Dishes that will comfort
Winter menus ought to be gentler and milder. You want comfort, ease and lightness, and these three dishes cover all counts. They can be served sequentially, as a menu for a quiet dinner, or on their own.
We’re all craving comfort, especially with the pandemic, and nothing soothes like a warm bowl of soup, whether as a starter or as a meal. Pureed vegetable soups are both easy to make and quick to cook. It’s simply a matter of simmering the vegetables until tender and blitzing the contents of the pot.
Classic leek and potato soup is well known and well loved. Replacing the potatoes with parsnips may seem arbitrary, but the result is sweeter, earthier and more fragrant. I have kept it quite plain, seasoning with only salt and pepper and a touch of turmeric for color, but it is satisfying and tastes of what it is. Sauteing the vegetables very slowly before adding liquid is the key to success. I like it best made with water rather than broth — it makes a lighter soup.
As a main course, generally speaking, you can’t go wrong with meatballs. Though, traditionally, a meatball may swim in red sauce, in the spirit of lighter, leaner fare, these are made with ground chicken and go sauceless.
There is no stinting on flavor, however; the chicken mixture is laced with aromatic spices. A blend of black pepper, lemon zest, cayenne, nutmeg, cinnamon and crushed fennel seeds supplies the necessary zing. Cooked chopped spinach, a shower of cilantro and a little serrano chile lend the required green and a bit of a kick.
To keep kitchen time to a minimum — and flavor at a maximum — make the
meatball base a day in advance of cooking.
A stellar fruit salad makes a perfect dessert. Packed with vitamins and antioxidants, it’s delicious and stunning to boot. Winter is the season for citrus, so choose among colorful oranges and grapefruit, including blood orange, if possible. Fuyu persimmons can be eaten raw and unripe. (Pointy-bottomed Hachiya persimmons cannot.) They have the slippery texture of mango and a lovely flavor somewhere between melon and papaya.
Bright, ruby-red pomegranate seeds, like sweet-sour jewels, top everything off. I think this salad, well chilled, needs no garnish at all or any additional flavors. But if you want something more, add a splash of orange liqueur or limoncello.
After a restorative meal like this, one will leave the table glowing, and with no regrets.