MELISSA THOMPSON

Our columnist asks chefs and food lovers across the UK for culinary recommendations you should try

The comfort foods you should try in 2021

It’s cooked in a lemon and olive oil broth for hours

F ebruary is always tough. Maybe it’s because spring is frustratingly close, or perhaps it’s just because it’s the final throes of a long, cold winter, but it’s always the month when I’m most impatient for brighter, warmer days.

But if there’s one thing that last year taught me, it’s that we must find pleasure wherever we can find it. For me, and presumably many of you, that is often in food.

The flavours, memories and comfort found in a bowl of stew, pasta or curry can be as special as a hug from a loved one.

So, what dish do chefs, cooks and foodies turn to when they’re looking for comfort? Here are just a few suggestions.

1

WARAK I’NAB

Joudie Kalla is a London-based chef, supperclub host and the author of Palestine on a Plate and Baladi. She also runs online cookery classes (palestineonaplate.com).

‘If I were to die tomorrow, the dish I would want to eat today is warak i’nab. The dish is vine leaves stu ed with minced lamb and Egyptian rice, which is quite sticky, almost like Japanese rice. It comes with lamb cutlets and Middle Eastern courgettes that are also stu ed with rice and meat, and cooked in a lemon and olive oil broth for hours.

‘We eat this for Christmas, for Eid, for birthdays, for any celebration. Whenever our family comes to London from the Middle East there’s always a massive pot of it.

‘Every time I think of it, I feel good, happy and remember my family.’

2 BRAISED OX CHEEKS

is chef-patron at The Falls of Feugh in Banchory, Aberdeenshire

(thefallso eugh.com). Its menus pair the best of Scotland’s produce with John’s re ined cooking techniques. The chef trained in his native Kenya before moving to Scotland 17 years ago.

‘My favourite dish has to be braised ox cheeks. At Falls of Feugh we soak them for 24 hours in red wine before cooking them, and serve them with creamed potatoes. It’s the sort of food we would eat at home when I was growing up.

Both my mum and dad worked so ingredients would be put in the slow-cooker to cook all afternoon and that’s what we would eat in the evening. The leftovers would be turned into something else the next day.

‘We didn’t have ox cheeks when I was younger – it was likely to be featherblade or silverside – but it was food cooked in that same way, slowly and with loads of lavour. And making the best out of cheaper cuts of meat. It’s the sort of dish that gives you a hug.’

3 HANDPULLED BEEF CUMIN NOODLES

Elliot Cunningham runs Lagom, a Swedish-inspired live- ire restaurant based at the Hackney Church Brewery Co in Hackney, London (hackneychurchbrew.co/pages/food).

‘Packet noodles was a big comfort food for me growing up. Not Super Noodles but the Korean, Chinese or Malay ones. I’d come back from school and have packets customised with things like spring onions.

‘Now, that comfort comes from Dumpling Shack, who serve dumplings and noodles in Spital ields Market. My favourite is the hand-pulled beef cumin noodles. The noodles have this incredible chew to them and the spice level is super intense, with szechuan spice giving that mouth-numbing feeling.

‘It’s reminiscent of the food we ate at home when I was growing up. My dad is British-chinese and mum is Swedish, and we would rarely have British comfort food such as roasts.

‘That intense lavour and the chew of the noodles is really familiar to me, and makes me happy.’