Over the years I have come to love the austerity of winter. As crowds thin and trees are nothing but their bones, it’s striking to see the silhouettes reign supreme. This year I’ve been taking in all the lovely views of boney trees, sinewy bridges and icy skyscrapers from my window. On cold evenings as the silhouettes fade there is nothing like a hearty meal that makes you appreciate the warmth of a home. So this Sunday, I wanted to make some dishes that evoke this warm feeling and highlight the amazing winter produce. Here are a few things I made and the inspiration behind them.
Pan Seared Halloumi with Hot Honey
I love Halloumi’s balanced flavor – it’s salty, slightly tangy and perfectly highlights the rich taste of sheep and goat’s milk. The cheese already does the heavy lifting so after you’ve sourced a good block, pan seared cheese with hot honey dip makes for the perfect starter.
Kale and Cannellini Soup with Parmesan Cheese
Somewhat in between a soup and a sauce, this is the perfect dish if you are looking for something nourishing. We had this dish at Misi and I immediately knew I wanted to try making this at home. The beauty of this dish is that it uses many staple pantry items and is very simple to prepare. It’s also fairly easy to tweak this dish based on what you like or have at hand. I used Misi’s recipe for this but subbed the strained tomato juice for vegetable broth because I wanted to control the acidity of the dish. The dish still benefits from slight tanginess though so I added some lemon to balance the acidity. I also added some florentine tomato sauce (William Sonoma Florence Cookbook) I had made the night before to give the broth more complexity and flavor. Lastly, I topped it off with some grated parmesan cheese for sharpness!
Caramelized Onions, Potatoes and Lemon Chicken
I’ve tried different iterations of this dish now – one from Ina Garten’s recipe (Lemon Chicken) and also from this William Sonoma Paris Cookbook (Poulet Roti Aux Endives Et Aux Pommes De Terre). This recipe was somewhat of a hybrid. I ended up using Ina’s recipe for the chicken dressing (fennel, thyme, black pepper, salt, olive oil) and the Paris Cookbook for the white sauce. The whole dish came out fabulous. Not bad for a vegetarian cooking chicken! This also pairs really well with the Kale and Cannellini Soup.
Sauteed Trumpet Mushrooms with Rosemary
No produce has given us more iconic silhouettes than mushrooms and in theme I think we should give it the title for the ultimate winter ingredient. I like to keep it very simple for mushrooms because the earthy flavors come out best when they are cooked in good quality ingredients like high quality olive oil, herbs like rosemary and black pepper.
Maybe it’s the muddy flavor or sturdy figure of the trumpet mushroom but I always visualize trees and tree trunks when I eat one. Eating an earthy mushroom in the winter is always a lovely consolation because you can dream of all the wonderful trees you will get to sit under come spring 🙂
