Writer Pamela Timms regales us with her expert baking, and stories of street food adventures
A patient baker in her kitchen, Pamela Timms is a gleeful culinary explorer. “You find the most delicious food in the galis,” says the Scottish-born Timms. They include “parathas in a dhaba outside the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Amritsari kulcha, Old Delhi’s flavoured kulfis” and, most recently, “Daulat ki chaat”, a milky sweet savoury she calls “God’s own street food”.
Along with her journalist husband and three children, it’s easy to see that Timms, in five years, has made herself a comfortable home in Delhi. “In my first year here,” she says, “I frequently went out exploring small eateries off the beaten track. I’m absolutely fine after eating from the street, but when I eat at posh restaurants, I’m sick for the next two days!” she laughs.
Her stories of street food — including master classes from dhabawallahs — gave her the idea of chronicling what she saw: “I was eating dishes I had never known before. But I also got a sense that street food is threatened. So I bring back recipes and their history, and the people making them. I can’t imagine people in Britain taking pride in one dish like they do here with such expertise.” Timms posts her adventures on her blog, Eat and Dust, eatanddust.wordpress.com.
In her own kitchen she does what she knows best: baking. Recently, with friend Laura Staring, Timms started catering small gatherings, calling them “Upar-wali chai parties” (high tea) — the first of which is today at Gunpowder, a popular eating joint in Delhi. The duo will prepare a lavish spread of curry puffs, mini-uttapams, cheese pastries, smoked trout toast, crushed raspberry cupcakes and more.
For us, Timms rolls out a curry puff, a recipe from a friend in Hong Kong, where curry puffs are a rage. Soft on the inside and invitingly crisp and golden-brown on the outside, the verdict on this curry puff is: this is one to savour.