What’s cooking today?

-Priyambada Nath

So, the unthinkable has happened. As a marketing professional, working with an airlines I was jet setting across the country, basically living out of the suitcase, sampling different food and spending more time waiting at airport lobbies and coffee shops than I was living in my home. I would look forward to the weekends so that I can get some bit of sanity and normalcy back. I would wake up late without any agenda, and on a good day the family would get to sample something good that I would cook. On some very good days friends would get invited and I would definitely make an effort to rustle up something nice. They would eat and then they would always compliment saying, ‘you should have been a chef’, or ‘you should do something with food’.

But with a full time job one really doesn’t get to give much time to ones passion. But all of that changed by end of March this year. Thanks to COVID 19, a countrywide lockdown was announced. And with airlines coming to a standstill, I was suddenly left with too much time in hand. I was stuck at home, of course like all of you. There weren’t any friends visiting, and news everywhere was grim. Families were separated, migration workers were stranded across the country, daily wage earners were left with no means of earning- and amidst all of this I was just thankful that I was home, and not stuck alone in a hotel in an unknown city. I had groceries, and access to a park within the society so I could atleast take a walk in the evenings. The first few days, everytime I went into the kitchen I was filled with guilt- the guilt of having a roof over my head and food on the table, when so many people were stranded without either.

So, I was mostly cooking simple, easy meals with minimal ingredients. Then the days turned to weeks and I cooked a bit more; to salvage my guilt I contributed to Zomato’s Feeding India and other local charities. But while cooking I realized that I can adapt the recipes and make gourmet looking meal from pantry staples too. Regular cooking happened, unlike previous times eating out was completely at a stop, there was no option of ordering in either. And the decently well travelled foodie in me reared its head and I got creative with my food. I decided to document my recipes in a blog and started my food blog titled The Lazy Cook (https://bit.ly/30zFL1E).

Friends and family liked what I was preparing and they started messaging me saying that they are looking for my next post. And that is how amidst the pandemic I started doing something that I enjoy.

Keeping with my “minimal ingredient gourmet meal” concept I am sharing the recipe for my Chocolate Mousse here. Its chocolate, its dessert and it is eggless. Try this once and thank me forever.

Dark Chocolate Mousse (Recipe card follows)

Serves 2-3 portion

Ingredients:

250 ml milk

25 ml cream

40 gm sugar (I prefer my mousse slightly bitter, but add some more if you like a sweeter taste)

15 gm cocoa powder

15 gm cornflour

A pinch of salt

70 gm dark chocolate

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together (except the dark chocolate), pour through a sieve.

Bring to a boil till it thickens.

Add the dark chocolate and then let it melt and mix properly.

 It will reach a mousse consistency almost as soon as it melts.

Turn off the stove and put it in a cake tin or mould.

Let it cool and then put in the fridge for a few hours to set. Invert.

 You can dust cocoa powder on top.

*Cut with a hot knife