A-N-A-T-O-M-I-Z-E: Bal Mithai Gateau

By Raul Dias

Blame it on the food purist in me, but the word ‘fusion’ has always been a big, bad word in my culinary lexicon. I’ve never seen merit in “consciously coupling” two (or more!) cuisines or cooking styles and coming up with a third, highly ersatz reflection of its progenitors.
But all that changed one chilly Uttarakhand evening as I sat down for a Euro-Garhwali fusion dinner on the lawns of the JW Marriott Mussoorie Walnut Grove Resort & Spa. While the elaborate meal was a procession of dishes—like a patty made from stinging nettle, locally known as bicchu ghas—that well-referenced this unusual cuisines’ partnership, it was the dessert served at the very end that made me a convert. The Bal Mithai Gateau.
For the uninitiated like myself, bal mithai is a terrific and calorific favourite post-prandial indulgence among the Garhwalis. The brown chocolate-like fudge is the laborious result of cooking khoya (evaporated milk cream) with cane sugar, until it takes on a dark brown caramel-esque hue. When still warm, the gooey mass is rolled in small white sugar balls, not dissimilar to the homeopathic medicine ones.
In his rendition of the dessert, Chef Sidharth Bhardwaj the resort’s executive chef sends out his iteration of the bal mithai as a gateau. Here, bal mithai is combined with a vanilla sponge cake, lemon zest, meringue and whipped cream and then set in a mould. Once chilled, it is then drizzled with rose syrup and served on a plate that’s smeared with berry compote for a tart contrast.
Once ready to serve, it is covered with a pink, freshly spun cotton candy dome and flambéed table-side, aided by a splash of brandy. The melting cotton candy bonnet reveals the creamy bal mithai gateau at its core. And as the saying goes, the rest is (edible) history!

(This column first appeared in the 27th August 2017 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/bal-mithai-gateau/article19554198.ece)