Mumbai food: What do you prepare when you have only yourself to feed?

Model Erika Packard usually finds herself rustling up a meal under the watchful and judgemental gaze of her dark grey tabby cat Ellie As a solo eater and cook Packard has only herself to impress And that takes pressure off the activity Honestly I used to be a terrible cook she admits I would habitually orderin but over the last two months I have been forced to find my feet in the kitchen The experience although not a cinch has been unexpectedly rewarding She has learnt a gamut of tasty approachable dishes by devouring YouTube tutorials and is proud of the shortcuts she has devised while prepping meals Im not too hard on myself While there are days when I make elaborate meals with dal two sabjis roti and salad there are also moments when Im content chowing down a cheese sandwich for lunchSwheta Mutreja Aggarwal home bakerIn 2018 Anita Lo a Michelinstarred chef and Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters contestant put the Lo in alone when she released Solo A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One Ive been dumped almost as many times as Ive been in relationshipsmdashand I can count those on less than two hands Spread over my 50year life thats a lot of solo meals So if you consider thatmdashcoupled with my many years working as a professional chefmdashit seems that Im particularly well suited to write this book she thinks Behind the selfdeprecating humour is a celebration of singleserving recipes that she believes require as much care and complexity as larger portions I think cooking for one is a lot tougher observes Packard Scaling down requires practice and finetuning I often end up making more than I can swallow literally That has made her smarter about leftovers Rice or bread from the previous night is recycled into cutlets with trimmings of veggiesHemant OberoiSolo meals as liberating or cumbersome as they might be often get ignored in the rush of cookbooks that target meals for two or more The trick then is to go by approximation or andaaz Its something chef Juliano Rodrigues from Bandras Out Of The Blue and Deli By The Blue has relied on while cooking for himself Solo cooking is a lot about harnessing your instincts says Rodrigues Having lived alone for five years while working as a chef in Nashik he believes prepping for one is essentially a rite of passage to becoming a better cook I need to be satisfied and confident about preparations before I can feed others he says The dishes that he concocts at the restaurant are first prepared at his home kitchen Its his culinary lab To minimise waste Rodrigues estimates portions While everyones hands vary in size your hand size is relative to your body size and can be a handy personalised food measurement tool Like Packard Rodrigues admits to having concocted whacky dishes when nobodys watching including biryani poha using leftover mutton gravy and flattened rice Poha is a dietfriendly ingredient that mimics the texture of rice The thick variety takes longer to absorb water and doesnt get mushy unless soaked for long and hence is perfect for biryani Recently he also prepared Thai curry using gavar beans in the absence of corn and mushroomsErika PackardAnand Prahlad is a graphic designer who runs Magic Marinade a vibrant food blog He started documenting his solo culinary experiments on Facebook in 2010 Over the course of three years the album grew into a set of over 100 photographs and recipes some of which are his own For Prahlad who lives alone at his Mulund apartment and is admittedly an introvert the kitchen has never been an alien space He started baking with his mother when he was five To be honest the tendency to slip into monotony and boredom while cooking for one is high but the joy is in experimenting Youre free to break rules he says Fortunately there have been more hits than misses for the 39yearold The Persian plum curry that he made a few years ago did not turn out authentic but wasnt disappointing either The plums provide tartness in the way balsamic vinegar and tomatoes do It really isnt that unusual to use fruit in curries A lot of south Indian recipes use mangoes and other fruits in large diced chunks adding bursts of muted sweetness to the spice of curries he writes on his blog While curries are easier to scale down the same cant be said about bakes The cakes and bread that he whips up are almost always distributed among friends and neighbours To avoid wastage in the time of social distancing he is devising new ways to bake His upcoming videos are about chocolate hazelnut biscotti and mango marmalade jamChef Juliano RodriguesSwheta Mutreja Aggarwal a Nepean Sea Roadbased home baker who runs the Instagram account Kookiecakecrumble is also experimenting with smaller portions Initially I felt it was impractical to bake for one but as requests started pouring in I decided to give it a go Although she lives with her husband and children Aggarwal preps her own meals given that family members have different tastes and dietary requirements Solo cooking is also about judicious planning and organising your ingredients to their full potential You have to keep staples and base curries handy for quick meals so you dont go out and buy new ingredients every dayThai curry with gavarChef and restaurateur Hemant Oberoi says singleserving recipes have become a huge trend At his eponymous BKC restaurant he launched the concept of Black Bowl Dining which is tailored to the solo diner People are always on the go and sometimes they walk in alone to dine I admit that a few ingredients are difficult to measure for a single portion For instance ravioli or a dessert like muffin doesnt lend itself to it which is where the idea of sharing plates comes from Packard says the joy of sharing meals cant be replaced because the taste smell and texture of food can be extraordinarily evocative bringing back memories not just of eating but also of people and setting I miss dining with my family back in London That said solitary cooking can make you selfsufficient Lets just say Im getting used to that feelingAnand Prahlad who runs the food blog Magic Marinade says the trick to make solo cooking fun is to keep experimentingThe galaxy cake that Prahlad baked using raspberries chocolate and rumCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel middayinfomedialtd and stay updated with the latest news