The Stars and the Cookie Jar

I was a latchkey kid throughout junior high and high school back in the day when kids could walk home from school or the bus stop unsupervised and nothing bad happened unless it rained and the umbrella was in your locker. Comfort food is peanut butter and honey on whole wheat toast, sandwich cut diagonally and gobbled down with one hand while pulling homework out of my backpack. Actually, the spoonfuls of peanutbutter and honey sneaked while the bread was toasting were pretty satisfying, too.

Ok, mine is lame. But I'm really not a talented cook, or even a competent one, so I hope you understand.

My "comfort food" I discovered this year. I like taking a sack of pre-washed romaine lettuce or spinnach leaves (yes I am that bad that I buy it in sacks), mixing it with about half a jar of balsalmic vinegar and sprinkelling liberally with pepper. If available, add strawberries and green apples and/or walnuts. It's really yummy and the pepper gives it this added dynamism that similarl restaurant options lack. I make it in Kentucky when I'm feeling alone, or when I'm sick of eating bad food and I need fiber and vegetable-based calcium. There's the recipie, for what it's worth I guess.

Other favorites: anything Eastern, especially India. Moli Kofta (vegetarian) is a bit of a treat for me since I try to avoid cheese. Naan is wonderful bread, and I like any of the lentil dishes. But I particularly crave two chutneys; pickle and mango. Onion chutney (red) is fine, but normally restaurants just don't use fresh enough onions. Plum and mint chutneys are fine, but not nearly my favorites.

I also like potato latkes and Mun cookies, which my Jewish step-grandmother used to make. I'm not sure if you know what these are, or if they have several names and this is just an unusual one. But think of a snickerdoodle with poppy seeds in place of the cinnamon and sugar and you more or less get the idea. Damn. Used to know that recipe by heart too :(.

The irony of this, of course, is that I don't really like eating. I've had an eating disorder on and off since about age 11 (little known fact about me), and food and I have a complex relationship. But while it's not something I enjoy very much, it is something I am sort of adventurous with. If that makes any sense!

Ramen is my comfort food, which I suppose is really pathetic, but when I was little and got along with my mum, she would make it every morning. I remember waiting in the kitchen while she cooked it. She would always keep the noodles boiling in the pot until they were very mushy, and she would put an egg in as well. The egg's yolk always had to be whole and cooked all the way through otherwise I wouldn't eat it. I remember the few times my mum had to go to work before I went to school, and my uncle would try to make it, and while he would cook it the way the package said to, the noodles didn't absorb all the water and so were thin and he would break the egg, and I didn't like it. I was very picky. Ramen was one of the few foods I would eat. Of course at the time I called it Symon because I had grown up in Hawaii where that's what it was called. Later in grade five I learned that it was called Ramen (this was when I moved back to the Mainland). ^^;; My comfort food has such a ridiculously long story to it.

*cracks knuckles* All righty then. Now I have time to think and hunt up recipes. This could be long.

Comfort food for me is often just a hot drink; instant chicken noodle soup, tea, coffee, hot chocolate. But I have a particular way to make them for them to be mine, and comforting.

Tea is made in the tiny one-cup cast iron teapot that belonged to my grandmother and I had to beg from my mother when I moved out. It looks like it should be hung over a roaring fire to brew. Tea tastes wintery and homey when it comes out of this pot.

Coffee is Nescafe Golden Roast because I am a plebe and also cheap, one heaped teaspoon and another of sugar. Half coffee, half milk. The amount of fat in the milk (skim -> full fat) varies with just how much comfort I need.

Hot chocolate, when I can be bothered, is cocoa mixed with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, hot water added to make a paste. Milk to the top of the mug, stirred, heated up in the microwave.

But food! The easiest and best comfort food is crumpets with Nutella; warm and gooey-chocolatey. But there are five things I love to make and always feel good eating, so:

Kerri Koyambu (pronounced Kirra-kwaam)

(My mother taught me to make this, and it's both dead easy and delicious. You can make it for one and freeze the rest for a rainy day. You can make it for dinner, and have it bubbling on the stove while you do homework. You can make a mofo amount and serve it as a side dish at a party. The amount of butter you use is a trade-off between tasting sublime and caring about your cholesterol levels.)

Combine in a large saucepan: 2-2.5 cups of water, 1 cup red lentils, 1 bunch chopped spinach, 1 large chopped onion, 2 chopped tomatoes, juice of half a lemon, 5 chopped chillies (or a teaspoon or so of minced chilli), 1.5 teaspoons salt, 1/4 teaspoon tumeric, a large knob of butter.

Cook at medium heat for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

American Brownies

(So they are called in my mother's recipe book and so they always shall be. The first thing I learned to cook. My copy of the recipe doesn't include nuts because I hate the things, but they can be added.)

Grease a 20cm-sided square tin and preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Whisk together 2 eggs and 1 cup of castor sugar until thick and creamy, then beat in 60g of butter (melted) and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence.

IMMEDIATELY sift in 1/2 cup plain flour, 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt. Fold into the mixture, and turn it all into the tin. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes, then cut into squares and remove while still warm.

Emperor's Crumbs

(It was always magic to me that something so delicious and fluffy could appear when all my mother appeared to be doing was making pancakes. Winter dessert. Best. Ever.)

Mix 1/4 pint milk, 4 heaped tablespoons plain flour, 2 tablespoons of sultanas and 2 egg yolks (keep the whites) to a thick batter. Beat the egg whites stiff and then fold them GENTLY into the batter.

Heat some butter in a large, solid frying pan and pour in all of the batter. Fry to a golden brown on one side, carefully turn it, and tear it up into large 'crumbs' with two forks. When cooked, divide between bowls and serve sprinkled with sugar and with jam sauce (which is just strawberry jam mixed with a little hot water).

~

I won't give you the recipes for the other two unless you really want them, but happiness has always been my mother's chicken liver pate, still warm, on hot toast. And corn fritters are the best solitary lunch; I make a huge plate of them and sit down in front of the TV with a bowl of sweet chilli sauce and munch through them.