Salli Par Eendu: With Love from Parsis

My crazy bawi! How I miss her since her last blink-and-you-miss-it visit from New Zealand last week. She was here to visit her sick grandmother and I was (right there!) with her, all the time I could spare from classes and tests (why?! why?! why?!)... the only thing we managed to cook together in this entire trip.. due spending large amounts of time at the hospital, a non-functional kitchen (where we had to even borrow cooking oil!) and her very short trip with long list of things she HAD to eat (Noorani's included!) was our favourite simple one-dish meal Salli Par Eendu (eggs on potato sticks).

This is a Parsi-style omlette is simple to cook, tasty and a great filler (passes all criteria I would have for dishes to make when I need comfort food!) Of course we devoured it so fast that I did not manage to (ok..ok... did not bother to as I was too busy eating it) click pictures but the next time I make it I will surely put up pictures!

Salli Par Eendu

Ingredients (for 2- 3 people)

50 gms potato salli (for every 3 eggs) - salli is thin fried potato sticks available at any stores that keeps farsan
1 tbsp oil
1 tomato sliced in thin round slices
1 green chilly finely chopped
10-15 leaves of corriander finely chopped
3 eggs
salt to taste

Method

In a non-stick deep pan (used for shallow frying) heat some oil and layer the salli across the pan. Sprinkle some water across the pan (about 1/4th of a cup across the pan). Then, layer the tomato slices on the salli and cover and steam the salli and tomatoes for about 5 minutes till the salli and tomatoes soften.

While the salli is steaming, break the eggs in a bowl, add the green chillies and the salt and beat it till it gets a little fluffy. Once the salli and tomato are steamed, pour the egg mixture around the pan so  that it forms an even layer around the salli. Garnish with the chopped corriander on top and cover and cook till the eggs are done. This takes about 3-4 minutes when covered.

Delicious salli par eendu is ready to be served hot!

Tea: Oh Calcutta!

Thinking of tea... good tea always take me to Calcutta! Oh Calcutta! A tea lover's dream come true where even the "kulhad" chai you get on the streets is an amazing experience... especially after an uncalled-for off-season shower (which you've gotten wet in!)

Some of the tea experiences you should have in Calcutta (if you live there or just go there for a visit!)

Dolly's Tea Shop:

Brilliant! A small shop at Dakshinapan with a seating capacity of about 10 people (and it gets too crowded with that number) serves some of the most elegant tea I've ever had! The unbelievable variety of flavourful teas (of course!) personalised service (the owner is always there at the shop), the regulars, and the ambience of a busy high end bazaar... If you have great company (even if its just that of yourself!) you will have a gala time!

The Little Dolly's Tea Shop!

Mango tea (iced) and Kashmiri Kahwa (hot) at Dolly's tea shop

Apart from serving lovely tea, Dolly's also sells tea leaves, powder of various kinds. I had picked up Earl Grey tea (long leafed loose tea!), white tea and broken orange pekoe for gifts and have gotten great reviews about them. I would vouch for the Earl Grey tea too!

Cha Bar: Oxford Bookstore, Park Street

Located at the Mezzanine level of the Oxford Bookstore (books and tea! such a heady combination for me!), Cha Bar also serves an amazing variety of tea. The ambiance is high end with an amazing array of rarely-available-in-India teas such as the Russian Caravan. I have been to the Cha Bar in Mumbai too, which has a good collection of teas but is literally 5 tables crammed together in the middle of the small Oxford bookstore at Churchgate. Though the teas are worth a visit for if you can't make it to Calcutta!

Cha Bar, Calcutta

Russian Caravan (served so elegantly-check out that gorgeous spoon)

Teapot display at Cha Bar, Calcutta

Apart from that of course as I have already mentioned, the chai you get in kulhads by the street is also brilliant. The reason for this seems to be that all the tea produced in the North east states gets transported to Calcutta first for shipping, of course it gets dibs! And hence the amazing chai!!! :-)

Tea Tip

The tip to getting the right strength of tea (not too strong or light) when using loose tea leaves is to boil the water, switch off the stove, adding a teaspoon of leaves per cup and letting it brew till the tea leaves settle at the bottom... When they do, it perfect strength tea!