Ultimate Comfort Foods

We all have favorite "go to" comfort foods. Mundane as a bag of salt and vinegar chips to the unobtainable found on the ground nearly rotten mangos....seriously tropical fruit that's buzzing with fruit flies...you have to try it. There are also nostalgic comfort foods which are less widely accepted by others. My focus is on foods which will have popular appeal.

Every four months or so I'm invited to a gathering where we share food. Each gathering has a theme, upcoming will be "comfort food". I've got two in mind thus far (below) what's yours?

1. Hand Cranked Philadelphia (French) Style Vanilla Bean (the real deal please) ice creme with candied pecans folded in >> Not much to say if you know the drill. If I make this I'll take some pics. and post a recipe. Done right you can not beat, no pun intended, hand crank full fat ice creme. It is smooth as silk, rich and not (gag) frozen. This is a fresh food that must be eaten at once!

2. Zabaglione > This is a old school egg yolks + lemon + Marsala (double boiler) + sugar over generously poured warm over fresh fruit. Basically bringing a gun to a knife fight and ridiculously easy to make.

Go!

BBQ. Chili (when it's cold out).

This is one of my very most favorite things :: Broccoli Cole Slaw Recipe | Paula Deen | Food Network I mean it's Paula Deen, it's gotta be comfort food, right? It's best the day after it's made FYI.

All things mezze- hummus, muhammora, kibbe, babaghanoush, labneh, tabouleh, stuffed grape leaves, mix of real olives, all sprinkled with zatar or drenched in olive oil (preferably both). Serve with a thick dry red and warm flatbread. Easy to make in stages, hopefully enough to enjoy leftovers forever as it all gets better after a day or two.

The muhammora is the ruby in the middle of the plate, saved for last IMHO. My recipe is better (I make this without a recipe, I would need to backward engineer to get it), but this one is close.
Muhammara I Ottolenghi recipes

Pasta with red sauce.
Basic jarred Pomodoro sauce, garlic (even garlic powder), salt, pepper, olive oil.
Tossed with penne or some other short, shaped pasta.

A little more effort is risotto. Jamie Oliver's basic recipe is a good starting point.

For me it's a comfort meal:

My meatloaf with my wife's roasted garlic rosemary potatoes and baked acorn squash.

I second the hyper ripe mango...

Spaghetti and meatballs.
Chicken and dumplings.
Tomato soup and grilled American cheese sandwiches.
Rice noodles with curry powder.

Hmm I have to add Chicken Paprikash to the pile. Just took a pot of this off the stove. Made it with good paprika, thighs and put some quick cook Farro in for good measure. Give me that with some crusty bread and don't talk to me for the duration.

The Dutch know comfort food...

Stamppot: mash potatoes, mixed with kale, butter, and sausage.

Tom gets it. Comfort food is a proper grilled cheese.

Northern new mexico pork green chile. Hell, just the smell of roasting green chile.

Totally. My 1-year-old and I have been mowing down some grilled cheese lately. Sourdough, extra sharp cheddar, a second kind of fancy cheese mixed in if we got it (brie, gruyere, etc.), plenty o' buttah on that bread. No mustard in sight.

For me, there is no comfort food like pizza and beer. I think because that's always what I have always eaten when finishing a backpacking trip, a climbing outing, or a killer day on a bike in the woods. Pizza and beer... it's like returning home from the Odyssey.

Pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, banana peppers, jalapeno, plenty of red pepper flakes. That's my go to. Only downside to marriage is no jalapeno on pizza. Best pizzas/most likely pizzas for which I pine, are all "classic", that is crispy, but golden and not burned, crust of a medium thickness, plenty of melty cheese, neither NY, CT, nor Chi-town style, neither gourmet nor delivery-chain, but each the perfect golden ratio in its own way:

-Marion's piazza, Dayton, Ohio, weird but appealing sausage.
-Rocky's Pizza, Beavercreek, Ohio (RIP)
-Pizza Perfect, Nashville, Tennessee, Classic as it gets.
-Miguel's Pizza, Slade, Kentucky, if you know Miguel's you must be or once were a climbing dirtbag.
-Just remembered Tony's Mountain Pizza in Westcliffe, Colorado after a 13er in the Sangre de Christos.
-Buddy's Pizza, Frankfort, Kentucky, many a lunch there in the middle of a 100-mile ride, or after riding MTBs at Capitol View Park. Many a lunch there just getting fat on pizza, too.
-Pazzo's, Lexington, Kentucky. More taps than anywhere else with pizza that good.
-Puccini's Smiling Teeth, Lexington, Kentucky, just bloody good.
-Mellow Mushroom in Boone, NC - lot of fond memories there taking high school students on trips to the mountains over the years.

My cousin just opened a pizza place back in Ohio. I am going to go on a long bike ride and eat there when I'm home for Christmas.

I'll say it again, pizza and beer. And now I'm homesick for every one of those places!

I grew up with a lot of Ashkenazi (and other jewish) food as comfort, especially in the colder months - in my opinion no food tackles the fat:carb ratio like that. Matzo ball soup, falafel, matzo brie, teiglach, noodle kugel, rugelach, babka... growing up as a vegetarian meant I didn't partake in some of the other classics, but the smells were always warming to my soul nonetheless. Now as fully plant-based for nearly a decade I've had plenty of time to recreate these dishes without the eggs and dairy, which has been a lot of work but nothing brings me joy like nailing a childhood comfort food that jives with my current lifestyle. That, and the joy of sharing those things with my wife who did not grow up around any jews.. she surprised me with matzo ball soup on a particularly wet and cold night recently and I couldn't have been a happier man in that moment.

Two jumbo organic eggs fried gently over-easy in pastured butter...

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Originally Posted by guido

Two jumbo organic eggs fried gently over-easy in pastured butter...

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Mom made us easy over eggs ontop of broken toasted buttered rye bread. That is a top nostalgic favorite.

For those of you who like grilled cheese (which is everyone, right?) try putting some mayo on the bread instead of butter.

I know, sounds crazy. But it really makes it brown up nicely, and you can't actually taste the mayo in the assembled sandwich. This is coming from a guy who doesn't really like mayo.

From SeriousEats :: "If you want to go really wild, leave out the butter altogether and instead spread a layer of mayonnaise on every surface of your sandwich before cooking. It'll melt and brown, adding a touch of tangy-sweet flavor."

The Art of the Perfect Grilled Cheese (Plus 20 Variations to Shake Things Up) | Serious Eats

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Originally Posted by Too Tall

Mom made us easy over eggs ontop of broken toasted buttered rye bread. That is a top nostalgic favorite.

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I'm still looking for the perfect keto/paleo friendly toast substitute... Somehow the bed of sauted greens isn't quite the same...

Slow cooked beef short ribs over cheesy grits with a side of mustard greens.

I'm in on the grilled cheese vote...with tomatoe soup, sweet pickles and Coke on ice...I don't know why the Coke but it seems to add to the guilty pleasure. Perhaps a few BBQ chips on the side as well.

Any of the many meals posted by RW.

Beef tips, home made mashed, moms biscuits with butter and honey.
Big sigh.

Mike