Cherry clafoutis

Now that date palm jaggery is in season, we’ve been eating quite a bit of notun gurer payesh at home. When the weather is cold and the payesh is warm, it makes life look all rosy. On a cold winter’s day, again, there is nothing quite like a hot gulab jamun or a crisp and hot jalebi. And a friend from Tamil Nadu tells me that on top of the list of all that she misses in her home in the United States is a bowl of hot payasam.

Hot Indian desserts — which I have single-mindedly been indulging in this winter — got me thinking. Since we know all about Indian desserts, I spoke with some chefs about warm European desserts, and they came up with a list of all kinds of wonderful cakes, crepes, soufflés and puddings that are best eaten hot. Chef Mayank Kulshreshtha, the executive chef of ITC Sonar, calls them “winter chill desserts”. It includes everything from the simple but delicious bread and butter pudding to the exotic cherry clafoutis.

“Nothing can beat the sour cherry clafoutis which is typically French,” adds Harpawan Singh Kapoor, the executive sous chef and pastry chef at the hotel. Chef Kapoor also gets all mushy when he talks about their chocolate and rhubarb pudding. “It’s a sinful combination,” he says. The dish is served with warm Marsala wine-infused zabaglione, an Italian dessert prepared with egg yolks and sugar.

Bread and butter pudding

Warm desserts — such as some nice walnut brownies — often go well with a cold side dish. “That’s because the cold gives you a better palate, and the hot gives you better flavours,” reasons chef Mayank, citing the example of brownies served with hot chocolate fudge and cold vanilla ice cream. “Hot and cold together give you a warm feeling,” he says.

The chef also likes to serve his desserts with warm fruit-based sauces. “Fruit compotes go well with these desserts. They add to the presentation, as well as to the taste,” he says. Neeraj Tyagi, the executive chef at The Claridges in New Delhi, agrees. “Fruit purees work well with warm desserts,” he holds.

A well fried churro — a Spanish batter of flour which is first frozen in the shape of a stick and then fried, and finally dusted with sugar, cinnamon and pistachio powder — is chef Neeraj’s all-time favourite. Like chef Mayank, he also likes to serve something cold with the warm dessert. He believes that the sharp and cold taste of the Italian gelato best complements a hot dessert.

European warm desserts, however, have a problem. Unlike a bowl of payesh or a plate of gajar ka halwa which can be reheated anytime, most Western desserts have to be served immediately after they are ready. A soufflé, for instance, is wonderfully soft and gooey when it has just been baked. “But if you reheat it, the inside will become hard and taste like cake,” warns chef Neeraj.

But then, who wants to wait in any case? As someone wise said once: Never dawdle when something good is to be done.

Raspberry Hot Soufflé
(serves 2-4)

Chocolate and rhubarb pudding

Ingredients:
500ml milk l125g sugar l4 egg yolks l4 egg whites l30g cornflour l5ml vanilla essence l20ml raspberry puree

Method:
Boil milk with the vanilla essence. Whisk the yolks and sugar well, add
in the cornflour and whisk some more. Add the milk to the yolks. Mix well, return to the fire and cook in a double boiler until thick and boiling. Cool and add in the raspberry puree. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into the above mixture. Put into moulds lined with butter and sugar (3/4ths full). Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 10 minutes till the mixture rises.
Serve immediately.