Stewing Up A Storm
And other winter comfort foods
Being cosy in the kitchen and bringing light to dark evenings.
The Dictionary of Lost Words - Pip Williams. Do you ever hear of a book which sounds so incredibly ‘in your wheelhouse’ that you just… don’t read it? Ariel and Raeleen of Books Unbound call this a ‘mashed potato’ book, and The Dictionary of Lost Words was one for me. Suffragettes! Behind the scenes of the Oxford English Dictionary! The impact of war! I finally read it last month - and enjoyed it even more than I was sure I was going to. Highly recommended. (Amazon | Bookshop.org - ad, affiliate links).
Pukka vanilla chai. I had a stinking cold last weekend and must have drunk about a gallon of this stuff. Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and vanilla. I want to recreate this exact flavour mix in cookies over the Christmas break (just call me Taylor).
Nuxe Rêve de Miel face wash. The winter weather (we had a cold snap last week) has left my skin even drier than usual and crying out for some TLC. So I added a bottle of this gorgeous face wash to a Marks and Spencers order I was doing anyway… and I’m so glad I did. If you can describe a liquid as ‘soft’, this is. (I love the matching body wash too).
A couple of weekends ago, I picked up a bag of pre-packed “casserole vegetables”, a packet of sausages, and a bottle of Somerset cider in Sainsburys local. After some incredibly easy cooking (most of which involved sitting on the sofa while the stew gently bubbled away) I had a pan full of winter goodness. I ate it over the next few days - including as the most luxurious (if unappetising-looking) packed lunch I’ve had in quite some time.
When the days are short and the sunlight is weak, I think it’s a natural human impulse to seek out the kinds of foods that work like an internal hot water bottle. The kind of meals that feel like a hug from someone who loves you.
One of the best meals of this category is Joy the Baker’s Weeknight Chicken Dinner. This is the only dish I’ve ever made which has been followed by the offer of a marriage proposal (even if it was, in this case, hypothetical). It also features in my first novel (the one that’s sitting on my Google Drive and in various agents’ inboxes) as the prelude to an extremely satisfying kissing scene.
There’s always the classic ‘soup and a sandwich’ combination, and when a homemade soup isn’t available, Heinz Cream of Tomato is one of the best. I also have a very soft spot for a Broccoli-Stilton soup, and there are some great ready-made chicken soups out there. But a homemade soup is a real treat.
On the BBC food website is a recipe from the December 2018 issue of Good Food magazine for a leek, butter bean, and chorizo soup. Honestly, the chorizo is the icing on the cake here - the basic soup is incredible. It’s warming and filling like nothing else, thick and creamy in a way that’s unlike anything else except - maybe - custard. I can’t wait to try it with the boujie Bold Bean Co butterbeans sitting in my cupboard.
Lest you think it’s all Domestic Goddess over here, I should mention my favourite ‘nursery tea’ winter meals too (this is what Alice Vincent at Savour calls a ‘baby dinner’). Most of them involve the microwave.
I always have a packet of Jamie Oliver’s Black Daal in the cupboard, which after a quick nuke, is a bowl of delicious warming goodness. It’s intended as a side for two people, but it’s wonderful by itself for one person. I almost always have a bag of spring greens or mangetout in the fridge, and they take just a couple of minutes in the microwave to turn bright and soft - delicious with (also microwaved) rice and a splash of soy sauce. The ultimate microwave ‘nursery tea’ is probably the microwaved jacket potato - topped with butter, grated cheese, and (microwaved, of course) baked beans.
Or if I want a sweet breakfast-y dinner: microwave porridge, topped with peanut butter and a handful of dark chocolate chips. Gorgeous.
Speak soon,
Lily
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