Platform Picks: DIY Food Kits

Even as we measure our steps to go back to a world before the COVID-19 pandemic, with vaccinations gaining traction across the world, we’re sure to be in a space where the normal is still a series of Zoom calls, remote-watching parties and a lot of cooking at home. To break out of the mundane, we bring you a carefully curated list of DIY kits that promise to inject some fun into your experiments with food at home. 

Koi
Koi is a subscription to a curated food experience that ships meal kits all over India. Each month, they conceptualise and curate a meal kit that has the ingredients and recipe for one portion of a main, a jar's worth of condiments and either an appetiser or a dessert (minus basic pantry staples like salt, vegetable oil, sugar, eggs). They describe themselves as ‘an invitation to travel in a box’, and have so far covered countries and offerings like Banh Canh broth with summer rice paper rolls and staple sauces from Vietnam, Spanish Gazpacho, Paella and Crema Catalana, and Japanese Mochi and Matcha kits, amongst others. This one tops our list because the prospect of exploring a new cuisine every month, while also making oneself intimate with the process of making it, sounds quite intriguing. 

Ether by Prateek Bakhtiani
After leaving a career in chemical research behind, Chef Prateek Bakhtiani found his passion in studying pastry at Paris’ famed Le Cordon Bleu. Ether in Mumbai is his atelier that produces striking chocolates and inspired desserts. Tucked amongst his dreamy offerings is a choice selection of DIY Bakealongs, each as enticing as the last. But what caught our eye is the pastel frosted ‘Persian Love Loaf.’ A recipe that yields in a soft, crumbly almond, rosewater, cardamom cake, topped with fuschia rose and pistachios for 8-10 people, sounds like a perfect, cherished high tea, waiting to come to life. 
 

The Starter Starter Company
Currently restricted only to Bangalore, but with plans to ship around the country soon, globetrotting sisters Avdhi and Avni Bhalgat’s initiative makes the herculean effort of baking sourdough at home as easy as eating it. Pre-weighed, measured and made after painstakingly trying and testing countless iterations of ways to make the perfect sourdough, the Starer Company’s sourdough kit is an attempt to share and multiply the simple joy that baking and savouring crusty, hearty bread brings across the globe. After all, what’s not to love about the smell of freshly baked bread wafting around the house?