourmet existence for all the Durazis and Daruwalas. And may they live happy and content, eating and hopefully gyming, all at the same time!

Ghaliyeh Maahi Recipe

Zereshk Shireen Pulao

Trout - Off the Hook