Winter got you down? Comfort food is a great solution
January is always a rough month. Without fail, I overspend, overeat and drink way too much wine in December.
Inspired by the new year, I fall into the same trap every year: I buy kale, join a gym, sign up for Dry January.
By week two, my lust for wellness has faded, and I grumpily attend the gym while dreaming of the breweries I plan to visit in the coming months. By week three, I've endured three snowstorms, two credit card bills and one round of influenza.
Next comes Blue Monday. The third Monday of January is considered to be the saddest day of the year. It makes perfect sense to me. Afterall, the dark closes in around five and it's a long way until the green grass of spring.
And then there's the snow. All the snow. That's the way it's felt, including this latest blizzard that has struck much of Newfoundland.
Now's a good time to embrace hibernation, take a break from the resolutions and … make some comfort food!
Grilled cheese: The wonder food
For me, comfort food is connected to memory and place. Food that makes you feel cozy.
My favourite is a grilled cheese.
It reminds me of my mom.
I remember sitting through math class in Grade 4. It was winter. I had failed a test (division was tough).
Comfort food is a concept that exists across cultures.
I was near tears and just wanted my mom. I got off the bus, went upstairs, and was greeted with a hug and a grilled cheese.
The whole day was turned around.
Comfort food is a concept that exists across cultures. Different vegetation, climates and traditions lend themselves to different types of comfort food, but a particular idea — that certain foods make you a bit nostalgic, warm, and safe — exists everywhere.
I was curious about comfort food in different cultures, so I reached out to some neighbours and friends for recipes.
A classic from Sweden
Malin Enstrom tends to make Swedish food and baked goods during Scandinavian holidays, but she'll also whip up treats when she's missing home or feeling disconnected from her own culture. Like here, the idea of comfort food in Sweden is connected to nostalgia and familiarity, but Malin also suggests that comfort food is connected to scent.
"We (Swedes) love cooking and baking with fragrant spices such as nutmeg, cardamom, cloves, star anise, cinnamon, juniper and saffron. The spices used tend to depend on the seasons and those are probably my winter-months spices," she told me.
"In the summer months I tend to cook with lighter flavours, such as elderflower, dill, chive, fennel seeds and parsley."
The food she misses most as an adult includes caviar, pickled herring in dill mustard sauce and Swedish meatballs.
"This sounds like a cliché, but Swedish meatballs are fantastic. When you combine the meatballs with garlic-mashed potatoes, partridgeberry sauce, pickled cucumbers and a cream sauce, you get the perfect combination of warmness, tartness and a hint of sweetness," she said.
"It is a simple dish to make and I make it fairly often. It probably has a heightened effect here as I have to make it from scratch as I want the spices to be just right. "
I asked Malin for her favourite recipe and boy, did she deliver. Literally, she brought a jar of juniper apple soup to my house for me to sample. The flavour was tart, piney, and smooth. She recommended serving it alongside some braised moose for a Swedish/ Newfoundland fusion dish. I've shared Malin's recipe below.
Brazilian flavour
Hailing from Brazil, Fernanda Cedraz Mamede is my favourite baker in town. She makes towering gooey chocolate cakes at the Georgestown Bakery. I'm obsessed with them and I order a piece most Saturdays.
Fernanda highlighted that Brazil is an enormous country with an incredibly diverse population.
"In Minas Gerais comfort food would be cheese bread (Pão de queijo)," she told me.
"In Bahia, comfort food can be a seafood stew with coconut milk, palm oil and cilantro (Moqueca). In Rio Grande do Sul, polenta would be called comfort food. In Amazonas comfort food would be a stew made with some plants found in the Amazon Rainforest (Tacacá)."
When pressed, Fernanda mentioned that rice and beans would probably be something that the whole country would classify as comfort food.
"When a Brazilian thinks about that combination of food, we immediately think about eating this at home with family."
Fernanda is from the northeast of Brazil and her ideal comfort food is 'cuscus.' It's a breakfast food made of butter, cheese, eggs, and occasionally sweet coconut milk.
It requires a type of corn flour that is impossible to find in St. John's, so she adapted the recipe below for us.
Indian inspiration
Prajwala Dixit is one of my favourite writers in town and I suspected that she's also a great cook. Like Brazil, India is an enormous and diverse country, so identifying one specific comfort food was a challenge.
For Prajwala, a spicy tomato lentil soul eaten with a dollop of ghee is a staple, but there are other dishes she craves.
"Weeks where I have had long days, I crave my mother's anna saaru. The tangy flavours of the saaru intertwine with the earthiness of rice," she told me. "The smell of fresh seasoning of hing (asafoetida) and black mustard coupled with coriander makes the mouth water and the heart melt."
Prajwala's comforting spice mixture is a top secret family recipe, so our third recipe is my own blueberry grilled cheese recipe.
Juniper apple soup from Sweden (serves 6-8)
Ingredients
1 tbsp juniper berries
2 cardamom pods
2 allspice berries
1 cinnamon stick
2 sprigs fresh tarragon
2 tbsp olive oil
2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups heavy cream
Juice from 2 apples or 1 cup apple cider
¼ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup apple brandy
¼ cup port or Madeira
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Wrap the juniper berries, cardamom pods, allspice berries, cinnamon stick and tarragon in a piece of cheesecloth and tie with kitchen twine.
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the apples, shallot and ginger and sauté for 2-3 minutes, until the shallots starts to soften. Add the stock, cream, apple juice or cider, stir, then add the spice bundle and bring to a brisk simmer. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, 30-40 minutes.
3. Remove the cheesecloth bundle and blend the soup with a blender, in batches, and purée. Return the soup to the saucepan. Bring the soup to a boil, stir in the brandy, vinegar and port or Madeira, and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat.
Cuscus from Brazil
Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp baking powder
Directions:
Preheat oven to 340 degrees F (170 degrees C).
Grease and flour a 10-inch round cake pan.
Blend cornmeal, sugar, milk, coconut milk, flour, eggs, and vegetable oil in a blender until smooth; add baking powder and blend to integrate. Pour the cornmeal mixture into the prepared cake pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean (30 to 40 minutes).
Andie's gussied-up blueberry grilled cheese
*Makes one sandwich
A grilled cheese is a simple thing, but that means that the quality of ingredients really counts.
Always real butter! I saw a friend make a grilled cheese using canola oil once and it shook me to my core.
Buy the crusty sourdough! Good bread counts here. Don't skimp on the cheese either. You want an applewood smoked cheddar, shredded Gruyere, good quality cheeses that melt nicely. A little touch of mozza in there is always a good idea.
Ingredients
2 tbsp butter, softened, divided
2 slices sourdough, cut on the diagonal
1/3 cup shredded applewood smoked cheddar
1/4 cup Gruyere
Small handful of mozzarella, shredded
1 tbsp of quick blueberry jam
Directions:
Spread a tablespoon of softened butter onto one side of each slice of bread. Do the same with the blueberry jam. Next you're going to build your sandwich. So throw all of that shredded cheese on top. Shredding the cheese is key, otherwise it'll melt at different rates.
Heat a skillet over medium heat. I think using a well-seasoned cast iron is important. Next, melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan. Place one of your sandwiches onto the heated surface. Cook two minutes on each side, or until golden brown and the cheese is melted.
Simple and delicious.
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