Christmas in Bandra and our December flavours
Plum cake gelato, strawberry sorbet and a nolen gur kulfi: what we churn for the season, and how to order for the holidays.
Seven in the morning at Chapel Road: how a batch is churned
Before the shutters open, Farah has made 18 flavours in a five-litre machine. Here is the order she works in, and why.
Our shop opens at noon, but the kitchen behind it starts at 7 am. By the time the first customer walks in, Farah and her two cooks, Sunil and Meena, have churned most of the day’s gelato.
The day starts with the bases, made the evening before. Milk, cream and sugar are heated together to 85 °C, cooled quickly in an ice bath and left to rest overnight in the fridge. Resting lets the milk proteins settle, which gives a smoother gelato. The sorbet base is just water, sugar and a squeeze of lime, cooled the same way.
The churning order matters. Our batch freezer makes five litres in about twelve minutes, and the machine is rinsed between flavours. Farah starts with the palest flavours, such as fior di latte and strawberry sorbet, and works towards the darkest, ending with chocolate. That way no flavour picks up a trace of the one before. The fruit goes in at the last minute, freshly pulped, so it keeps its colour.
Each batch is pulled into steel trays, shaped by hand with a spatula and moved to the blast freezer at minus 30 °C for an hour, then into the display at minus 12 °C. Tubs for delivery are filled from the same batch. Whatever is left in the display at closing goes into the staff freezer, not back on sale. That is why the trays look smaller late at night.
