Combine bone-chilling winter winds from Alaska with the economy's icy grip on our wallets and it's easy to see why comfort food -- simple yet satisfying dishes that evoke warm memories of hearth and home -- continues to dominate the dining scene.
This winter, restaurateurs across Wine Country are part of a larger trend that's taking menus back to basics, with an array of casual dishes like soothing soups, stews and braised meats to insulate us from the cold.
World-famous celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey of Ramsey restaurants predicted in print recently that menus and dishes would be simpler and less fussy.
Rib-sticking stews and soups, tasty pot roasts and pot pies, rustic risottos and pastas are a few of the one-pot wonders adding solace to the lean season.
These humble dishes not only go easy on the budget but reconnect us to our past, when grandma donned an apron to roll out, pat and shape delicious meals from basics, creating taste memories that haunt us with their tantalizing aromas.
"It's a sensory tradition that we're trying to get back to," said Jil Hales, owner of Barndiva in Healdsburg. "When you ate that food, you connected to the people who made it with love and connected to you."
Hales believes people are still hungry for an emotional connection to their plate. And although cost remains a factor for most of us, more folks are starting to realize that you can have your cake and eat it too by choosing quality over quantity.
"With this comfort movement, you taste the quality so you're sated with less," Hales said. "And you're sated on a deeper level."
As an offshoot of its casual barbecue menu, Barndiva is serving prix fixe meals this winter that feature slow-cooked stews on Wednesdays, homey pot pies on Thursdays and slow-roasted meats on Sundays.
The idea is that people can drop by for a glass of red wine and a pot pie, without having to go through the fuss of a formal dining experience.
Hales discovered some of these classic dishes when she started traveling to England, a country she adopted as her home for 15 years.
"The Slow Roast Sunday comes out of the English tradition of Sunday lunch," she said. "It's basically a a meat joint and two veggies: a shoulder or leg of lamb or pork, perfect veggies from our foodshed and some kind of potatoes."
But it is the cozy stews and pot pies -- one-pot dishes that are cooked with care by Barndiva chef Jaime Dillon and pastry chef Scott Noll -- that really showcase winter cooking at its best.
These dishes require lots of chopping, reducing and roasting on the front end but are easy to assemble once the prep work is done.
Using the alchemy of the low flame, the cook simply simmers the stock, herbs, vegetables and meat together, ending up with a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts. The key is the low flame warming the underside of the pot.
"It's slow cooking," Hales said. "You make it slowly, and you eat it slowly . . . with friends."
Like most comfort food, stews and pot pies boast a soothing texture and mellow flavor that melts in the mouth and lingers on the palate.
"They're both easy to eat," Dillon said. "You have everything in one bowl."
Barndiva has been doing chicken pot pie since it opened in 2004. It's so popular, in fact, that people from across the country have come back and requested it, Hales said.
There's something iconic about this savory pie, with its crispy, golden crust and creamy filling studded with earthy mushrooms and carrots. British food writer Tamasin Day-Lewis chose a chicken pie recipe to open her 2003 cookbook, "Tarts with Tops On, or How to Make the Perfect Pie."
"This is the ultimate savory pie, unimprovable, unimpeachable, and just unbelievably good," she writes. "The beginning, the end, the mother of all pies."
One of the secrets to a perfect pie, of course, lies in the tasty, flaky blanket of crust. At Barndiva, the crust is made with a combination of organic lard and butter, providing the best of both worlds.
"The butter gives it a creamy flavor," Hales said. "And the lard gives it the mouth-feel. I want it to be flaky but to have some weight to it."
Another secret is to use chicken legs and thighs for the filling. The dark meat adds fat and boosts the flavor of the dish.
For the filling, Dillon likes to roast the carrots and celery in the oven, but he carefully caramelizes the onions and wild mushrooms separately, in a saute pan.
"Every vegetable cooks at a different heat," he said. "I want the same texture all the way through."
Depending on what vegetables you have on hand, you can make substitutions and create your own variation on a theme. For winter, Dillon suggests using root vegetables like parsnips, rutabagas and celery root, and a handful of fresh peas.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: