3 comforting dishes to get us through the post-holiday season

Phew! We’ve made it through the marathon holiday season. Now it’s time to relax and enjoy life a bit before cranking up the new Peloton and the old diet regime.

With spring still months away, many of us might be feeling down as a result of the lack of light and the dreariness of this cold, wet winter. The rain is a good thing for the Sierra snowpack, but it tends to dampen our spirits and whet our appetites for a big bowl of comfort food.

So crank up the slow cooker and get out the braising pot to create a welcome warmth in the kitchen and a satisfying meal.

For inspiration on comfort food both decadent and healthy, we turned to the staff at the Gypsy Cafe in Sebastopol, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in September as a popular breakfast and lunch place for locals and tourists alike.

Back in 2011, owner Shawn Hall transformed the interior of the old Pine Cone Restaurant on Main Street into an eclectic, bohemian destination. An avid world traveler and savvy restaurant designer, Hall has roots in the Midwest, with its smorgasbord of classic comfort foods.

“I’m a St. Louis girl,” Hall said. “We raised our own beef and pork and chicken, so I’m not anti-meat. On Saturday and Sunday (at the Gypsy Cafe), it’s brunch all day and a chicken fried pork chop (with gravy) that will make you cry.”

Since the restaurant is in Sebastopol, where people seek out healthy, plant-forward meals, Gypsy Cafe also serves a fried portobello dish with potato cake and mushroom gravy.

But even with meaty main dishes, Hall said her goal is to keep it simple and avoid anything that gets in the way of each ingredient’s flavor.

“Our food doesn’t have filler,” she said. “For potato cakes, we bake russets, then shred them and get them crispy on the stovetop, with just a bit of dried cream.”

One of the cafe’s most popular dishes is a big bowl of pot roast with polenta, a rustic dish made from a relatively inexpensive shoulder cut known as beef chuck. The beef starts out tough but becomes tender once it’s braised in liquid.

Gypsy Cafe Chef Gabe Nahas said that when the marbled cut of beef is braised with wine and vegetables, it’s hard to resist.

“To start off, it’s just delicious,” he said. “Braising is an amazing cooking technique. You braise anything in a delicious stock with red wine and veggies, and it’s going to taste good.”

Braising a pot roast also can generate a wealth of leftovers that can be spun off into other versatile dishes, such as tacos and quesadillas.

Home cooks with a stocked spice cabinet also can tweak the flavor profile and serve the beef over a corresponding grain. Nahas said he used the curry spices of Morocco for the cafe’s Friday night pot roast dinners, now on hiatus due to the pandemic.

“That’s what we love about it,” Nahas said of the pot roast. “If you like the Northern African spices, you can do the herb couscous instead of the polenta, and you could use different meats, like lamb.”

The Gypsy Cafe also serves a bowl of comforting mac ’n’ cheese with a creamy béchamel sauce, four cheeses and a crunchy crust of breadcrumbs and Parmesan.

“Mac ‘n’ Cheese is like grandma’s gravy or marinara sauce,” Nahas said. “Everyone loves their own version. I like this one because of the noodles. These cavatelli noodles are shaped like corkscrews, and they catch the sauce well.”

The chef goes light on the flour in the roux, so the flavors of the four cheeses aren’t overpowered.

You can easily improvise with this dish, Nahas said, adding seasonal ingredients such as Dungeness crab in the winter, asparagus and fresh peas in spring and crushed tomato in summer.

For vegans and vegetarians, Hall created a healthy bowl that showcases a bounty of local vegetables, served over brown rice drenched in a coconut milk sauce.

“We are known for our heirloom veggies,” Hall said. “I buy my veggies from The Patch in Sonoma, and we do heirloom tomatoes on all our sandwiches in the summer. Right now, we’re getting all their cauliflower and kale, and we’re still getting the heirloom carrots.”

At the cafe, the Veggie Rice Bowl includes baby carrots, Brussels sprouts and delicata squash. But at home, you can substitute in your favorites.

“It’s just a bounty of clean vegetables,” Nahas said. “We wanted to keep it healthy without being boring. We wanted something that would be a little bit better than your average vegetarian dish.”

Gypsy Cafe Sous Chef Julio Pachebo also puts together breakfast bowls that are ideal for those seeking a healthy start to their day, such as the popular Polenta Bowl with garlic greens and poached eggs.

Weekend brunch specials range from Corned Beef Hash with two eggs and a potato cake to a Seared Wild Salmon Benedict.

“We do a potato cake, two poached eggs, our house Hollandaise and a lovely slice of salmon with four asparagus on top,” Hall said. “It’s killer, and we can’t take that off our menu.”

Before the pandemic, Hall said, weekends were very busy at the cafe, with a line snaking out the door all the way to nearby Copperfield’s Books.

“I used to do 350 brunches a day on weekends, and during the week, I just fed the locals because we’re the town cafe,” Hall said. “Now I’m down to 150. We’re packed, but we don’t have the line out the door.”

With limited outdoor seating, Hall is hanging in there and hopes to rehire all her pre-pandemic staff in the future.

“We’re not quite there yet,” she said. “I still only have five of my 11 staff people. When it is busy, we make do with half the staff.”

Gypsy Cafe serves breakfast, lunch and brunch from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. 162 N. Main St. 707-861-3825. For the complete menu, go to gypsy-cafe.com.

At Gypsy Cafe, this bowl of ultimate comfort food features pot roast braised in wine. In winter, it comes with braised greens and soft polenta on the side.

Gypsy Cafe’s Pot Roast with Polenta

Makes 6 servings

3 tablespoons oil

½ large onion, medium dice

3 carrots, peeled and medium dice

3 stalks celery, medium dice

3 pounds chuck eye or blade roast, large dice

¾ small can tomato paste

3 cloves garlic, minced

¼ bunch thyme

1 bay leaf

3 ounces red wine

3 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce

3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

6 cups beef stock

Braised greens of your choice (such as kale and Swiss chard)

Polenta, store-bought or homemade

Heat oven to 275 degrees. Saute onion, carrots and celery in oil in a Dutch oven or other heavy, cast-iron pot over medium heat. Reserve.

In the same pot, sear the diced chuck eye or blade roast in the remaining oil. Add the tomato paste, garlic and thyme and saute gently. Add the red wine and reduce by half. Add soy sauce, Worcestershire and beef stock along with the reserved vegetables. Cover with the lid askew and cook in the oven for 3 to 4 hours or until beef is tender.

Serve with braised greens and warm polenta alongside.

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Cavatappi noodles make this mac ’n’ cheese stand out because they catch the sauce well. The blend of 4 cheeses gives it a more complex flavor. The cafe uses white cheddar, but yellow cheddar also will work.

Gypsy Cafe’s 4 Cheese Mac ’n’ Cheese

Makes 4 servings

16 ounces cavatappi noodles (corkscrew-shape tube pasta)

Olive oil, a splash to coat pasta

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 ½ cups milk

8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

4 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded

4 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded

½ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

2 tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup panko breadcrumbs

1 bunch chopped chives

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain pasta and coat with olive oil. Reserve.

In a large saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Add flour, kosher salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes.

Add the milk one cup at a time, constantly whisking and breaking up the flour, then whisking to a smooth consistency before adding more milk. Cook until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat.

Add Jack, cheddar and Swiss cheeses and ¼ cup of Parmesan. Off the heat, whisk until cheese is melted and smooth. Reserve.

In a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of melted butter, panko and the rest of the Parmesan. Mix together and spread on a baking sheet. Put in the oven and bake until toasted brown. Reserve.

Adjust the oven temperature to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish, add the noodles to the cheese sauce and stir gently to blend. Top with the toasted breadcrumbs and bake, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and garnish with chives. Serve in shallow bowls.

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This is a vegan/vegetarian bowl that highlights the bounty of Sonoma County’s fresh vegetables. The veggies change with the seasons, from patty pan squash and cherry tomatoes in the summer to Brussels sprouts and delicata squash in the winter.

Gypsy Cafe’s Winter Veggie Rice Bowl

Makes 4 servings

For brown rice:

2 cups uncooked brown rice, rinsed well

8 cups water

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 tablespoons salt

For seasonal veggies:

12 baby carrots, peeled

12 Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

1 delicata squash, halved, seeds removed and cut into half moons

1 teaspoon garlic, chopped

For coconut sauce:

2 13-ounce or 14-ounce cans coconut milk, light or regular

2 cups natural unsweetened creamy peanut butter

6 tablespoons low-sodium/gluten-free soy sauce

½ cup sugar

4 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 cup water

Chopped chives, for garnish

For brown rice: Combine the rinsed rice, water, olive oil and salt in a pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain excess water and cover, off the heat, for 10 more minutes. Fluff with a fork.

For veggies: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coat carrots, Brussels sprouts and delicata squash with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper and roast for 10-12 minutes.

For coconut sauce: In a saucepan, whisk together all the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t scorch. Strain with a sieve or colander.

To serve: Pour sauce in the bottom of four shallow bowls. Top with rice, then veggies. Season to taste and garnish with chives.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56