Welcome to Sunday Sobremesa, a twice-monthly thread to discuss food and culture while sipping on an oat milk latte (or chocolate a la taza1 if that’s more your style!).
When it’s too dark and rainy to venture out for an afternoon coffee—homemade almond flavored oat milk latte with a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice
With the onslaught of cold and flu season, I’ve been thinking a lot about comfort food. Chicken soup in some form seems to be a staple across various cultures, but each person (or family) also has their own answer to healing dishes.
In David’s family (other than the aforementioned caldo de pollo2, of course), a plate of white rice that’s been infused with garlic and olive oil does the trick, usually accompanied by jamón de York3 or maybe a fried egg. In my own family, a buttery grilled cheese sandwich or my mom’s chicken casserole were comfort classics. I’m also quite partial to a huge bowl of gooey (non-dairy) mac and cheese.
How about you guys? What comfort foods do you turn to when you’re sick or just feeling under the weather? Eager to hear from you in the comments!
Winter is all about comfort cooking for me... we eat lots of potatoes in various forms and shapes and make steamy plates of pasta with lush sauces. When I'm having dinner by myself I always love to enjoy a hearty soup. Food for the soul!
I’m here for all the soups! And also the potatoes. We made a stew last week with potatoes and it was so good. I make so many puréed soups that sometimes I forget how comforting a good stew can be!
When I was a kid and couldn't stomach much, my mum use to make Chinese porridge. It's often eaten for breakfast as well. She would put shredded chicken in it and it would be this hot soupy rice essentially. It's still one of my favourite things to have. The alternative is grapes 😅 when I couldn't eat or taste much and I wanted something sweet but not messy...I used to eat bunches of grapes.
Is Chinese porridge similar to congee? There’s a Korean restaurant near us that has congee and it’s one of my favorite things to eat when it’s cold. Interesting about the grapes! I could eat a million grapes any time, so it makes sense to me 😆
It is congee! Ah love when somebody knows what it is. When I describe it everybody always pulls a “yuck” face, but it’s so good when it’s cold out. Like a good bowl of soup! 🥣
The Leek & Potato Soup from my book. Easy meets nourishing - and I always have potatoes to hand as I buy them in sacks, often homemade chicken stock in the fridge door (if not cubes are fine!) and leeks in the freezer which work well in this soup.
Leek and potato soup is one of my favorites, too! When we buy sacks of potatoes it’s always a good way to use up the stragglers. I’ve never thought about keeping leeks in the freezer! Do you chop them or leave them whole?
I don't ever freeze fresh leeks (I either use them too quickly, or have home grown ones which I harvest as needed) - I buy them already sliced and frozen from Picard which is a French supermarket that specialises in REALLY high quality frozen food and who have some of their products on Ocado, which is our online-only supermarket! I'd only ever soup them as I think they hold a lot of water frozen, but make perfect leeks-blended-into-soup soups!
Chicken noodle soup!
A classic, and as a kid often paired with the grilled cheese I mentioned!
Winter is all about comfort cooking for me... we eat lots of potatoes in various forms and shapes and make steamy plates of pasta with lush sauces. When I'm having dinner by myself I always love to enjoy a hearty soup. Food for the soul!
I’m here for all the soups! And also the potatoes. We made a stew last week with potatoes and it was so good. I make so many puréed soups that sometimes I forget how comforting a good stew can be!
When I was a kid and couldn't stomach much, my mum use to make Chinese porridge. It's often eaten for breakfast as well. She would put shredded chicken in it and it would be this hot soupy rice essentially. It's still one of my favourite things to have. The alternative is grapes 😅 when I couldn't eat or taste much and I wanted something sweet but not messy...I used to eat bunches of grapes.
Is Chinese porridge similar to congee? There’s a Korean restaurant near us that has congee and it’s one of my favorite things to eat when it’s cold. Interesting about the grapes! I could eat a million grapes any time, so it makes sense to me 😆
It is congee! Ah love when somebody knows what it is. When I describe it everybody always pulls a “yuck” face, but it’s so good when it’s cold out. Like a good bowl of soup! 🥣
My under the weather meal is garlic soup.
They say garlic is supposed to be great when you’re sick, so this seems like the perfect choice. It’s also one of David’s mom’s favorites!
The Leek & Potato Soup from my book. Easy meets nourishing - and I always have potatoes to hand as I buy them in sacks, often homemade chicken stock in the fridge door (if not cubes are fine!) and leeks in the freezer which work well in this soup.
Leek and potato soup is one of my favorites, too! When we buy sacks of potatoes it’s always a good way to use up the stragglers. I’ve never thought about keeping leeks in the freezer! Do you chop them or leave them whole?
I don't ever freeze fresh leeks (I either use them too quickly, or have home grown ones which I harvest as needed) - I buy them already sliced and frozen from Picard which is a French supermarket that specialises in REALLY high quality frozen food and who have some of their products on Ocado, which is our online-only supermarket! I'd only ever soup them as I think they hold a lot of water frozen, but make perfect leeks-blended-into-soup soups!