Home Chefs Of Mumbai- Part 2 – Inderpreet Nagpal

There’s now an encouraging trend to treat home chefs as stars they undoubtedly are. They have found solutions of delivering food all over Mumbai to ease the overload of unending household chores.

 Generally we judge home chefs on two grounds: The quality of all food that emerges from their kitchen and the innovation of the dishes on the menu.

 

 

Inderpreet Nagpal, popularly known as ‘Rummy’s Kitchen’ is the most versatile home chef who can build the most innovative delicious dish from any ingredient. Food is always on her mind, not only in her kitchen but also when she is out of her kitchen, in the garden, or with friends and even during travelling.

 

She fondly talks about her first memory of food.

 

“During my Singapore trip we went to a sea food place called Tiong Bahru.
Oh my God! The variety of live sea food was just too good. It was like . You go select  the sea food you want to eat , select the preparation and it comes ready on your table! Amazing! ”

 

She does catering for small parties, plus keeps weekly menu. Every week, there is different menu with different cuisine. This month is only meats, started with mutton, then fish, chicken and pork. She specializes in non-veg dishes, fusion food, mix of South and West.

 

She is happy to share her recipe of Sweet Buns

 

 

1.     PREHEAT OVEN TO 180C

2.     Mix together 2 tsp yeast, 1tsp sugar, 125ml water. Keep it aside for 2 minutes and let it bloom.

3.     Add 450 gms maida, 100ml warm milk, knead the dough, hook in on medium speed.

4.     Add 1tsp sugar, salt and knead on high speed for 10 minutes.

5.     Add 1 tps butter and ½ cup mix of tin fruit cherries, nuts, dry berries, black and white sesame seeds while mixing.

6.     Knead the dough till it becomes very soft and elastic.

7.     Remove the dough from the mixer and give it a quick knead with your  hands.

8.     Place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling film or a damp cloth and leave it to prove for approximately 2 to 3 hours until doubles in size.

9.     Once risen knock back the dough, place on a lightly floured work surface.

10.  Make 9 to 10 balls  or roll the dough and keep it in the loaf tin to make bread loaf.

11.  Let this rise for another 30 mins

12.  Brush with beaten egg or cream, sprinkle sesame seeds . Place on a baking tray

13.  Bake for 20 mins on 200°  until golden brown

14.  Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack and leave it at room temperature

15.  Enjoy with butter or jam

Inderpreet Nagpal was awarded Home Chef and Baker's award 2020 for the contribution to India's Home chef & Baking Industry in the category of 10 years+

 

 Rummy loves baking bread, “Its  so relaxing working on breads” she says.  She has a pickle brand called “Herbs n Spices’

You can get in touch by following her Instagram handle ‘Rummykitchen’

 

Fine Art Of French Pastry Making At Studio Fifteen

The invite was from France Tourism Development Agency and Bonne Mamam at Studio Fifteen. We, The FBAI members were to acquaint with fine art of French pastry making that would be further enhanced by the indulgent flavours of renowned French Confectioner Bonne Mamam.

Now Bonne Mamam, as you might know, make preserves and jellies that are 100% all-natural ingredients,  made from same time-honoured traditional French recipes. So making the cookies in normal traditional way and then adding a dollop of Bonne Mamam jelly on the top would naturally enhance the taste.

I don’t normally bake (actually I need to buy a decent oven to begin with, it’s on my wish list) but the fact remains that I would be learning something different (everyday is a learning experience) from the expert chefs like Pooja Dhingra and Pablo Naranjo, and that was good enough reason to accept the invite.

Due to heavy Mumbai traffic, I was a bit late for interaction with other food bloggers, but luckily, I was in time to try my hand on baking Jam Thumbprint Cookies and Matcha Apricot Financiers.

After the brief introductions, we were split up in four groups of three persons each, so that all of us would get hands-on experience on preparation of these cookies and financiers. It was so easy that I am thinking why had I not baked these before. There is really no trouble at all, baking is just mixing the right proportion of ingredients and baking them at right temperature.

The cooking session was fun really, everybody had a story to tell, that made the session very interesting.

With ingredients, all measured and kept on the table, and under guidance of Pooja and  Pablo, we began to work on the recipe given to each one of us.

Sharing the recipe of

Matcha Apricot Finanaciers (of Studio15)

First important thing is to preheat oven at 200C

Whisk together 100 gms icing sugar, 20gms flour, 50gms almond powder and 1tsp Matcha powder

Add 2 egg whites and mix gently using fork

In a sauce pan, heat 60gms butter till it browns and strain over mixture

Pipe the batter into financier moulds and bake for 8-10 minutes

Add Jam on the top of financiers, as per your taste.

Sharing the recipe of

Jam Thumbprint Cookies (of Studio15)

Whisk together 100 gms butter, 120 gms castor sugar, and 1tsp vanilla essence till light and fluffy

Add one eggs and whisk well

Sift together ½ tsp baking powder and 175 flour

Fold into the above mixture with a spatula

spatula

Mix well and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours

Preheat the oven to 165C and line your baking tray with parchment paper

Take small quantities of the dough, make small balls, flatten with your finger tips into medium sized cookies

Put them on the baking tray, leaving 2-inch gap between each cookie. Using your thumb, make a small well in the middle of each cookie

Put a spoonful of jam in each well

Bake for 15 minutes or till the edges start browning

Once cooled, top the well with some more jam and serve.

Tasting is the best part of cooking or baking

Bringing back  food favours of a bottle of apricot jam and a pretty cookbook will inspire me to try my hand on baking, for sure..

Thank you Studio Fifteen for hosting us.

Quite A Treat At Icing On Top

Frankly speaking, I do like pastry, cakes, cookies, but cannot eat too much. Just one spoonful is enough, more than one is a cardinal sin. Therefore when Icing on the Top offered me some of their delicious goodies, I visited their site to see what they have on offer.

On their webpage, I did what anybody else would do….drool!

When their gourmet hamper arrived with miniature range of pops, shots and desserts, I needed somebody to share these goodies with me.. Why should I sin alone?  I selected the day, when I would have visitors at home. Their goodies arrived right on time, when I had guests from Curacao.

Happily I removed box by box of goodies to try from the gourmet hamper they sent.

G screamed when she saw Red Velvet cake. Creamy spongy, it just melted in the mouth and disappeared from the box in a blink.

“Hey! That’s good!” she exclaimed, “didn’t know they make such stuff in India.” She squealed in high decibels.

One by one, I opened the box, starting with handcrafted miniature cookies. There were Lemon, Cinnamon, Chocolate chips and Oaty Caramel Crunch.

One particular type that delighted G and was reminded of her granny was cinnamon cookie. “Nankatai, Nankatia”, she exclaimed with joy as she popped one by one into her mouth, “This is really good. She took a bunch of the cookies and put in her friend, P’s mouth too.

Now P was also getting interested. “What else do you have?” He asked So we tasted - those small tiny ball cookies.

They liked cinnamon cookies the most, Oaty Caramel Crunch tasted like breakfast oats, crunchy and sweet, perfect to go with the morning cup of coffee. However they didn’t like lemon cookies, it was too powdery.

Next was the cake pops that looked like big lollypops.  A creamy Orea in the center with sponge on the outside was good; one bite was enough to flood the mouth with chocolate.

There were three shot glass desserts: Chocolate, Hazelnuts and Blueberry.

“If you like sweet and sour, Blueberry is the best, but for me, I liked the nutty taste of Hazelnuts.” Said G as she tasted spoonful from each glass.

However the best of all was the Chocolate Mudpie, extremely delicious, spongy and soft. I saved it in the fridge and it was fresh even after four days.

I would sincerely recommend this to one who has a sweet tooth. 

They have special goodies for vegetarians that have exotic flavors – passion fruit with basil seed, raspberry with star anise, saffron with pistachio to name just the few.

It is perfect for weight conscious people too, because it satisfies the craving of sweet and because it is miniature, it limits your intake, thus ensures minimum calorie intake.

Established in 2009, Icing On Top is a culmination of one girl’s passion for baking. Trained in the pastry kitchen at JW Mariott as well as at Indigo Deli (Palladium) and Indigo (Colaba), Ayushi Shah (The Owner) quotes a love for food as the driving point behind her success. A strong vegetarian upbringing shines through in the completely eggless menu offered, is a rarity in itself.

Drool more on ‘Icing On Top’ or at their Facebook Page.