They said it was a Meat Lover's Paradise

They said it was a Meat Lover's Paradise, and how right they were! A college friend of mine, Crystal, said we'd try Imbiss - The Meating Joint, for lunch. We had read all the reviews on Zomato and were fully prepared with detailed directions since the place is easy to miss. What do you know? We still managed to get lost. When we did finally find it the restaurant was packed! So we waited for a bit sweating and working up our appetites.

It took about 10 minutes for us to be seated in their tiny restaurant. The restaurant itself doesn't seat many people, maybe 16 in total, but the whole operation is amazing. There are a total of 2 servers/order-takers/table-cleaners. They send the order to the 'kitchen' and out comes your food in under 10 minutes! Mineral water is available but there's a bottle of drinking water and tissues on each table. The restaurant is air-conditioned too.

Signature Sausage Platter

We were wowed by the menu. I don't remember completely but I highly doubt that they offer any vegetarian options! There was a soup and some salads but what caught out attention was the Schnitzel and the Sausages. We ordered the Pork Schnitzel, the Lamb and Mint Sausage and the Signature Sausage Platter. The Pork Schnitzel took a bit longer than the Sausages to be served but everything was fresh. The Signature Sausage Platter lived up to everything we had read about it! We had a few favorites, mainly the sausages with coarser meat. The accompaniment of fries was a surprise; they pushed McDonalds fries into a tiny little corner.

Lamb and Mint Sausage

The Lamb and Mint Sausage was something that caught my eye off the menu and I had to order it. The flavour of mint isn't very prominent however the sausage is tasty and well cooked. The accompaniments were a bit of a let down; the unnecessary brown sauce was too watery and didn't have enough flavour whereas there wasn't enough of the yummy mashed potatoes. The sausage was slightly salty to have on it's own - I'd recommend you order a side of burger bread or hot dog bread as they don't serve bread with any of their mains unless it's a Hamburger or a Hot Dog.

Pork Schnitzel 

Finally the Pork Schnitzel. A thin piece of pork, crumb fried to perfection. Not tough, not chewey, the pork was lovely. They do have a vegetarian Aubergine Schnitzel too. It comes with a side of a mixed green salad and 2 potato patties which were so-so. But definitely recommended! The both of us managed to share the whole Schnitzel quite comfortably. The only downside might have been that Imbiss strictly offers only meat - not even dessert. But after a meal like that I'm not sure too many people have place for dessert.

Sadly on our way out we were subjected to another patrons order of delicious Chorizo rice, succulent Ribs and the Beef Burger. Ah well, another reason to return! For all the college students out there, our order of a Pork Schnitzel, the Lamb and Mint Sausage, the Signature Sausage Platter, and 1 Sprite, extra bread and extra salad came up to only Rs. 540! It was a happy ending indeed. I'd definitely recommend this place to all the hardcore meat lovers out there - go try Imbiss - the Meating Joint!

Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O

'Crème brûlée can never be Jell-O!' says a very frustrated Julia Roberts to Cameron Diaz who is at her wits end. For those of you who haven't ever watched My Best Friends Wedding, being Crème brûlée is like being the French macaroon among cupcakes; classes apart.

The first time I made crème brûlée I hadn't ever tasted one yet and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The custard curdled, all the gas had leaked out of my brand-new blowtorch, and I thought I'd never ever make a perfect crème brûlée. I tasted one at a celebration dinner at the Ambassador : YUM.

Today everything came together perfectly! My father still called it a gora caramel custard but his ramekin was wiped clean, so thank God for small mercies.

Crème brûlée freshly made at home.

The recipe I used can be found here. This recipe makes more that the prescribed 5 servings, I got about 7.

Just a few tips. I immersed the ramekins in a shallow water bath to ensure that they cooked evenly. Since cream is being used for the custard and not milk I didn't find the need to return the custard to a double boiler after the hot cream is mixed with the egg yolk mixture; I ladled it directly into the ramekins. I also used sugarfree for the custard instead of sugar, however I did used sugar for the caramel. Always remember to sprinkle the sugar and caramelise as close to the serving time as possible because if done in advance the uncaramelised sugar dissolves into the custard. Crème brûlée can be served as a hot dessert or cold just refrigerate after caramelisation.


And if you think you're too Jell-O to make an amazing crème brûlée just tell yourself 'YOU could never be Jell-O' a couple of times; everyone can be crème brûlée once in a while :)

Auf Weidersehen!

Few of you know I speak a little Deutsch, another one of my pursuits among others in a million different directions. 'Auf Weidersehen' means Goodbye; and what could be more appropriate for a 'Bon-Voyage' themed farewell cake?

Dense chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache and covered with chocolate butter-cream and fondant, and accessories.

made of modelling pas

 This cake was ordered by Hiral's friends for her farewell party. Dark chocolate was the cake of choice and I used a dense and super moist chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache. For the fondant to hold I used chocolate butter-cream for a crumb coat.

There were a lot of little bits that went onto the cake; things Hiral specially likes. For instance, Hiral was travelling to Australia for her Masters, hence the flag of Australia.

Hiral is also an absolute fast food junkie so I put a couple of burgers and fries too. Her fondness for coffee is displayed by the steaming mugs of coffee. She is also a champagne enthusiast so on went a bottle of Moet! This was especially fun to make since I was using edible glitter for the first time.

made of modelling paste

This was a first for me as I had never done models of people before. Hiral is a fan of curly hair so I decided to put a face topper with wild curls. This little head was a lot of fun to make! I used toothpicks to curl the hair; once it had set I glued it to the head. I think it was a decent first attempt :)

made of modelling paste

made of modelling paste

Hiral being a globe-trotter, I decided to use a cake pop to show this. A dense chocolate cake pop covered in green and blue fondant to make a tiny earth with footprints painted on.

She's also fond of everything French! So a little message from her friends :)

So this was my first official order! 

It went well and was well received. A little tip for working with fondant though, that I picked up by trial and error : Fondant tends to sweat if it's shifted from low to high temperatures. So while working with a cake it's best to leave the fondant covering till the very end and not refrigerate the cake. Working in an air-conditioned room is the best option.

Happy Cake-baking-decorating-eating folks!

The Yeast Mystery

Fresh Bread Rolls

Bread was always a bit of a conundrum for me. I wanted each attempt to turn out perfectly, leading to three semi-failures. Weapons of mini destruction : check. Bread? Fail.

The experience of achieving perfect bread, the glee on your face the moment you see them fresh out of the oven, the exhilaration upon sinking your teeth into warm little buns : priceless.

This was my first attempt at bread in College. In fact it's the very first recipe they taught us! That joy has been since replicated twice in my own kitchen :)

Chutney Rolls

Chutney rolls are something we see quite often, and assume them to be complicated to make or not fancy enough. Well the chutney is a bit bland for the bread around it but I've tried a variation of Spicy Onions and it was the best snack ever! A friend and me polished off a whole batch in one sitting. There are a couple of other fillings on my list too like Herbed Chicken, Olive&Onion and Spicy Chicken. They are perfect for a party filler snack. 




When we made wholewheat bread we were given the option of using a loaf tin or just allowing the loaf to rise on a tray. Obviously I picked the tray and what a lovely rustic loaf it gave me. Just a tip for the health conscious : always ask for multigrain bread or wholewheat bread. Quite often brown bread is just white bread with a little caramel in it. Wholewheat flour is a little harder to handle and doesn't always give you a consistent product like gluten-filled refined white flour would. So eat smart :)

Somewhere in the middle of The Beginning

Being a home-baker is filling some empty spaces inside me that I didn't know I had.

All the things that I have lost and achieved in the past year seem of little consequence now, like the scales have been balanced.

So I'm a student at the Catering College in Bombay. I graduated last May from St. Xavier's with a BMS degree of very little value to me. I've always been baking but didn't ever have the confidence to actually charge people to eat my food. Joining this course has given me just the shot of confidence that I needed.

I took a Sugarcraft and Cake Decorating course too. Bit heavy on the investment side but worth it completely. So I've stared taking orders now!

It started with the Church Fair last week. Sold 4 dozen cupcakes!

And since then I've been posting as many pictures as I can, trying to show people the work I do.

This is Madeira cake that I made in class. Fine-crumb cake moistened by rich Madeira accentuated by tangy candied peel.