With the Winter Solstice having now come and gone, we look forward to the return of the light and of spring. But there are still the dark, cold months of January and February to get through, which to us at Seeds means one thing – comfort food.
But comfort food is not the same to everyone of course. For me (Jessie), the ultimate comfort food is a soft-boiled egg with Marmite soldiers, a dish so simple it hardly needs a recipe. But I also am very partial to cheesy polenta with pesto on a wet wintery afternoon. Below you can find a recipe for that and also for my colleagues’ contributions. Bon Appetit!
Cheesy Polenta with Pesto – Jessie
2 cups milk mixed with 2 cups water
2 bay leaves
Half a small onion, cut in half
Lemon zest
2 handfuls of cornmeal
1 cup grated strong cheese
1 generous knob of butter
1 tablespoon pesto
Salt and Pepper to taste
Heat the milk, water, bay leaves, lemon zest and onion in a saucepan on a medium heat for 5-10 mins. Remove onion and bay leaves, add cornmeal, turn up heat, and stir as polenta thickens (this will take about 5 minutes). Add butter, cheese and salt and pepper. Serve topped with pesto.
Spiral Tart – Paloma
Crust:
1 big scoop of hardened coconut oil
About a cup of whole grain spelt flour
A little bit of cold water
Veggies:
1 eggplant
6 carrots
2 large mushrooms
1 big clove of garlic
Sauce:
1 spoonful of coconut oil (warmed to be in liquid state)
1 spoonful of mustard
1 clove minced garlic
Make dough by mixing together oil and flour and add a little water until the dough comes together. Spread into a pie dish. Use a peeler to slice the carrots and eggplant, slice the mushrooms and the garlic. Make a small spiral of veggies in your hand. Once the spiral gets to be too much to hold place it in the center of the pie crust. From there continue wrapping the long cut veggies until you reach the edge. Once finished, tuck the mushroom and garlic slices between the carrot and eggplant. Drizzle with olive oil, coconut amino soy sauce and black pepper before baking for 40 min at 350°.
Spanish Rice – Kathy
Use amounts that please you. I’m sure there is nothing Spanish about this, but it is the name I was given.I made it for my childhood family and for my own family.
Heat olive oil in a dutch oven. Cook chopped onion, green pepper, garlic until onion is translucent.
Throw in 1/2 to 1 lb. of hamburger and 1 cup of rice. Keep stirring and breaking up the hamburger until the meat is browned.
Add 1 large can of diced tomatoes. If you are sure there isn’t enough liquid for the rice you used, then add a little water.
Salt and pepper.
Done when the rice is cooked, but great as leftover.
Serve with a green salad and parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the rice dish.
Grandma Shirley’s Cheese Cookies – Tina
2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup butter or hard margarine
2 cups flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cayenne
6 drops Tabasco sauce (or more)
2 cups Rice Krispies
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Mix cheese and margarine in electric mixer. Add sauces. Stir together flour, salt and cayenne and mix in. Stir in Rice Krispies. Form into balls by hand and flatten on cookie sheet. Refrigerate for 2 hours before baking. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.
Hippy Style Poutine – Patricia
Potatoes
Cheese curds
Oil/Coconut oil/butter (your choice)
Flour (gluten free or gluten full)
Miso (your favourite kind)
Garlic
Small Onion
Mushrooms (up to you)
Pesto
Soy sauce
Pepper
Green onions
Cilantro or parsley
Chop Potatoes into fry size chunks, parboil in water and then rinse off the starch. Put some oil and salt in a pan and put in oven that you are preheating to 425. Take pan out when hot and put in potatoes, stir and quickly put back in oven.
Sautee onions, garlic, mushrooms in oil of choice till soft in a small saucepan (put a decent amount of oil in pan), remove most of the mushrooms and throw in as much flour as the oil will absorb. Add about ¼ cup to half a cup water, add in a teaspoon of pesto and a couple tablespoons of soy sauce (or Braggs or tamari), turn up and bring slowly to a boil while stirring. As you are doing this dissolve a tablespoon of miso in as little warm water as possible. When the gravy is thickened add in the mushrooms and the miso and stir. Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste.
Remove fries when they are crispy. Build layers in a bowl of alternating hot fries, cheese curds, and then gravy. Top with chopped up green onion and cilantro or parsley. Yummy additions include – pulled pork, chicken, peas, corn, green beans etc.