Pat comes the reply, nothing to beat patties

A street just a few hundred metres from Delhi’s Connaught Place makes my nostrils do a wild twist every time I am somewhere near there. It’s called Nehru Bazaar, and it is a bakery hub. Stores there sell all kinds of baked stuff, including my all-time favourite: patties. From here, patties are transported to canteens and other small eateries. These are basic patties, with usually a simple filling of potatoes.

As a child, I remember a vendor coming on a cycle with a large trunk containing a heap of such patties. I guess that’s how this flaky, buttery dish caught my fancy. From enjoying the somewhat stale college canteen patties — mostly triangular, and with potatoes inside — I became a die-hard fan of the chicken and mutton patties sold at Wenger’s, one of Delhi’s most popular confectioners. Its patties crumble in the mouth in wafer-thin flakes, and the meat inside is sublime.

Like many of our much-loved food items, patties, however, can be divisive too. Everyone has an opinion on biryanis, mangoes, rasgullas, golgappas, chaat papdi and so on — and they insist that their region or neighbourhood’s fare is the best that you can get. Patties evoke similar passions, as I realised recently when a war broke out between two sections of friends — one who thought nothing could beat Wenger’s fare, and the other who firmly believed that the patties in Flurys, a popular chain in Kolkata, were the best. I stayed out of the argument because I like all kinds of patties, from all over — with even a potato or a mushroom filling. But Flurys, clearly, has its legion of fans. I read in a book that the actor-director Raj Kapoor loved its patties, too, and ate four or five in one go when he was in what was then Calcutta.

A senior employee recalled how Kapoor once rushed in just when the eatery was closing for the day, picked up the six patties that had been kept aside for him, and ate them all, one after the other. “You know, I skipped my lunch because I knew I was going to get this,” he told the employee.

Patties can be of different kinds, and have been adapted to suit the Indian palate. I once found something called a Japani samosa in a small eatery in Lajpat Rai Market in Chandni Chowk. I was intrigued by the name of the snack, and ordered one — only to find that it was not a samosa at all, but a flaky pastry with a potato filling, served with chholey. In many parts of the world, puff pastries take on regional forms. Pakistan, for instance, is known for its keema patties.

The western pasties are quite like our patties, though not layered. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson writes about “easily pickable, greedily eaten pasties”, stuffed with a leek-bound sauce and ham. For this, preheat your oven to 200°C. For four large pasties, mix 250 gm of plain flour with 1½  teaspoons of baking powder, half tsp of baking soda and 125 gm cold lard. Knead, and bind this with iced water and a spritz of lemon juice. Make four fat discs out of the dough, and roll each one out on a light floured surface. Put ham and leek in one half of the circle, brush with a beaten egg around the edge, and fold over so that you have a bulging, semi-circular pasty. Curl and crimp the edges by pinching them with your fingers. Put them on a lined baking sheet, brush with the beaten egg, and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Making patties is no longer a laborious process, as you can buy pastry sheets. You prepare the filling of your choice — from mashed potatoes and peas, cheese, and paneer to boiled and shredded chicken, minced meat, or ham — and put the patties in the oven. They come out golden, oozing butter. And with a huff, the puff is gone.

Chicken patties

Ingredients

Puff pastry sheets                        As required

Egg yolk (beaten)                        1

Butter                                            2 tbsp

Flour                                              2 tbsp

Milk                                                1 cup

Chicken (boiled, shredded)       400 gm

Onion (chopped)                          1

Salt and pepper                            To taste

Method

• Heat the butter in a saucepan. Saute the onions. Add flour and whisk well. Gently add milk, and keep stirring to avoid lumps. Cook on low heat.
• Once smooth, add chicken. Season. Stir for a few minutes. Keep it aside, and let it cool.
• Take a pastry sheet, cut it into a square. Brush the surface with egg yolk. Fill one half of the sheet with the chicken filling, and close it with the other half. Close the edges by pinching them with your fingers. Crimp the edges for a suitable design.
• Brush the top with egg yolk, and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F(200°C) for 20 minutes. Serve with tomato ketchup or mint chutney.

 — The writer is a food critic