Odisha's sweet trail

After a much-travelled career across the world, Chef Anees Khan is looking to his home state, Odisha, to serve up sweet delights

For the past 20 years, Chef Anees Khan has travelled through Canada, Egypt, East Africa and West Asia, whipping up sweet delights. However, when he decided to set up his chic French patisserie, Star Anise, in Mumbai last year, he couldn't help but recall the desserts of his childhood spent in Odisha. "I have been away from my homeland for a long time and have always longed for the culture, the people, the evenings spent with my childhood friends and the lip-smacking desserts," says Khan, who has cooked for personalities such as former US President Bill Clinton and actor Rowan Atkinson in the past. This yearning led him to embark on a road trip last month through the villages, remote hamlets and tribal areas of Odisha to find the most authentic desserts.

First on the cards was a tryst with chhena puda, a delicacy made with well-kneaded homemade cottage cheese, semolina, sugar, cashewnuts and raisins. The process of creating this sweet is extremely unique: it's wrapped in the leaves of the Sal tree and baked in the oven for hours till the crust caramelises to a delectable brown, while the inside remains deliciously soft. "It is, perhaps, the only well-known Indian dessert whose predominant flavours are derived from the caramelisation of sugar," says Khan, who travelled from his hometown of Brahmapur to Nayagarh, where this dessert originated. The journey acquainted him with quaint culinary myths and legends. "Legend has it that an owner of a confectionery shop, Sudarshana Sahoo, decided to add sugar and seasonings to leftover cottage cheese one night and left it in the oven, which was still warm from previous use. The next day, he was pleasantly surprised by the scrumptious dessert he had created," says Khan.

Next up was a rasagulla trail. Now this sweet has been a bone of contention between Odisha and Bengal for decades now, with each claiming a right of origin on it. "The sweet was invented in the city of Puri around 700 years ago to appease the deity, Mahalakshmi. However, Bengalis claim that it was invented in the 19th century by a sweet-maker in Kolkata," says Khan. There are remarkable differences between the rasagullas of Bengal and Odisha, in terms of colour and texture: while the former are pristine white and spongy, the ones in Odisha are brownish in colour, softer and less spongy. "Between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, there is a small place known as Pahala. With almost 60 sweet shops on either side of the road, this is the rasagulla district of the state," he recalls.

The trip refreshed a lot of his childhood memories - be it of his favourite sweet, the chhena jilli, made in Puri district's Nimapada from cottage cheese and soaked in a light sugar syrup, or the rasabali, in which deep-fried, flattened reddish-brown patties of chhena are soaked in thickened, sweet milk. He also sampled the kheera gaja, a deep-fried milk pastry, variants of which can be found across the state.

Now that he is back in Mumbai, Khan has started experimenting with signature Odiya flavours and French pastry-making techniques. He has been hosting tastings for a small gathering of friends at home. "I will be introducing my version of these desserts in the menu at Star Anise next week," he says. "First up will be the chhena puda with classical chocolate mousse, sea salt and caramel. Then I will try a rasagulla tart." One or two such desserts will be introduced every month as specials to help customers get used to the taste. "Also, one has to keep in mind the balance of flavours. I use mostly rich, single-origin chocolates, which are heavy on cocoa butter, and I need to choose flavours from Odisha which can pair well with these. So, the experimentation is still on," says Khan.