Every city has its share of heritage eateries, places that serve dirt-cheap food and have been doing so for ages. Kolkata has its cabins and sweetshops (although the prices are often a bit higher than “dirt-cheap”). Bangalore on the other hand, has the breakfast spots and bakeries. The Iyengar Bakeries are a Bengaluru signature, the…
Tag: baking
Pastry 101 : Puff
Last time, we looked at shortcrust pastry and its varieties, along with an overview of French pastry creams. Let’s now move on to our second pastry, puff pastry or Pâte Feuilletée, the base for local favourites like chicken patties and projapoti biskoot. Puff pastry feels magical, almost alive. When baked, it increased to upto eight…
Pastry 101 : Shortcrust
The word “pastry” has a different meaning in India and the West, which confuses a lot of beginners. While we use the term pastry to refer to cakes filled and frosted with cream, the term is used differently in the West, and infact, has two meanings. Pastry in the West can refer to the final…
The Roast Dinner Equation (Part 3)
It’s Christmas day, and time for the final part of our series on the roast dinner, and the final article of the year. 2021 has been a difficult year, especially in the early months, and I haven’t been able to post regularly. Well, here’s to ending the year right, and hoping for a brighter one…
Christmas, Calcutta, and Cake
Yesterday, we examined the basics of cake science, understanding the role each ingredient plays in the making of a simple pound cake. With the basics sorted, let’s crank the level up a notch. I like to think of Christmas cake as a glorified pound cake, since the technique and science remains the same, with the…
Anatomy of a Pound Cake
Nothing says Christmas in Kolkata more than the Christmas cake. With places like Nahoum’s and Flury’s overflowing with cakes and crowds, the plum cake has a much more ubiquitous presence here as compared to other Western seasonal favourites like roast dinner and eggnog. This Christmas, we will take a good look at this seasonal treat…
Baking 101 (Part 4)
We’ve reached the final part of baking month and the final instalment of the baking talk with Nodee di. This time we talk primarily about recipes and inspiration, just what the beginner baker needs to get going. We hoped you enjoyed this collab as much as we did making it. Utsav: How strictly do you…
Baking 101 (Part 3)
So far, we’ve gone through the basics of baking equipment, along with some ingenious hacks of making whipping cream and cream cheese at home. This time, we talk about a trio of ingredients which don’t do well with compromise, ingredients you need to specially stock up for the baking pantry and without which you’d miss…
Baking 101 (Part 2)
In Part 1, I commenced my conversation with Nodee di with why baking excites both of us and then talked about ovens, especially how the microwave oven can be easily used to create amazing bakes. This time, we move into more equipment and ingredients… Utsav: Let’s move on to hardware, as Alton Brown from Good…
Baking 101 (Part 1)
The Gourmet Glutton turns 1 this week, which calls for something special, and this is a really special series. I’ve talked about Nodee Chowdhury on my blog before, the amateur baker with a penchant for healthy twists to decadent classics. Check out my Undercover Veggies article if you haven’t done so already. I decided to…
The Gourmet Glutton 