For Sujit Sumitran, the process of bread making is not unlike alchemy. The Goa-based home baker, who specialises in creating sourdough bread, is a proponent of eating healthy, wholesome food made with time and care, as opposed to the accelerated processes used in most of the food items available for purchase at stores.
Sumitran, who was in Bengaluru recently to conduct a baking workshop at The Smoke Co. in Koramangala, says his tryst with bread started soon after he crossed the age of 50, after he quit his job. “I felt the need to slow down and get off the proverbial treadmill,” he says, as he waits for a sun-dried tomato and rosemary-flavoured loaf of sourdough bread to cool after its time in the oven. “So in 2012, I chucked my job because when you do something on your own, there is only so much you can do.”
Now, with more time on his hands, he indulged in his passion for cooking, which had previously been relegated to stolen time on the weekends. When his wife told him about a bread machine, which took flour, water and other ingredients and turned them into bread, he wasted little time ordering one for the house. “The bread machine was home, I was home, so I started experimenting and soon I was baking every second day. But in a year’s time, I got tired and felt the need to do something more… manual. That’s when I moved to sourdough and the rest is history.”
Sumitran says he is a self-taught sourdough baker, with a lot of help from social media, where he did not hesitate to ask “stupid questions” on online forums. “Bakers are generally generous folk, and with the information I got, I watched online videos, read more, and made connections.”
His research taught him about the pitfalls of modern cooking techniques, and the downsides they present. “Modern cooking techniques are created keeping convenience in mind. The more I read, the more I realised that just because you make bread at home does not mean it is good bread. You may be eliminating some of the additives that commercial breadmakers use, but your body still struggles to break it all down because of the speed with which it was made. You start with flour and end up with a loaf in three hours.”
Sourdough, on the other hand, takes him close to 15 to 20 hours from start to finish, though he stresses that this does not mean it is a strenuous process. “The actual time spent preparing is around half an hour, where you need to be present around the dough in the early stages. Sourdough bread falls under the category of fermented foods, which are easier on our bodies thanks to a lower glycemic index and more bio-availability, which means the body has to struggle less to break it down, making it suitable even for some gluten-sensitive and diabetic people. There is also a romantic side in using the same methods used by our ancestors from thousands of years ago.”
Sumitran is now trying to spread awareness about the benefits of sourdough through workshops, and believes home bakers can help sourdough catch on. “Home bakers tend to share with neighbours and the like, and when more people eat, their interest is piqued. I’m hoping that over a period of time there will be a sufficient population interested in sourdough. A lot of people who come to attend my workshiops are pastry chefs, and some bakeries are also trying to make sourdough a part of their regular offerings.”
Besides conducting workshops, which are geared towards awareness, Sumitran says he has no commercial intentions for his venture. “I bake when I feel like it, or when we have family or friends over. I also barter bread in Goa, and people give me all sorts of things in return, like honey, free range eggs, homemade candles, sometimes even ingredients like Iranian zereshk berries and smoked jalapenos.” Of course, he loves experimenting with such ingredients on his breads too, to give them added flavour.
As he slices open his freshly-baked creation and passes it around, eliciting requests for seconds, a statement he made earlier in the conversation rings true. “Once you start eating this, you cannot go back to the other stuff.”
