CHENNAI: Scones, buns, shepherds pie, treacle and Yorkshire pudding — the lengthy, mouth-watering description of these foods in Enid Blyton’s novels was what drew Thamima Shansuddin into the world of baking. Despite the fact that there were no materials for her to bake forty years ago when she was a schoolgirl, she adjusted with what she had and would make tea cakes for her parents and five other siblings. Now, the 57-year-old runs 101 Strawberries from her home kitchen in Anna Nagar. But what pushed her to begin the company was a simple peach jam recipe she found in a cookbook twenty years ago.
“At the time, I couldn’t find any fresh peaches in Chennai. I went for a class hosted by Chandri Bhatt and Hot Breads’ Mahadevan, on baking and jam making. It was a class for housewives and younger chefs. That class really taught me the basics on preserves,” said Thamima. She now produces and sells homemade preserves such as strawberry and rhubarb preserve, orange, grapefruit and lemon marmalade, lavender jam and grape jelly, among many other products.
To Thamima, the act of making the preserve is a calming experience. Having started her business in 2010 after her children had grown up and left their parental house, she received a lot of support from her family and spends her days making preserve. “I don’t like cooking food so much. I usually just go to my parent’s house, which is just down the road, for my meals. I mainly make my preserves here,” she said, laughing. Thamima sources most of her non-seasonal and seasonal fruit from Koyambedu, and specifically gets her rhubarb from Ooty, while her son and daughter send American lemons and lavender respectively. Based on the changing trends, she began preparing low sugar, sugar-free, keto and paleo preserves.
After starting off in the festival arranged by Mooves, Thamima picked up many recipes from the Internet and various cookbooks over the next eight years. Through her association with the Mooves Foundation, she learnt how to price her products properly, and learnt that she was under-selling her product. “My mother taught me to make pickles, and I use her recipe in all the pickles I sell. She’s from Tanjore, so she’s very precise. I make her mango, garlic and amla pickles. I also make various sauces, such as pesto and pizza sauce,” she said.
“I give everything I bake to my family to taste. Everybody is highly critical here, so if I make something, I’m always a little nervous to let them try it. But then, around 99 per cent of the time, they give me their approval,” she said. Thamima also makes pies, of which her cherry pie is the crowd favourite, various breads such as garlic rolls and flavoured herb breads, confections such as cinnamon rolls and has recently began making biscotti.
White yeast bread
Ingredients : 3 cups flour, 2 tbsp oil/butter, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 220 ml lukewarm water, 1. 5 tsp dried yeast granules
Method
● Put the yeast in a small bowl with a little of the measured water. Mix in sugar and leave the mixture for 5 minutes till it becomes frothy.
● In a large mixing bowl put in the flour with the salt. Make a well in the centre and put in the butter/oil. Put in the yeast mixture. Pour the water in and mix well. With the help of some extra flour knead this dough for 5-10 minutes. Put into an oiled dish, cover with a wet tea towel and leave aside till doubled in size.
● Take the dough out, punch it down and shape it either into rolls or a loaf. Place into a greased baking dish, cover with a wet towel and leave aside for second proofing.
● After 20 to 30 minutes bake them in an oven preheated to to 200oC.
Strawberry palm sugar
Wash and roughly chop two cups of fresh strawberries. Put into a heavy pan and cook them in their juices for 10 minutes. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of palm sugar, juice of 1/2 a lime and cook till jam consistency. Cool and bottle.