Prawn Jalfrezi, the Anglo Indian Way

The memsahibs bawarchi was a Mog by descent.

His ancestors, who hailed from far-flung Chittagong, were, as he loved to flaunt to his friends with a pompous air of superiority, invited to Calcutta by Raja Nabakrishna Deb of Shovabazar. Possibly a couple of years after the Battle of Plassey.

The Battle of Plassey rewrote the history of the subcontinent for sure. However as far as my story is concerned, it marked the emergence of a new class in Bengal. A class of Babus. Diehard Anglophiles. Who took worship of their English overlords to new exalted heights. Fiercely competed with each other on entertaining their masters. The most decadent parties. The finest spirits. The most delectable food. The most graceful nautch girls.

But the palate of the sahib was not yet accustomed to the simple, earthy Bengali cuisine.

And this put the Raja, who had the blessed kismet of having Robert Clive as the esteemed guest of honour for his extravagant Durga Puja, in a crisis.

Someone told the Raja of the Mogs.

A lawless race from Chittagong. Who along with the Portuguese had pillaged and plundered villages inland for several centuries. (Such was the ferocious intensity of their raids that even to this day Moger muluk refers to a lawless,  anarchic land !!)

But their ravaging incursions inland is not what this post is about.

Proximity to the Portugese provided the Mogs stunning insights to the European way of living, especially their culinary habits and cooking styles.

And that’s what the Raja was praying to capitalise on.

So the Mogs arrived in Calcutta as guests to Raja Nabakrishna Deb. To cook for his venerable English guests.

And the experiment was a runaway hit. Prolific cooks the Mogs were, already familiar with the Portuguese palate, before long they had tweaked and adapted, learnt and mastered exactly what would satiate the English masters.

Back to the memsahibs Mog bawarchi. The boy, in his early twenties, was no saint. He had an obsessive weakness for spirits. Watered his masters brandy. And things inexplicably went missing from the household.

But he was a wicked cook. Whose hands created magic and who learned with a vengeance.

So when the sahib threw the most ostentatious of parties which saw an overwhelming quantum of unconsumed meat, he knew he had to devise a novel way to deal with cold leftovers the next day morning.

And that he did.

Cold meat. Stir-fried with an abundance of chillies. A profusion of onions, enough to let your lacrimal glands go berserk. And tomatoes to moderate whatever they can of the fiendish heat.

Thus was born the Jalfrezi – jhal (hot, spicy in Bengali) frezie / parhezi ( suitable for a diet, in Persian) – Chinese stir-fry techniques in an Anglo-Indian kitchen. Created by the memsahib’s Mog bawarchi to deal with leftovers.

On my Anglo-Indian culinary journey, I cook a mean Prawn Jalfrezi this morning, luscious prawns, stir-fried with onions, tomatoes and an overload of chillies.

Enjoy my Prawn Jalfrezi, it shall leave your taste buds in a trance !!!!