Foods That Hold the Key to Your Sanity

Oxford dictionary defines ‘comfort food’ as food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being, typically having a high sugar or carbohydrate content and associated with childhood or home cooking. What was the food that came to your mind when you read this?

Our comfort food is that tiny part of us that never ages or changes. For some, it’s something that reminds them of their childhood days or something they created when they were broke college students or a recipe from the top of their head, adding spices as they go. 

In the lockdown, many people shared their favourite recipes on the internet and continue to do so. There is an abundance of food recipes and comfort food videos online right now. So we bring you a quick, easy compilation of our team’s pick of food that keeps their sanity intact.

Momos

Madhurima Roy

My go-to comfort food is momos. You really were waiting for this, weren’t you? This dumpling street food went on from being a humble North Eastern delicacy to a national rage and continues to surprise our taste buds with a variety of fillings. I simply love to bite into soft hot momos stuffed with crispy veggies, meat, or cottage cheese. It’s found on every second street of Mumbai, Delhi, and many other places, or you can simply make it at home. Of course, it had to be comfort food for a majority of us!

These humble momos are a snack loved and devoured with equal gusto across the Himalayas – Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and India (chances are, you may have had it, or you are planning to have a plateful of it today if you are in any of the foregoing places, hills and mountains especially). I remember visiting Sikkim and waiting in queue for this steamed delicacy with minced meat/vegetables wrapped in wrappers made from flour dough with a soup and the spicy red sauce, which is served by default. The wait, of course, didn’t go to waste, and the end product still lifts my taste buds and makes it my undoubted comfort food.

Try this recipe.

Pizza

Saumya Singh

‘Where there is a pizza, there is a way!’ I don’t know if this makes any sense, but my comfort food for 2021 is pizza. Pepperoni, Margherita, zucchini, chicken or cheese burst, pizzas can never go wrong. Laden with cheese and loads of veggies and toppings, pizzas are the most preferred and liked dish when it comes to my favourites. Besides ordering pizzas from restaurants, I love to make them at home and try my hands on various flavours. Pizza making is not just an activity but a feeling that bonds the family with all the members becoming self-proclaimed chefs and attempting to get the perfect texture of pizza. One of the best pizzas that I have had so far is at Fenny’s Lounge and Kitchen, a lounge in the Kormangala area of Bangalore, India. The thin crust that they serve makes you drool over the pizzas leaving you behind, wanting for more. However, my dad is no less than a chef from an Italian restaurant when it comes to making pizzas. I can never get over pizzas. A bottle of coke, a slice of garlic bread with the cheesy dip, and of course, a pizza is enough to make me survive on my gloomy days and up my happiness to double on days full of fun and laughter.

Try this recipe.

Mug Cake

Anushree Acharya

I have always loved food and love to experiment with various cuisines, but my all-time favourite go-to comfort food has to be the ‘Mug-cake’. It’s delicious and can be made in a jiffy! I remember that my sister found the first recipe a few years ago, and since then, we both have experimented with even more of them – each time with a different ingredient. For someone who relishes baked goods, mug-cake is definitely an ideal pick, making it super easy. You just need to ensure that the ingredients – milk, flour, cocoa powder, and sugar – are mixed in the right proportions and just pop it into the microwave, not even for 2 minutes. I enjoy my mug-cake the most while watching a movie or a TV show, and it satiates my cake cravings like nothing else. Another way to enjoy it is with a scoop of ice cream. I feel I have consumed the most mug-cakes in the last year due to quarantine and have also added my variations to it – one of them has to be Dalgona coffee topping! On any day, when I am feeling dull and mellow, a mug-cake definitely helps me uplift my mood like nothing else.

Try this recipe.

Maggi

Anushka Dave

When I hear ‘comfort food’, my heart echoes the word, Maggi! Thanks to India’s proximity to China and Nepal, noodles have been a part of the Indian diet for quite some time now, but there’s no denying how one brand changed the entire meaning of noodles for our country. Maggi is and has always been comforting food to many Indians out there like me. When I was 8, I remember how I used to be so obsessed with eating Maggi that my mother had to fix Saturdays as the only day in the week when I would be allowed to eat it. It’s intriguing how something so simple can be so tasty. Maggi defines flexibility! One can pair it with literally anything, and the dish would still scream amazing with its lip-smacking flavours. 

Everyone has their own secret way or style of nailing this snack. Be it ketchup, soya sauce, veggies, butter, or cheese, every flavour mingles well with Maggi’s. I personally love to add chopped onions, some extra chillies, and a half spoonful of ginger-garlic paste. Your treasured recipe, Netflix and some coke on the side is an ideal way to put an end to all the negativity! 

Try this recipe.

Doughnuts

Jaishree Tambi

Is there anything more comforting in life than doughnuts? It may sound one-sided, but that’s true for me. It is believed that doughnuts were brought to the world by the Dutch, and honestly, what have they ever done other than creating these masterpieces? From making my happy moments more special to making my every mood-swing worth it, they have been there with me all the time. Each birthday party and every midnight craving feels fragmentary without doughnuts. Be it powdered sugar doughnuts, the ever-so-chocolatey Death by Chocolate, to the strawberry frosted doughnuts, nothing makes me feel more alive than these soft, delicious doughnuts melting in my mouth the moment I dig it into them. They are typically the right amount of sweet and oily to satisfy me.

Tell me about a time someone offered you a doughnut, and you said no? From their cute circular shape, an assortment of flavours and delightful garnishes to their fluffiness and sweetness, doughnuts never fail to bring a smile to my face. I don’t need to reconsider for a choice other than doughnuts to lift my state of mind or end a terrible day with these fantastic pieces!

Try this recipe.

Pasta

Safiya Khanam

Its pasta. I’m sorry, but I’m obsessed with pasta. I watch an unhealthy amount of pasta videos on the internet and can list fancy cheese and pasta shapes even if I were woken up in the middle of the night. 

Personally, I don’t have a specific recipe that I follow. I just make up recipes as I add ingredients. And maybe this is the reason why you will find me unable to recreate a pasta that I may have served you earlier! 

Cooking pasta is genuinely therapy for me. It takes my mind off things or gives me something to think about when I am absolutely bored. And it’s a very common sight in my household to find me in the kitchen at 3 AM making pasta and singing along to random songs. And yes, I act like I’m in a MasterChef competition or Babish’s test kitchen when it’s pasta time.

Try this recipe.

This is our list of comfort foods by Team Brown. Drop a comment below and let us know -what is your comfort food keeping your bits of sanity together?