Six comfort-food dishes that remind you of home

We ask six people to share their stories of food that is steeped in feelings of warmth and nostalgia

It was about the fourth month after the Covid-19-induced pandemic had sent countries into lockdown. As Maharashtra was still following stringent containment measures, I was unsure about when I would be able to go back to Goa and see my family.

I began to crave Goan food–it is my idea of comfort food. It may seem odd to lump an entire cuisine as comforting, but it has been like this ever since I moved away from home. Anytime I felt nostalgic or needed a taste of home or just wanted some extra love, I found it all in a simple fish curry-rice or roast tongue or snacks like patties, chops and croquettes. In the middle of the lockdown, when the cravings struck, I turned to a trusted list of restaurants and home chefs offering Goan food in Mumbai.

The lockdown may have had people attempting to make banana bread and focaccia gardens but the foremost trend was people focussing on home-cooked food and revisiting the food of their childhood. Most started turning to their mothers’ and grandmothers’ kitchens, seeking out old recipes and accompanying memories to help them survive the chaos and uncertainty surrounding them. This trend soon trickled to the menus of restaurants and delivery services, too.

What is comfort food? Why do we turn to comfort food during trying times? A definition can be found in the Oxford Dictionary, which added the phrase in 1997: ‘food that makes you feel better, often because it contains a lot of sugar, or because it reminds you of home’. Unsurprisingly, most people’s idea of comfort food is something from their childhood, from a time when they felt safe, at home, and joyful. There’s a certain pleasure obtained from the nostalgia of eating something that reminds us of a loved one, a happy memory, or just home.

Currently in Ukraine, which is being attacked and ravaged by Russian forces, there are ‘gastro armies’—people in the hospitality industry making and distributing food (sometimes free of cost), shelter and a place to share their worries about family and their future. Food, truly, can do so much more than nourish our bodies. We spoke to a few people to learn about their comfort foods.

Sabudana sandge

In summer, it is common to see people in Goa drying vegetables, fruits and other produce in order to store them for use during the monsoon months. A fond memory of Shubhra Shankhwalker’s childhood was watching her grandmother prepare sandge (fryums made with sago, jeera, water and salt) and dry them on carrom boards covered with a cloth. “When we were hungry, these were deep-fried, sprinkled with some sugar and eaten,” says the graphic designer and home-chef known for her Goan-Saraswat meals. “It was one of those things the family used to get together for.”

Making sandge, papad and vaddeo (dried ash gourd), and drying the tamarind (dusted with sea salt and rolled into balls) was a three-day affair. “The kids were asked to keep a watch on the ingredients left out to dry . The good kids would sit quietly, some naughty ones like me would make excuses and run away,” she adds.

Eating sandge with sugar takes Shankhwalker back to days spent with her grandmother, when the family got together to work and play, and where deep-fried snacks kept hunger at bay.

Peeli paneer

As a child, Jasleen Marwah was fond of eating paneer. This is why one of the dishes she enjoyed cooking herself was peeli (yellow) paneer, a simple, flavourful Kashmiri dish typically found in the homes of Kashmiri Pandits. “It is very different from other dishes. It gives you a break from other, regular flavours in your food,” says Marwah, home-chef and founder of Namak Swaad Anusaar Kashmiri Kitchen.

In this dish, paneer is the star. Marwah shallow-fries it and then immerses it in water containing turmeric, salt and whole spices. She boils (or adds to a pressure cooker) this mixture so that the flavours of the spices seep into the paneer. Once cooked, she adds a tadka of ghee or oil, followed by milk. “It’s a typical home-style dish with subtle flavours and no chilli. Growing up as a chef, there are times when you don’t feel like eating your own food. On those days, I make this.”

Aloo ke gutke

Pawan Bisht grew up in Uttarakhand. Corporate and R&D Executive atOne8Commune, Bisht considers many dishes as comfort food: bhaang ka namak, bhatt ki churkani, phuka bhaat, kala chana masala, kauni ka pulao and a simple pahadi chicken curry. “They are easy to make, mostly organic and healthy.”

Among these, aloo ke gutke is his favourite. To make the dish, potatoes are cooked in mustard oil and spices, and depending upon the region in Uttarakhand where it is prepared, either shahjeera or jakhya is added. “I have been eating it since childhood. We made it at gatherings–big or small, on holidays and camping trips,” he says.

Bisht has been away from home for 20 years, and cooking aloo ke gutke is what takes him back, to sitting around a campfire eating this hearty dish or the memory of preparing it during school picnics. “It was part of every event,” he says.

Chatti chor

Chatti chor is a comforting, one-pot meal–‘chatti’ translates into ‘earthen pot’ while ‘chor’ translates into ‘rice’. “When we make curries, the main essence of the gravy is sometimes stuck at the bottom of the pot. When you put some rice into it and mix it, it gives an extra flavour,” says Regi Mathew, co-owner and Culinary Director, Kappa Chakkha Kandhari.

Usually the curry is strong and fragrant, and fish- or meat-based. A flat, shallow pot is used to ensure there’s more surface area for the gravy. Rice is then added and the mixture is given some heat so that the leftover curry combines evenly with the rice. This is then tempered with shallots, curry leaves and ghee. Chatti chor, adds Mathew, is usually eaten by itself, or with a side dish such as fish fry or papad or coconut chutney. “Our mothers believed in zero wastage of food and that’s probably how this dish came about,” says Mathew.

Sheddo bhaat

“One of my favourite comfort foods is sheddo bhaat, a dish comprising a vegetable that is boiled and mashed and eaten with steamed rice. It has different names according to sub-regions [in West Bengal],” says Tanushree Bhowmik, development professional and food researcher.

The most common ones, she says, are aloo sheddo (mashed potatoes), aloo-deem sheddo (potato-egg mash), mishti kumro sheddo (pumpkin mash) and daal sheddo (mashed lentils). Many vegetables are eaten this way, including beans, pointed gourd, cabbage, carrot and green papaya but it’s starchy vegetables that usually make for an ideal comfort meal. “Once mustard oil and salt is added to the mash, one can experiment with the ingredients. Ghee, onions, green chillies, roasted garlic, fried dry red chillies, fresh coriander—the possibilities are numerous,” she explains. Small-grained, aromatic and slightly starchy rice is used. Bhowmick believes that the starch helps bring out the sweetness and flavours of the vegetables.

Sheddo bhaat is her trusted, fail-safe dish. “If I’ve had a long day or don’t feel like cooking, or it’s too hot, or I’ve had a bad day at the office, I fall back on this dish,” she says.

Ghee shakkar roti

There are many variations of this combination of ghee, sugar or jaggery, and roti or parathas to be found across India. Some crumble it all together and cook it, some turn it into laddoos, and some just eat it as it is. Culinary documentarian Shubhra Chatterji prefers it plain: fresh, hot rotis with ghee and jaggery powder. “It is what my mother (who is Punjabi) would feed me as a child. She made lovely phulkas and serving them with ghee and gud would be like a little treat at the end of the meal,” she says.

These days, Chatterji eats it when she seeks something more than the ordinary, when she is by herself in a city, or is tired or overworked. “It helps me recreate what I was feeling in that moment as a child, the feeling of being taken care of, surrounded by love and being happy.”

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