Mumbai Food: Piping hot baklava at your doorstep

Five hundred years ago in the imperial kitchens of Topkapi palace in Istanbul master bakers invented the baklava Two years ago at a culinary school in Dubai home baker Shazia Ahmed invented a baklava courseActually there are no culinary schools that teach you how to make MiddleEastern sweets And how much can you learn from YouTube she asks Since I was in Dubai and they Richemont Masterbaker Center had Algerian and Turkish chefs onboard I requested them to conduct a class During the threeweek course it took three chefs to teach a class of one It took me almost a week to understand how to roll the filo dough The chefs would get tired because it was something new even for them They hadnt taught students before thisShazia AhmedAfter acquiring handson training at a Turkish restaurant called Petek in Abu Dhabi the 30yearold returned to Mumbai and launched Mezaya out of a kitchen in Andheri last year Ahmed learnt other desserts from the Middle Eastern desert as well basboussa almond and semolina cake makrout and maamoul cookies kanafeh cream or cheese filling sandwiched between sevaiyyalike sheets and osh el bulbul a sweetmeat that resembles a birds nest in which pistachios stand in for eggs but for now shes focussing on the baklava because no one knows only the other sweets Its so new that I wont be surprised if people think anything is a baklava Even I didnt know what it was for sure until the time I decided to make a living out of itIn the Turkish baklava crumbled nuts pistachio almond or walnut are tucked in between layers of filo sheets and sealed in with sugar syrup Like a dialect the baklavas texture on the tongue changes according to region The Turkish baklava is left to wallow in rose syrup the Lebanese version in orange blossom and the Syrian one in good ol sugar syrup For now Ahmed offers three types of baklavas the regular one shaped like a parallelogram and filled with a potpourri of pistachios and cashews the cigar rolls called mezroomas stuffed with only pistachios and mezbaat shaped like samosas and filled with pistachios and almondsYou can differentiate the baklava on the basis of the cut and the texture The ingredients will be the same but therell be a minusplus Either the filo pastry will be more or the nuts will be more which makes a big difference to the taste Ahmed imports her filo sheets from Turkey and offers two kinds of boxes for gifting 10 pieces for Rs 900 and for a sugar rush six pieces for Rs 500Ahmed chose the baklava as her centrepiece because of her father whose edible oil business she quit after seven years My dad had a different approach which I actually understand today When I told him I wanted to learn French culinary he said Find something thats actually different and will work Something people are interested in and is a growing market Right now people are travelling to Dubai and things have become so global If people can get used to eating macaroons then why not baklavas Honestly baklavas match the Indian palateIts similar to khaja which is also a layered pastry with cream filling While baklava boxes are available across Mumbai those are dry baklavas with a shelf life of a month while Ahmeds ovenfresh ones are best eaten within three days In that sense Ahmed is following the bakers of the Ottoman empire Suleiman the Magnificent wouldnt have eaten baklavas even a day old and neither should youOrder a box of goodiesShazia Ahmeds MezayaTurkish baklava Rs 500 for a box of six Call 9967871000Iranian Sweets PalaceIranian baklava in which the baklava is doused in honey For a box of 36 pieces the price is Rs 1500 and orders have to be placed a fortnight earlier Call 9870017847Doyen Foods LLPTurkish baklavas that are made on the day and have a shelf life of a month One box comes with an assortment of baklavas Rs 625 for about 14 pieces Call 9820079670Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates