BS: Winter Comfort Food

Subject: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:01 AM

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere and facing winter weather... BRRRR... what dishes make the dark winter seem less daunting?

I love soup year round, but hearty soups loaded with assorted ingredients are so warm and filling.   

Root Soup uses those vegetables that store easily in the pantry.

Start with your stock of choice... I often use a smoked sausage simmered in plain water.

Add any or all of the following:

onions, carrots, celery, leeks, turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, beans, tomato, pasta

simmer away on medium to low heat until all are tender and you can't stop yourself from diving in... lol

serve with good crusty bread and try to some for the rest of the family...

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: gnu
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:17 AM

I gotta try that one, sgeek. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:19 AM

Oh my...there are a number for me, beef and guiness stew, chicken pot pie, pork stew in cream..but my favourite is Cassoulette. It must have proper bacon,good sausages, chicken and white beans , plus a lot of other good stuff. I make it with chicken thighs as I find those tastier than breasts. The smell of cooking awa fills our house with a lovely aroma. I would not yurn down a good hotpot or bangers and mash either.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:31 AM

Soup soup soup I love me some soup glorious soup make it one day add something different when you reheat it the next and every day you have a different soup soup soup soup soup.

Oh my oh once, oh my oh twice!

(Pedants say Cassoulet, it's masculine.)

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:31 AM

I'm with HiLo here.

A key winter comfort ingredient for me is suet!

Whether it be suet dumplings on a stew/casserole or a Steak and Kidney pudding. I think both of these might be peculiarly British?

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Mrrzy
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:31 AM

Is it true you can die from eating not-quite-cooked kidney beans?

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:36 AM

Yes, stews! With.. dumplings. Num num, do you do dumplings in the states? Traditionally they would be made with suet, though I make mine with veggie suet. Very nice with parsley in them.

Oddly enough I made a veg variant of my Mother's Lamb, Leek and Barley stew today, she always made it with a light broth instead of a brown gravy - which is as I've done, though without the lamb:

2 onions and 2 leeks sliced and sauteed til tender in 1tbsp olive oil.
Add a couple of sprigs rosemary, 1 cup barley and 6 cups vegetable stock. Simmer fifteen mins.
Add 1lb potatoes peeled and chunkily chopped and cook another twenty mins (or til spuds are tender.)

Not sure if I got the ratios quite right, less barley and more leek might be better next time, but it smells really cosy.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:36 AM

oh... HiLo... invite me over ...puleeeese

agreed... dark meat has the flavor; I keep thinking about trying cassoulette, but it never happens.

we can get all kinds of sausages out here, but only one guy makes bangers... yum.

one retirement resolution is to start making my own pasta & sausages.

beef & guiness... on my list of things to try

oh, I forgot to add cabbage or kale leaves to my root soup assortment. They help "sweeten/lighten up" the broth. And only salt the broth enough for the vegetables to pick it up and then do the final seasoning at the end.

If you don't use smoked sausage, then adding bay leaf and other herbs are needed to flavor the broth... imo

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: MMario
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:39 AM

nothing like a good hearty soup; with some crusty bread....and a salad

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:43 AM

CS, is vegetable suet any good? I've never tried it.

It's one of those times when I know how good 'proper' suet is, I really don't want to be disappointed.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:53 AM

Ed, it seems to do basically the same job so far as I can tell. It's been a long time since I had proper suet though.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 10:55 AM

is vegetable suet like Crisco - vegetable shortening?

as for dumplings.... hey, we're the land of immigrants... what kind of dumpling do you want? drop dumplings, filled? pick a continent or region... :) you name we got it somewhere...

here we have chicken & dumplings or chicken & biscuits ... chicken can be fried or stewed... but you need a nice rich gravey to smother it all with.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,gillymorbu
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 11:18 AM

One of my favorite winter soups is Gypsy Soup from the Moosewood cookbook. It doesn't contain animal fat or meat like some northerners crave in winter but it keeps away the chill when temperatures dip into the 50's and 60's here in SW Florida.
I add fresh ginger and vegetable bullion and improvise around the basic recipe and usually serve it with a baquette, salad and a good red wine.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 11:30 AM

my Hungarian step dad's comfort food involved mashed potatoes then covered with saurkraut and swimming in a sea of brown gravy. It really is tasty.

My Czech aunt loved chicken & rice... so simple and easy to make, but she'd be so thrilled to get it.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 11:33 AM

I like a good soup as well. I make a good asparagus soup just using the ends...it is very good. When I serve it I put a wee dollop of Devon cream in each bowl. I always think I have made enough for several meals but it always goes the first time round.
The Gypsy soup sounds grand, must try that.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 12:28 PM

Biscuits and sausage gravy. Super SOS on toasted English muffins. Beef and barley soup. Lentil with smoked sausage soup. Thick potato soup. GOOD hot coffee, tea, or chocolate. Good oatmeal. A nice beef stew. Posole.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Musket
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 12:32 PM

Winter?

Might just fire up the barbie..

Here in little England, it reached 19 deg C yesterday according to the thermometer outside the kitchen window. The greenhouse was tropical and I notice more than one bush, rather than shutting down for the winter, has started budding.

If I get time later, I'll share my sausage cassoulet recipe. Did it yesterday for the first time since last March.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 01:24 PM

I'll have what Rap is having. (never had beef & barley soup, but it sounds fine)

I love biscuits & sausage gravy and SOS (though usually do it on biscuits) ...and we just finished a huge pot of beef stew. I was raised (a couple of days a week) on potato soup... with bacon. Never realized till I was grown that it was mostly because it was cheap... tasted fine.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Megan L
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 01:49 PM

How strange this thread came to my notice today I had been watching "Holiday of a lifetime" a BBC programme where folk get a chance to relive a holiday from their youth. Today Len Goodman was taking Anita Manning (First Scottish female auctioneer) back to Rothsay on the island of Bute a place any Glaswegian of a certain age would have gone for their holiday.

The programme started me thinking and googling places on the island that I remembered from my own childhood visits. So what you may ask does this have to do with winter warmer recipes? Well we used to walk out from Rothsay to Ascog Bay through the woods the smell of Ransoms was all around now I don't know if the word is used elswhere but the pungent aroma of the wild garlic always ignited my mums memories of childhood oatmeal soup.

The actual ingredients depended on how much money was in the household and in the garden and surrounding area.


Poor mans oatmeal soup

Oatmeal
Stock(usually vegetable) or water or milk
Ransoms
Salt and pepper


When finances allowed, which was not that often

The hen would be boiled with some onion carrot a bayleaf and some herbs.

When ready the hen would be removed to be served with boiled potatoes and skirlie (a sort of stuffing made with oatmeal onions and suet well seasoned)

If they had it some fresh carrots and some leak would be added to the stock with the small scavagings from the hen a handful or two of rolled oats and some milk or if she had done some work for the local farmer perhaps a little cream.

Nowadays I would add some sweetcorn

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 01:51 PM

beef & barley soup is fine fare... I like adding a few chopped up mushrooms near the end for the added flavor. I've been know to take leftover mushroom gravy and use that as the base for the barley soup. waste not, want not...

and it doesn't hurt if it tastes good, too

most biscuits seem too dry and heavy for me... I like sausage gravy with toast or over hash browns (pan fried shredded potatoes) or home fries (another style of pan fried potatoes)... served with fried or poached eggs.   

potato soup is wonderful... add leeks and it gets even better. Use starchy or all purpose potatoes to get that creamy texture. Waxy potatoes are better for salads or baked dishes where they hold their shape.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 02:07 PM

Yes... hash browns!

(there are biscuits... and then there are biscuits... and in the UK, they are 'different'.)

You may have my share of the eggs. My mother told me I ate eggs fine until I was about 2, then quit. I have not eaten 'identifiable' egg since. I also prefer any onion to be small enough to be merely flavoring, not identifiable chunks. *shrug*

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 02:22 PM

why does it post if I hit enter instead of tab???

anyhow... UK biscuits with sausage gravy.... ouch!

I like to thinly slice the leeks and saute them in butter before adding to the soup.... and if you only use the white stem it blends right in... add a dash of mace to the serving bowl and have at it.

it must be my Welsh genes... but I do love leeks! Imagine my surprise when we visited Wales and what I thought was my own take on boiled dinner turned out to cawl... lol

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 02:33 PM

"pungent aroma of the wild garlic"

if this is a white bulb that puts up 3 lily-like leaves in the spring, we have them here in the US and call them wild leeks or ramps. We also have wild onions that look like fine blades of grass with small bulbs at the base and have a garlicky taste.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 14 - 04:22 PM

If I have guests coming over for dinner in cold weather I set up a visceral greeting for as soon as they walk in the door - I make homemade bread or yeast dinner rolls and a pot of soup or stew. Those smells by themselves are great, but combined they are irresistible. This is definitely something I do for family members who haven't been home for a while.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Megan L
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 02:49 AM

Sciencegeek there is a picture of them Ransoms

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Musket
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 03:03 AM

Yeah. My Mum used to pad out a stew by adding pearl barley. I often do myself, although puy lentils tend to be added these days.

On that subject, I like to make a bed of puy lentil and onion, with herby sausages on top in a garlicky red wine sauce and fresh parsley. Got the recipe from a Nigella Lawson cook book. I had been watching her on the telly for months before noticing she was cooking food. 😍

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 03:15 AM

I use both barley and lentils frequently.

Puy lentils are lovely, but there's a textural element specific to barley that you don't get with any other grain; they are soft but chewy niblets that retain their integrity no matter how long you simmer, whereas lentils cook down into an equally pleasing - but very different - soft mealy texture.

Barley also imparts a rich creamy quality to the broth, a quality that has been used by poor households to stretch the water that meat has been boiled in for centuries and turn it into soup. Megan's oatmeal soup does the same job.

It's always fascinating to witness how necessity becomes gradually established as tradition, and from thence a comforting pleasure in it's own right.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 03:19 AM

"That meat has been boiled in for centuries.."

Reading that back made me LOL!
My terrible sentence / grammar structure strikes again.

Though with some cooks, one could be forgiven for believing that the meat had been boiled for centuries. So much chewy rags.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:52 AM

Ransoms are Allium ursinum; ramps are Allium tricoccum

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 12:28 PM

an outstanding minestrone soup..i make a fairly good one..but the best ever was in Montreal in a French Canadian restaurant..how will I ever find it again? I can find plenty of good Italian versions but I got hooked on the French. Can not find it and can not duplicate it.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Charmion
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 03:24 PM

I make cassoulet in winter, just to make Edmund happy. Mine has lamb in it rather than poultry, and at least two kinds of sausages as well as bacon and salt pork.

My favourite winter dish is Faar i kol, Norwegian braised lamb and cabbage. With celery root in it and plenty of black pepper ... Nom nom nom, especially accompanied by an India pale ale.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Janie
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 04:26 PM

Pick a main dish made in a pot that is well accompanied by cornbread and cole slaw, and any of them qualify as treasured winter comfort food for this ol' southern hillbilly. Pinto beans, chili con carne, beef or game stew, cream soups and chowders, lentil soup, split pea soup, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: MMario
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 05:04 PM

winter squashes; baked with savoury spiceing.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 06:07 PM

Brown good ground sausage in a skillet with a bit of chopped onion...cook until cooked. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of fat, or add some in the form of butter if you don't have enough.

Quickly stir in 3 tablespoons of flour (so that you make a roux).

Then pour in 2 cups of milk and a small amount of salt and stir until it's thick enough to suit you.

Serve over toast, bread, (US) bisuits, hash browns, or whatever you have. Put on lots and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Janie
Date: 31 Oct 14 - 07:30 PM

I can feel my gall bladder throb *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 04:05 AM

I've never quite understood what US 'biscuits and gravy' was about. Firstly there's the language issue, biscuits in the UK are crisp and sweet and you dunk them in your tea. I've since learned taht US 'biscuits' are like savoury flaky scones, while the 'gravy' is a bechamel sauce full of mushrooms and/or minced pork. Seems like a lot of faffing for a breakfast or supper. I suppose it's one of those things you just have to try!?

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:05 PM

Biscuits and gravy is GOOOOD! Try Rapparee's recipe.

The language barrier again! What the British call biscuits, we call cookies. I don't know if there's an UK equivalent for American biscuits, but you could try English muffins - or are they called something else again?

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 01:23 PM

Is there a UK equivalent for American biscuits?

As CS mentions, the nearest equivalent is savoury scones

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 03:27 PM

Baking powder biscuits are like scones with nothing extra beyond flour, shortening (or lard or butter), salt, baking powder, a scant teaspoon of sugar and cream of tartar, and I use water instead of milk. Served in my home with butter or jelly - I grew up in the Pacific NW, just south of Canadian British Columbia. Biscuits and gravy are a regional dish, something I encountered in the American South (Louisiana, Kentucky, Texas, etc.) I suppose with the migration of workers from the South to the Upper Midwest there is a taste for it in those industrial states (maybe why Rap has a recipe from Indiana?) You want to time the biscuits so they're hot out of the oven when you sit down at the table.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 03:38 PM

Odd- the "American biscuit" recipe sounds just like the Canadian biscuit one.
;)

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 04:30 PM

Dunno the recipe (wish I did!!), but my mother used to make a New England clam chowder that was to die for!   

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Janie
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 04:43 PM

I don't think there are many regional differences associated with biscuit (North American definition) recipes. Some like them more flaky and some like them more tender and fluffy, but that isn't regional. Scones recipes vary tremendously, on the other hand. Those variations affect (effect?) everything from texture to taste. I have occasionally tried different scone recipes but haven't made them myself very often. Have eaten a bunch of scones baked by others, and noted how very different they can be. Texturally range from moist and crumbly to crisp and almost shortbread like in texture (though more tender and moist - but really quite short.)

Interesting to me, Stilly is I have never before seen a biscuit recipe that includes any sweetner.

This discussion started me wondering and researching. No definitive information regarding the origin of North American biscuits vs scones or the origin of sausage (country) gravy and biscuits, but some theories that are very plausible.

Read through some baking sites regarding biscuits. Read speculation, that makes sense to me, that biscuits can be considered a variation on scones, or at least evolved from scones. Speculation is the early Scots and Scotch-Irish immigrants brought their scone recipes with them.

Seems to me that many scone recipes tend to have a higher fat content, using both solid fats and cream, the solid fats are generally recommended to be colder, and the solid fat is worked in until the meal is of a finer consistency than is typical of biscuits. Some recipes include egg and many include sweetner. Plus, grains and meals other than wheat flour may be included. Biscuits are definitely at their best right out of the oven. Scones are good barely warm or at room temperature, and seem to be appetizing a bit longer than a biscuit.

Sausage gravy (country gravy) and biscuits appears to have originated in the American south, probably pre-revolutionary war. Not healthy food, but very filling, and that was important to hard-scrabble families and probably slaves. Among all that I read that made sense to me were assertions or suppositions that it is a dish that arose out of a combination of necessity and availability.

Hogs are pretty easy to raise because they can forage for themselves, and most southerners, folks in the Appalachians, and slaves also, had hogs. Fall is traditionally hog-killing time throughout the south, the central and southern Appalachian mountains and the Applalachian plateau. Some really wonderful short stories and journal accounts out there about hog killing time, btw.

Sausage gravy may or may not include crumbled sausage. It may also simply be made from the drippings in the pan after some sausage has been cooked.   It was/is a way of making use of everything to keep a belly full and a family fed. Either a meal extender to feed many mouths, or the making of two meals, one with the protein of sausage patties or links, and the other at least rich in the flavor of sausage and the belly-satisfying rich fat and carbohydrates of gravy and biscuits.

Really not much different from creamed chicken or chipped beef over toast, except the fat content may be higher.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Ed T
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 05:01 PM

Many historic sources that I have seen trace biscuits back to France. But, as they are relatively simple to prepare, multi-sources are likely.

As a youth, we had bannock or biscuits in the winter, often with baked beans (white navy variety).



bannock 

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Monique
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 05:16 PM

Biscuits traced back to France... the word, certainly, it literally means "twice-cooked" but biscuits existed a loooong way back before France ever existed as such.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 05:38 PM

Mrzzy
Yes, most kidney beans contain the nerve agent ricin. It's been genetically bred out of some, but you can't take it for granted.
Soak them overnight, drain and wash through, then cook on a rolling boil for at least 10 minutes. It will take more than that to cook them soft, though, so once that's done, cook on a simmer for an hour.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Janie
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 05:44 PM

What I have read suggests the name we Norteamericanos use for biscuits is from the french, but the product itself is not. But who knows? Interesting to speculate.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Janie
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:02 PM

Seems the word traces back to France, but the baked goods called biscuits today, whether referring to cookies or forms of quick bread, have little in common with the origins of their name.

Which now begs the question - what about shortbread? *grin*

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Monique
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:25 PM

History of shortbread.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: Monique
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 06:58 PM

Here's my favorite stew recipe (sorry, no shortbread, no biscuits in it!)
There are as many recipes as families. The name of the recipe literally translates as "garbage/sweepings stew" because it was originally made with what parts of a chicken people would remove before baking a it, i.e. neck, wing tips, gizzard, feet.

200 g veal but you can also use chicken legs or pork + 2 sausages (this type). You can also use more meat and no sausages.
1 mild onion, peeled and thinly sliced
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 small branches of celery cut into sticks
1 table spoon of tomato paste
a fistful of boletus (mandatory!)-usually dried for obvious reasons, or button mushrooms if you really can't do otherwise.
6 potatoes, medium size, or halved or quartered fewer ones
olives (black and green, 10 odd each)
1 liter water
Oil, salt, pepper.

Soak the boletus in a bowl of tepid water.
Put the oil in a large pan, glaze the meat, then remove it, glaze the onion, add the tomato paste, stir quickly and add the water, carrots, celery, mushrooms, meat, olives, salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for an hour.
Add the potatoes –don't stir. Allow to simmer till they're done. Check the seasoning.

In some places, they make a pie: when the stew is ready, line a tart pan with a layer of puff pastry, add the stew, cover with a second layer of puff pastry, stick the rims together, glaze the top with an egg yolk, make a hole in the middle as a "chimney" to allow the steam out and bake. When people had no oven, they would bring the stew to the baker who would provide the puff pastry and would cook the pie.

Subject: RE: BS: Winter Comfort Food
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 12:20 AM

Janie, thanks for that post about biscuits and gravy! I love reading about regional foods, and how they evolved. Food culture is so intrinsic to humans and human diverstiy, possibly as important as language?