Halloween 2023: How Indian chefs are redefining Halloween dining with candy creations

Each and every one of us has grown up eating candy - some sweet and others sour, some hard and others soft or chewy. Every experience is a new experience and what follows is an explosion of flavours, which even though for a few minute lasts in our memory for a lifetime or till the next adventure, at least if you have a sweet tooth. While popular cinema has immortalised chocolates and candy in many movies, Halloween is around the corner and if nothing else, gives everybody the opportunity to gorge on candies. At Café Duco in Mumbai, chef Urvika Kanoi took this very opportunity to explore her love for candy and add it to a dish. She explains, "Halloween is the treat season and candies are something that are very versatile and they are made up of boiled sugar, so just having something whimsical in the dish is something that really called out to me."

For the longest time, the celebration, which is observed on October 31 is the holiday before All Saint's Day on November 1. While it has been celebrated around the world for a long time, over the years, it has become popular in India as people dress up in spooky costumes and enjoy different kinds of food, drink and dessert. Interestingly, most people would imagine candies to be a part of dessert or sweet dishes but Kanoi will surprise you. It's because the Mumbai chef finds uniqueness in candies with how they impact sweetness in a dish. She explains, "Candies actually have a rounded flavour of all the six senses. Be it umami, sweet, savoury, bitter, spicy and salty - and it is something that I really enjoyed working with. Candies are also a massive part of childhood so it's just nostalgic and easy to work with. So, I wanted to also showcase something super different when we decided to add candies to our dish," she explains.

Exploring orange candy
Kanoi makes a dish inspired by the classic French dish Duck a l'Orange, which is essential a roast duck with an orange sauce, but she gives her own twist to the popular dish. She explains, "We have made a duck dish, which has a grilled breast cooked French style, like how you eat in a brassiere. The duck is girdled off on a really hot pan. Along with that, we make an orange candy sauce and a little bit of fondant potatoes and some greens which are sour to offset the sweetness of the candy." So, how did diners react to the dish? The chef and founder of the Bandra restaurant admits that she has got a mixed response till now.

She shares, "I feel that it was quite an adventurous dish to have out there but whoever had it really enjoyed it," continuing, "Be it the pickled orange lime and the orange candy sauce or even the duck -- I think everything was very cohesive and went with one another and that was the beauty of the dish that appealed to a large audience." However, she points out that duck meat isn't something that is truly loved by everybody yet so it was a difficult one to put on the menu. In fact, Kanoi says she definitely wants to innovate more with the dish in the future. "It's something I would definitely like to explore again with a different candy, maybe tamarind this time but the Mexican kind," she adds.

Elsewhere in India, chef Sunil Dutt, the culinary director at W Goa is very much like Kanoi, because his sole purpose of including candy in different forms on the menu was to evoke nostalgia of our childhoods, and creating a whimsical experience for diners, who love to experiment with their food. He shares, "We have innovated with candies by incorporating them into unexpected places and using them as playful garnishes. It's all about finding that balance between sweetness and the savoury nature of our cuisine." The response till now, he says, has been good from both children and adults because they love the surprise factor and the burst of flavours in the dish.

Hill full of candies
Just like W Goa, Araiya Palampur has a wide variety of candies that they use in as many as 35 per cent of their dishes while catering for children. Chef Arun says, "We use candies in entremets garnishes in the form of a pista nougat and confectionery sauce like salted hazelnut caramel, fondant for viennoiserie or deli meats."

At the property, the chef says they play around with candies in not one but three different ways. The first is sauces based on the candy principle of sugar - they make a butterscotch sauce for their gateau-making as well as caramelised melba for sundaes. The second is soft-textured candies that are used in a number of preparations like German nougat and even Sohan Halwa, along with the house made fruit jellies for the dessert section like the zuzubs, which are getting done for Christmas festive week. The third variety are the hard candies used for sculpting and hard-sugar praline.
"There are also innovations made keeping health in mind like bleached sugar or crystalised sugar usage, which are interchanged with jaggery and diabetic-friendly ingredients to make jaggery caramel for egg custard. During winter season, we serve caramelised Date Jaggery Laddoo as a part of our in-room amenities," he points out while adding that even Iso Malt is another ingredient that has diverse uses when it's cooked and used as garnish.

Paan and pork
Interestingly, even Chef Ankur Sharma at Raahi Neo Kitchen and Bar in Bengaluru is experimenting with orange candy like Kanoi but unlike her use in savoury dishes, he uses orange candy in cocktails to muddle flavours. Sharma and his team have put them in desserts like brownies, cookies, cakes, ice creams and baked goods; muddled them for cocktails and even used them as garnishes, and even made sauces and syrups out of them. He explains, "When using candies in food and cocktails, it's important to balance the sweetness with other flavours in the dish or drink to create a harmonious flavour profile. Experimentation and creativity can lead to some delightful and surprising culinary creations."

How, you ask? They make a candied chocolate sauce to serve them with pancakes at the restaurant in Richmond Town in the south Indian state. While he also uses candy in a mixed berry ice cream, he has taken it a step further by evening making paan candy. While the crushed version is used as a garnish for a cocktail, he makes a candy syrup to be used not only in cocktails but also in a paan ice cream. Apart from the feeling of nostalgia, he explains, "Candies complement a drink because they can pair well with certain drinks such as coffee or cocktails. They can also be used as garnishes, accompaniments, or even for flavour infusions." Even though he has experimented with a wide variety of flavours, he has a totally different favourite - edible pork candy, which he says was to simply pique the diner's curiosity.

Making candy perfect
However, making candies isn't easy and comes with its own set of challenges. Sharma explains, "Many candy recipes require precise temperature control. Overheating or underheating the sugar can result in candy that is too hard, too soft, or grainy, a thermometer and careful attention are essential." It's not only the temperature but also achieving the desired colour and flavour that can be tricky because certain flavours are volatile and can evaporate during the cooking process, while colouring requires the right amount of food colour.

Even preventing crystallisation can be difficult a process because sugar has a tendency to crystallise during the candy-making process. He explains, "It can lead to a gritty texture, so preventing crystallisation can be a challenge. It often requires adding an invert sugar (like corn syrup) or carefully washing down the sides of the pan as the sugar cooks." While time and patience are key, learning how to beat high humidity by making candies in a climate-controlled environment is essential. On the other hand, Dutt says making sure the candy complements the other flavours is challenging yet important, along with getting the consistency and texture right.

However, every step is worth it, especially for Indians like chef Arun, who have been enjoying candies in different forms for as long as they can remember. He reminisces, "Since I was five-years-old, I have explored candies in different like cotton candy, candy praline, chocolate candies specially eclairs. It was an emotion while visiting any community fairs to enjoy these crafts. Besides, I have seen it as great filler for Diabetic Type A patients to constitute their needs of glucose in blood. They may need a helping of these bites during the day when sugar level in blood goes below than the accepted range."

Interestingly, India has a rich history of locally made candies, says Kanoi, that may often go unnoticed in the new age. She reminds, "If you take Goa, it is bebinca, which is the desert but they also have boiled coconut sugar candies. South India works a lot with tamarind and West Bengal has jaggery candy. So, depending on different states of India, candies have always been around." It's no wonder that these Indian chefs have seen candies gain popularity in India not merely as sweets but also innovatively as an integral part of dishes, beyond the commercially available varieties. This reflects in the fact that chef Kanoi wants to try making candy out of tamarind, which is traditionally used as a souring agent in Indian food.