- Recipe from the feast cooked on Navroz, the Parsi (Zoroastrian) New Year
BHARUCHI AKURI
Scrambled Eggs with Shoestring Potatoes and Nuts
Parsis love eggs! Not merely because they symbolize new life and fertility, or because they are a complete food. They have a strong affinity for eggs that surpasses their love for any other food including meat or chicken, without which they would be bereft. They eat eggs at breakfast, as main and side dishes, atop every conceivable vegetable and meat, scrambled, boiled, fried, shirred or stuffed.
Akuri is easily Parsi cuisine’s most loved egg dish. A spicy dish of eggs scrambled with onions, garlic, chiles, tomatoes, turmeric and fresh coriander, it is a classic Parsi dish that is as versatile as it is delicious. A richer, blander version is Bharuchi akuri, which includes fine shoestring potatoes, cream anddried fruit and nuts in a nod to Persian cuisine. The dish may have had its origins in the coastal town of Bharuch, which once housed many Parsis. Some prefer to add the dried fruit to spicy akuri and call it Bharuchi, which leads one to believe that it is the dried fruit and nuts that make the difference.
Ingredients
6 eggs
3 tablespoons milk
Salt
3 tablespoons butter or ghee
1 onion, finely sliced
3 tablespoons fine shoestring potatoes
2 tablespoons slivered almonds
1 tablespoon split cashew nuts
2 tablespoons raisins, soaked
2 tablespoons cream
Method
- Combine the eggs, milk and salt in a bowl and whisk until frothy.
- Heat the butter or ghee in a pan; add the onion and sauté until soft but not brown.
- Add the egg mixture and cook on low heat, stirring continuously, until the eggs begin to scramble.
- Add the shoestring potatoes, nuts, raisins and cream and stir well to mix. Remove from heat and continue to stir for a few seconds—the eggs will continue to cook in the heat from the pan. Do not allow the eggs to set hard, they should be soft and fluffy.
Serves 3–4
