By Anoothi Vishal
Despite the all-pervasive tandoor (and tandoor-ed fowl) in restaurant kitchens, baking is not really a major cooking technique in Indian cuisines. Which is surprising because not only have ovens been excavated from Indus Valley sites (used for making pottery rather than cooking) but, as food historian KT Achaya records, there is even a Sanskrit term for baking – ” putapaka” – in early manuscripts. Still, the technique never seemed to have caught on. Even when Central Asian foods such as the samosa or sambusak wound their way into the subcontinent, the essential way of cooking these (baking) changed to frying, possibly, as we can only conjecture, due to the essentially upper-caste Hindu philosophy of eating pucca khana, or food purified by immersion in ghee. If you are not talking about all those deliciously buttery cakes and cookies, gooey brownies and shortening-rich pies, baking in itself is pretty healthy and simple. It’s a shame though that so many of us are intimidated by it. Even with a simple convection oven in your kitchen, using just the basic Indian veggies, masalas and meats, baking is not only possible but fun.
Winter Recipes
At Delhi’s exclusive Gymkhana Club this season I managed to lunch on their fabled tomato baked fish (a classic at the century-old institution; no one knows who ‘invented’ the recipe though it seems to be in the 1950s’ spirit of things). What I also managed was to lay my hands on the recipe: marinate sole fillets with egg, flour, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, lemon juice and mustard powder. Grill it in the oven till half done. Make a thickish tomato sauce and pour over the fish. Top with cheese and some butter and bake at 250 degrees C till done. Serve with grilled tomato, sauteed veggies and French fries. If you are baking fish, even tandoori-style tikkas, the thing to remember is to use firm fish-like kingfish (surmai) and not softer fillets of, say, basa. For tandoori-style chicken legs, use a hung curd marinade (it leaves less water), off-the-shelves tandoori masala and simply stick this in the oven. If using mutton (say, for baked keema, or chops or even flat keema kebab or tikkis), first cover with a foil (or dough) and cook, and then, when it is three-fourth done, remove the covering to get a reddish-brown crust. Restaurateur Sudha Kukreja suggests the ideal winter veggie lunch when talks of baking whole broccoli florets (steam first, marinate in curd, kashundi and tandoori masala) in the oven, with a lashing of cheese if you like. Breads like sheermal or bakarkhani, which have always been essentially bazaar-baked, can be done at home to go with your baked kebabs or curry. Nishant Choubey, executive sous chef at Busit Bird Hotels, gives me a single dough recipe which can be fashioned into at least three different breads: knead dough with flour, warm water, yeast, yoghurt, milk and a little butter. Let it rest for 30 minutes. For Lavash-like crispy “papad” bread, roll out really thin, sprinkle with ajwain, and bake. It can be used in your parties with a dip and a base for assorted toppings. You can roll out a naan with the same dough, sprinkling some garlic and red chilli powder on top and putting it on a baking tray. Or, do a bakarkhani, by adding saffron and sugar to the dough.
Baked Sandesh, Anybody?
Potatoes and sweet potatoes can all be baked and combined with various seasonings like coriander root, garlic, ginger, curry leaves and so on for snacks and sides. And an inventive friend points to the ease with which one can do baked sandesh, a staple at Kolkata winter weddings, and even baked jalebis, at home. For the baked sandesh, buy some soft notun gurer sandesh, if possible, whisk it well with fresh cream till it is smooth. Put in a dish. Add almond flavour and bake till lightly caramelised on top. A hot winter treat. Pour milk over leftover jalebis (stack 12 jalebis in two layers and pour in half a cup of milk) and pop this in the oven. Top with bits of almond and saffron for an instant pudding! Finally, certain traditional recipes benefit immensely from baking. Persian scholar Salma Husain talks about the Hyderabadi lagan ke kabab (also called dum ki lauz or keeme ki barfi) that you can do in a home oven. Marinate the mince with yoghurt, ginger-garlic and cook it with the dry masalas. Layer a dish with this mix, and top with sliced hard-boiled eggs. Then, put another layer of the mince and top with slivers of almond and silver varq if you like. Bake. Cut into diamonds (like barfi).
Baked Tandoori Style Morsels
Chef Manish Mehrotra, who catered for several at-home parties in London, where tandoori food was demanded without the benefit of an onsite tandoor, shares his tips:
-Always pre-heat the oven well. Stuffing something that is so well marinated as tandoori chicken in a cold oven will only make it lose water fast
– Baste nicely: with butter or oil to lock in the juices
– Don’t overcrowd the tray
– Keep the size of the meat pieces small in keeping with home ovens or these will not cook well inside even if they char outside.
(The writer is a Delhi-based food writer and curates food festivals)
