Winter Foods

Winter is the time for "Comfort Food", and by that we don't mean nouvelle cuisine, with a prissy little bit of meat stuck on the outer edge of a giant plate, a tiny fragment of designer vegetable sitting diametrically opposite it and a sculpture made out of shaved carrot stuck halfway in between.

Comfort Food is real food. Wholesome food.

Food that fills you up and makes you feel, well, in the comfort zone. We're talking:

Soups
Puddings
Casseroles (or stews, as mum calls them)

Soup
The easiest soup to make is one with a vegetable base.
You can use the vegetable soup packets from the supermarket or get the produce in season:
Root Vegetables: onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips, turnips, potatoes, pumpkin.
Green vegetables: Spinach, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, Chinese green vegetables.

Then:
1. Select what you feel will be good for you.
2. Chop or grate finely.
3. Draw up a big pot of water.
4. Add a Chicken Maryland fillet, minus the skin.
5. Add some salt.
6. Boil it like mad.

Other soups that go down a treat are:
Vegetable & Lentil.
Leek & Potato.
Pumpkin.
Chicken & Corn.

Cauliflower Cheese
This is an absolute favourite. Warms you up, goes perfectly with a roast and great for your insides.

1. Parboil some cauliflower-ettes.
2. Make up a traditional white sauce.
3. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower-ettes.
4. Add shredded cheese.
5. Place in the oven for about 20 minutes.
NB: If you can master making a white sauce - butter, salt, pepper, cornflour and milk stirred over a moderate heat and carefully brought to the boil - then you are on the way to becoming a great cook!

Fruit
Nature offers a variety of fruits at this time of the year that are full of Vitamin C.
This helps ward off the colds, coughs and sneezes that make you miserable.
And there is no need to pop those vitamin tablets that only make your wallet lighter and your pee darker…

Eat them fresh and raw:
Mandarins are delicious right now.
Oranges are big, thick-skinned and delectable.
Grapefruit adds that extra bite!
Lemons go well squeezed over pancakes, with sugar and butter.

Lemon Pudding
You can increase your Vitamin C intake by making a Lemon Pudding.

1. Whack up a plain cake mix, (just follow the instructions, you'll be okay) adding the rind and juice of one lemon.
2. Make up a juice, consisting of a mixture of lemon juice, finely chopped lemon rind, and sugar, heated slowly to melt the sugar.
3. Empty the cake from the pan, and pour the tangy juice over it while it is still warm, so that it is soaked in it.
4. Serve with lashings of cream!

Your guests will love it, hardly able to get up from the table to head for the fire and a coffee.

Edible Sprouts
Cabbage and Brussel sprouts do not need to be reminders of childhood days when you were told "If you don't you sprouts and cabbage, you won't get any sweets!"
Brussel sprouts make a magnificent stir-fry with garlic, butter, and bacon pieces.
Cabbage is the basis of borsch, a rich Russian vegetable soup.

Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes are back in vogue -- although for some of us, they never went away.
Remember to use lots of butter, and a hearty sprinkle of pepper!
Try mashing potato and pumpkin together, or perhaps even sweet potato/swede. It comes up a treat.
As a substitute for mashed spuds, carrots and parsnips work well when mashed together too.

Avoid the Doctor
It's true what they say about garlic - or at least, we believe it is.
Garlic helps you fight off winter chills, colds, coughs, and some call it natures own antibiotic as it's very powerful.
Crush one or two cloves and add it to meat dishes, vegetables and soups.
Worried about the smell on your breath?
Chew parsley to neutralise it.

Spring Lamb
It sounds crazy, but the Spring lambing season begins late autumn, early winter.
Now is the time to look at cuts of meat that can be cooked slowly in their juices.
Osso Bucco! That's the one. Perfect comfort food.