The great chef’s life in Delhi.
[Text and pictures by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Meet Jorbagh’s Julia Child. Her living room has a handsome Shakespeare. Her guest room has an Alice Munro hardbound. Her library has two copies of a VS Naipaul travelogue. Her new acquisitions are books by Tolstoy and Colm Tóibín, and a biography of John Cheever. Currently she is reading Jean-Paul Sartre. Her next project is a book by Isak Dinesen. But the author Ms Child is most passionate about is E.M. Forster. And yes, she cooks. Here is the recipe of her ‘heartfelt cookies’:
Actually this recipe is my grandmother’s pastry recipe for Cornish pasties, but I had some pastry left over after I made pasties the other night. So I just rolled out the leftover pastry, cut it into heart shapes and sprinkled cheese on top. This was heartfelt cookies.
1 cup plain flour
100g butter
pinch of salt
4-6 tablespoons ice-cold water
[plus grated cheese]
Mix flour and butter with fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add water to create dough. If dough seems dry, add more water, spoon by spoon. Roll out pastry until about half a centimetre thick, cut into heart shapes and sprinkle with cheese. Bake on greased baking tray at 150 degrees C for about 15 minutes, or until biscuits are lightly browned and cheese has melted.
Also see:
Julia Child in Nizamuddin East
Julia’s empire
Get, set, go
Heartfelt Cookies
Heartfelt labour
Almost done
La la la
Now the soup
Mmmmm…
Pour it, Julia
Bon Appétit, Julia
