Give your Deepavali sweets a modern twist, says restaurateur Rachel Goenka
Restaurateur Rachel Goenka, through her new book, tells you what to do with those extra boxes of sweets you’ve received this festive season. With her contemporary twist to traditional sweets, she says laddoos can be turned into mousse jars too!
As the founder and Chief Executive of The Chocolate Spoon Company, a group of award-winning restaurants in Mumbai and Pune, Rachel Goenka has been giving Indian desserts a modern twist for a few years now. “Every Deepavali, I would turn mithai (sweets) into contemporary desserts at The Sassy Spoon (one of the restaurants run by the company). Even though we didn’t make many mithai during festivals in my family, my husband’s family makes quite a few variants each year. I wanted to bring together these contemporary recipes that use traditional sweets through a book that would help everyone who loves mithai,” says Rachel, a Le Cordon Bleu London alumni, who also heads a chain of patisseries named Sassy Teaspoon.
Through her latest book Rachel Goenka’s Adventures with Mithai: Indian Sweets Get a Modern Makeover, published by HarperCollins India, Rachel has made her debut as an author. The book includes ingredients that are commonly available and features those sweets that almost every household would be loaded with during the festive season — motichoor laddoos, rasmalai, carrot halwa, anjeer barfi, etc. So if you’re unsure what to do with the leftover sweet boxes once the festival is over, Rachel offers you just the inspiration you need to give them a delectable upgrade. If you’ve got too many kaju katlis left, turn them into truffles, and make your carrot halwa into a cake — she says through this book that highlights sustainability when it comes to food. The 50 recipes compiled through the book, that include desserts, ice creams, macarons and chocolates, use a variety of regional delicacies from across Indian states. They range from rasmalai and elaneer pudding taking inspiration from the South, to ghevar apple crumble with an influence of Rajasthan, to filter coffee truffles that use a strong south Indian filter coffee powder. “Rather than tossing the sweets away or giving them to someone else, they can be presented on our own dinner tables with a contemporary twist. I’ve kept the recipes uncomplicated and easily approachable by anyone. Each of the recipes try to play with textures, like with a sponge or a biscuit base, but hero the mithai,” asserts Rachel, who also trained under Irish celebrity chef Rachel Allen. “I’ve tried to cover desserts from as many Indian states as I could so as to give a holistic representation of our country. The book, simply put, is contemporary India in the form of desserts,” reiterates Rachel, who was named the ‘Young Restaurateur of the Year’ at the Restaurant India Awards last year.
Rachel, who admits to loving Mysore pak from Chennai, combines the rich sweet with tender coconut’s flavours to create domes. “There was a lot of trial and error involved in the process of creating the recipes to have a balance of flavours. It took me nearly three months of trials to bring the book together. During this period, I had to also eat a lot of desserts and I’m surprised I haven’t developed diabetes! I’m happy that I’ve been receiving great feedback from chefs that I could highlight regional cuisines on the dessert front,” she remarks.
Rather than tossing the sweets away or giving them to someone else, they can be presented on our own dinner tables with a contemporary twist
—Rachel Goenka, Restaurateur-author