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Game to add more flavours to your Holi platter?
Home chefs and bakers in Lucknow are adding new flavours and dimensions to the festival of colours this year
Home chefs and bakers in Lucknow are adding new flavours and dimensions to the festival of colours this year. The young and innovative lot is busy dishing out vibrant delicacies that can add colours to our Holi platter.
Nothing can beat the essence of traditional gujiya, variety of papads and namkeen, besides the main course spread. But, along with them, new offerings too are being lapped by the food connoisseur as well as foodies.
The options for sweet and salty delicacies are aplenty. “For those avoiding sweet delights we have baked namkeens besides cheese and snack platter. Whereas adding special colours to Holi flavours can be thandai tres leches, rose pistachio thandai mousse, achari macaroons, thandai cookies and rainbow cakes,” tells trained chef and home baker Shambhavi Gupta who runs cloud bakery Sugar Frolic.
Different flavoured personalised jars are the most sought-after item this Holi. Home baker Monika Chandra, who runs M’s Kitchen, adds, “Small single-use jars are loved by our patrons and go well with the festivity as well. People can choose from thandai, saahi gulab, butterscotch, chocolate, strawberry, pista, kesar badam, black current and even bundi ladoo. Pan and thandai flavours too gets lot of love.”
Young baker Bhavya Shah has come up with a big range of delicacies and hampers. “I have designed a Holi hamper which has brownies, cookies, cake Jar and playing colours. Patrons are also picking from our offerings such as cookies, dry/tea cakes, chocolates, gujiya, chocolate gujiya, brownies, dry fruits, assorted dry fruits and cake jars.”
For Pankaj Gupta of Ram Asrey Sweets, the queen of the festival is and will be gujiya always. “You can have anything in name of new flavour but traditional gujiya is what Holi is all about. We have a range of gujiyas in our store from chocolate, to kaju, badam and what not but 85% of our total is of traditional and Navratan kesaria gujiya,” he says.
Innovations will keep happening and new tastes are making their own space feeld Vikas Gupta of Danbro by Mr Brown. He adds, “Baked gujiyas had made its own space and people love it. This year’s thing is baked wafer gujia which has less gluten and sweetened with honey. No added sugar, which people call sugar-free, is another vertical which is growing. The market is huge and space for everyone — sweetwallahs, bakeries, home chefs and more,” he says.
However, everyone agrees the winner remains “ghar-wali gujiya”, a must-have for the festival as always.
