Slowly but surely, life is creeping back to normalcy. Although people are still behind their mask, washing their hands with soap and water, several times a day, they have started going to malls, theatres and restaurants. There is fear behind the walls but life must go on.
Restaurants have suffered the most during pandemic. Those who had innovative ideas, started home deliveries in attractive packing, fit enough to entertain few guests within four walls of their home. The food industry went through intense restructuring to adapt to the challenges posed by Covid. There has been surge of cloud kitchen in major cities and many home chefs came to rescue of their neighbors, especially senior citizens who depended on cooks for their daily meals.
Moumita S has been a savior for many such neighbors. Not having enough space in her current home, she couldn’t do anything in a big way. She formed a home-chef group in her society and started a small cafeteria. Every weekend, various home-chefs prepared breakfast, snacks and sold at particular fixed time. During festivals, they posted their menu and took orders in advance.
Being Bong, (forefathers from Dhaka Bangladesh), Moumita S has grown up around food since childhood days in South Kolkatta, Bhowanipur.
“My father was a great foodie, since childhood along with home cooked Bengali dishes at home (hardcore non-vegetarian), he used to take us often to Mughlai, Chinese cuisine outlets. Street food is an integral part of growing up days. Egg chicken kathi rolls, jhal muri, phuchka are like daily dose of happiness. We used to visit some popular South Indian cuisine outlets too, in South Indian dominated areas of Kolkata.” Says Moumita
Moumita S is a self-taught Home-Chef.
Having lived in 17 cities of the country, she has learnt several specialties from locals of the city she lived in.
“My life journey, traveling, living in many states has given me opportunity to learn and adopt from various cultures and traditions. Those have enriched me. My creative mind and soul - I believe in making own identity.” She adds
She specialises in simple Bengali traditional curries and pulav, traditional Bengali freshly prepared cottage cheese sweets,
“For last three decades, I am following healthy lifestyle and food habits (except the reviews) I develop, cook, share recipes, deliver to the people who want to have traditional food with more healthy way.” She informs. “I use Jowar, Bajra, Nachni, lentils, quinoa, oatmeal a lot in my daily cooking. Oatmeal eggs veggies savoury pancakes Jowar Bajra Nachni dosa, uttappam with veggies, served with sesame seeds and dahi dip.”
Baking is her passion. She experiments with healthy ingredients to make chocolates at home. Her freshly prepared sugar-free smoothies are quite popular
She has dined in numerous restaurants and has many unforgettable food memories, so it’s difficult for her to pinpoint any particular favorite dish. However she did mention about ‘Chicken Kobirali’ at Onadi restaurant, of Anadi Cabin, Esplanade, Kolkata.
“It's an iconic, nostalgic small restaurant, nothing fancy there, except people are waiting to enjoy hot Kobiraji. It's basically a flat chicken cutlet, deep-fried with a Crispy covering of well-beaten eggs-whites. Till date, I couldn't prepare it like Onadi's.” she admits
Food photography and trying out various restaurant food of different cuisines is her passion. You may visit her instagram to browse her art work
Moumita is happy to share her recipe of
“MilkKanten with Juku Shita Mango “
This is a popular traditional Japanese dessert. She has followed the authentic recipe step by step..
1. Cut cubes of fresh sweet ripe mango (you can use any other sweet fruit - fresh or canned)
2. Boil full fat 2 litres milk on a low flame for a long time, till it becomes almost half & gets a light pink colour.
3. Mix 2 spoons of Agar -Agar powder to milk
4. Keep on mixing, till milk thickens
5. Add 200 ml of condensed milk, sugar or sugar-free concentrate as much sweetness you want in the vessel in which you want to set the Milk Kanten
6. First put a layer of chopped mango pieces
7. Pour one thick layer of milk, which was prepared
8. Add another layer of mango pieces
9. Pour thick milk layer as much thick as you want the milk Kanten
10. Repeat the same process
11. Freeze it for an hour
12.Cut into pieces and serve with fresh sweet homemade mango puree...
you can follow her Insta account link - http://instagram.com/moumita0904
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