Comfort Foods: Certain foods that people associate with their formative years, or with “home”; frequently simple home-cooked style food, and often the staple of diners and other informal restaurants; Food that one eats to feel comfort or alleviate stress rather than to receive nutrition
I found that definition on-line and I think it captures the essence of what food is all about for so many of us. And what food is all about rarely has anything to do with good nutrition, but everything to do with enhancing one’s sense of well-being.
We can get those things from other sources as well, such as being in love, a wonderful sexual encounter, a glass of fine wine, or even a walk in the park on a sunny afternoon, but I think comfort food is the shortest line between discontent and serenity.
What is most important about CF is that it be simple. No haute cuisine in this realm. The closest any of my CF choices would be to haute cuisine would be in eggs benedict where good hollandaise can be challenging for the novice. That’s despite the fact it’s actually dead easy to make. The French aggrandize themselves too much (in Gallic fashion) about their sauces. Most of them aren’t that difficult once you’ve mastered the basic ground rules. Just ask Julia Child, she dispelled most of the cuisine myths. But, as I say, simplicity is the general rule for CF.
The other important aspect of CF is that healthfulness cannot be a consideration, any more than obsessing about what it’s doing to your waistline. You’re eating it because you need comforting, not ruminating about your cholesterol. Such ruminations make a body uncomfortable, and sometimes CF is needed to smooth a fellow or girl out. Anyway, maybe you’re an odd sort who finds comfort in a salad, in which case you’re well ahead of the game.
Finally, CF must be an individual choice. I cannot impose mine on you because you are a product of your own formative years (CF always relates to earlier times in our lives) and I am of mine. So, if I like shepherd’s pie, and you were raised with enchiladas, you probably still hanker after them. Yet, individual choice notwithstanding, CF is usually transferable so that most of us will also enjoy the CF choices of others. They assume a certain universality in that regard.
So, why am I writing about comfort food? Because I am hungry and lunchtime is beckoning. As follows now is a list of some of my favorite comfort foods. Would love to hear about yours.
- Hotdogs: any kind from chilidogs to Coney Islands. The lowly tube-steak figures highly in my salivation-inducing treats. Mustard, relish, mayo but never ketchup.
- .Bangers and mash: Pork sausage and mashed potatoes. Park of my Anglo-Saxon heritage. A delightful and hugely unhealthy alternative is toad-in-the-hole, which is pork sausages in Yorkshire pudding. To die for.
- Meatloaf: I have a brilliant meatloaf recipe that includes equal parts of sausage meat (or hot Italian sausage) and ground beef. It’s wonderful and almost better cold in a sandwich.
- Potato Salad: I like most people’s potato salad, but like mine the best. Two elements I add are horseradish and English salad cream along with the usual mayo, relish, radishes, hard-cooked eggs, and chopped pickled peppers. I defy you not to like mine.
- Spaghetti: Just good old spaghetti bolognaise will take the dents out of your psyche on a cold wintry day.
- Steak and kidney pie: An acquired taste I’ll admit it, but once you acquire it, you’ll never look back. The key to tasty kidneys, as my late lamented mother-in-law used to say, is to “cook the piss out of ‘em!” Meanwhile the curst should be the flakiest you can concoct.
- Batter fried chicken: I’m not talking about KFC crap (is it just me, by the way, but did KFC not taste much better a few years ago?) but genuine homemade beer-batter chicken.
- Fish and chips: Few outlets have real mastery of this, and the batter is too often soggy and nasty, and frozen ones are quite beyond the pale, regardless of brand. But, if you check out any seaport town (never buy F&C inland) you might luck into an out-of-the-way joint that will give you what you’re seeking. You’ll know you lucked out the instant you tuck in.
- Chili: I love me a good homemade chili, and there are so many variations on the theme. I prefer the Mexican (sans-beans) but Tex-Mex is pretty good. I lieu of kidney beans try making it with baked beans. By the way, this is one dish in which I am guaranteed to pay for my sins. The heartburn I now get from chili generally makes me refrain.
- Hamburgers: Only homemade and barbecued if you please. And, if you have a source of absolutely reliable ground beef, or best of all, grind your own, then prepare them medium-rare. You won’t believe the taste difference. Traditionally for me a raw onion slice was part of the equation. Alas, no more. See heartburn above.
- Homemade ice-cream: I have a Donvier ice-cream maker that I should pull out. Its product is better than even the most expensive commercial concoction. The key is to go big on the coronary inducing stuff. For example, where it says on the maker to use a combination of milk and half-and-half, I advise using a combination of heavy cream and whipped cream. When the EMTs come around to pick you up you’ll be smiling in your pain.
- Watermelon: This is just a personal bias, but to finish off I cannot think of many thinks I like more than a slice of really crisp, really sweet watermelon on a summer day.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on comfort foods, and now I am going to get me some lunch. I made fresh cornbread yesterday. Hmm, cornbread. That should be on my list, too.
