Dig quick, fuss-free cooking? These ready-to-use pastes from a brother-sister chef duo make meal prep a breeze
Chirag and Bijal Makwana at their Dadar residence. Pics/Ashish Raje
Working from home for the past 15 months has come with the constant, guilt-ridden dilemma of slogging in the kitchen or ordering in. Especially, when the cravings for, say Asian food, hit hard, and one simply can’t imagine sweating it out for a meal after a long day. Mumbai-based siblings and chefs Bijal and Chirag Makwana recognised this need to satisfy cravings, while ensuring meal preps were a breeze. Bijal, a consultant, and Chirag, the head chef at Olive Bar and Kitchen, figured the answer was ready-to-use pastes and sauces, and rolled out their brand, Gastronauts, in November 2020, after months of R&D.
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Mushrooms in crunchy peanut sauce
While the market is flooded with ready-to-use condiments, the duo tells us that what sets their sauces, pastes, dressings and gourmet butters apart is that they’re hand-crafted in small batches, and contain no preservatives. “During the lockdown, we wanted to eat comfort food like khow suey, and didn’t find good options to order in, or prepare with ready-made pastes which were laden with preservatives. So, we thought, we need to make something that can help prepare a quick meal that everyone can enjoy,” shares Bijal about their products, which range from honey and orange, and apple pie butters, to aglio olio paste, triple crunch mustard dressing and Asian stir-fry sauce, among others.
It also helps that most of the condiments — sauces and pastes packed in 300-gm bottles, dressings in 180-200-gm jars, and gourmet butters in 160-gm containers — are priced between Rs 250 and Rs 400. Chirag adds that another aspect they kept in mind was to ensure their products have multiple applications: “For instance, Sicilian Love butter, which has olive, chilli flakes and herbs, can be spread on a toast, added to your pasta or used to bake.”
Fish in khow suey paste
When we try their sauces and pastes (all priced at Rs 400), we’re pleased to note that they indeed live up to the promise of being versatile. Brownie points to Bijal, a former marketing executive, for the glass jar labels, which succinctly state the ingredients in each sauce, steps on how to cook it, along with a tip or two about using it for other purposes. For instance, while the aglio olio paste — with little garlic chips and onions that add a nice bite — was a bit bland for our palate when cooked with spaghetti and chicken sausages, it elevated our boring morning toast to a flavourful garlic bread within just five minutes.
Asian stir-fried rice
We also enjoyed the street-style aroma and texture of the Asian stir-fry sauce, a pleasant change from its garlic-heavy store-bought counterparts. It took around three spoonfuls and 15 minutes to transform leftover rice, veggies and shredded chicken into a quick WFH Asian stir-fried rice bowl that held its own. The coarse and crunchy peanut sauce — also addictive as a dip — was lapped up as a sabzi of mushrooms and capsicum with bread one night when the fridge broke down. However, we wish both these sauces would bring more heat to the palate.
The products range from pastes and sauces to dressings and butters
Not a fan of khow suey, we followed the label and used the paste as a marinade for thawed basa chunks. The nutty curry paste beautifully complemented the tawa-fried fish that we paired with buttered mushroom rice. Similarly, with no pad Thai noodles at home, we tossed the pad Thai sauce with regular noodles, chicken and veggies. We added some of the peanut sauce and were pleased with the crunchy-tangy combo.
The quantity of the sauces might look tight, but you only need two to three spoonfuls for each attempt, depending on the dish you’re aiming for. The chefs tell us that with the brand name, Gastronauts, they wanted to help people make food that’s out of the world, without slogging in the kitchen. And dare we say, we’re getting there.
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