Warm the chill of winter and a bad economy with hearty comfort foods

DIANE PETERSON
BY DIANE PETERSON PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER CHUNG THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

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.

To save yourself time, you can mix up the dough and the filling in advance and freeze both of them. Then all you have to do is defrost and assemble.

"The more time you give it, the better it gets, because the flavors meld," Hales said. "These make great dinner party meals."

Dillon developed his beef stew recipe simply by experimenting in the Barndiva kitchen. An artist who works in sculpture, painting and furniture, Dillon enjoys cooking because it engages all the senses.

"Cooking is so diverse as a medium," he said. "You use flavor, smell, texture and presentation."

For the consumer, stews are an ideal way to save money, because they call for less expensive cuts of meat, which break down and become tender and juicy over the low heat.

"A lot of peasant cooking is delicious because they would figure out how to cook from nose to tail," Hales said.

For busy folks, cooking a stew in a crockpot or Dutch oven is ideal because it doesn't take up a lot of time and energy. All you have to do is sit back and wait patiently as the low heat coaxes the meat and vegetables to surrender to their tasty fate.

Then slice up some warm bread, toss together a simple salad and dig into a big, steaming bowl of stewy goodness.

"This is a delicious filling for chicken pot pie you can do at home," Hales said. "Our pot pies at Barndiva are a bit more involved." This recipe for crust will also work for a vegetarian pot pie. If you have extra dough, refrigerate it and use it for another batch of savory or sweet pies.

Chicken Pot Pie

Makes 6 to 8 individual pies

For the chicken:

2 whole chickens

10 cups good quality chicken stock (kosher is best)

2 cups Madeira or Marsala wine

4 cloves of garlic

1 sprig fresh thyme

For the veggies:

1 large yellow onion or a handful of shallots or cipollini onions, diced

1 bulb celery root (or 5 stalks of celery)

4 carrots

3 parsnips

3 ounces each of hedgehog, black trumpet and golden chanterelle mushrooms (or mushrooms of your choice)

1 cup English peas (fresh in season, or frozen)

For the roux:

? pound good quality sweet, unsalted butter (preferably Plugra)

? pound flour

For the crust:

4 cups all-purpose flour

-- Pinch sea salt

1 pound butter

? cups heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Brown the whole chickens in a deep, heavy-bottomed roasting pan over medium high heat, lift them out, and deglaze the pan with the wine, the garlic, and the thyme. Then place the chickens back in the pan and add the stock. Roast for 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Meanwhile, cut the vegetables and mushrooms into bite-size pieces. In a separate pan, roast all the vegetables in a 375 degree oven until soft but firm. As dense vegetables like carrots take longer to cook, start them first, then add the softer vegetables.

Take the chicken out of the liquid and let it cool. Strain the liquid, discarding any fat off the top. Add the stock back to the pan and reduce it down by a quarter. When the chicken is cool, pull meat off the bones and combine it with the roasted vegetables.

Meanwhile, make a roux with the butter and flour. When the stock has reduced down, slowly thicken it with the roux. Add salt & pepper to taste. Add the vegetables and chicken to the stock mixture.

For the crust: Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and cut the butter into the flour. Add just enough cream to make a dry dough, and be careful not to overwork it. (Dough can be chilled, which makes it easier to handle.) Roll out the dough swiftly, then cut it into disks for the top of each ramekin. Fill the ramekins to a quarter-inch below the lip with the filling and place pastry circles on top. Crimp the extra dough around the rim. Cut a small steam slit in the top of the pastry.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the pastry is golden brown. Let cool and serve.

This stew is delicious served with thyme-scented mashed potatoes, with a little raw horseradish grated on top. To make the potatoes, steep the thyme in cream or milk, strain it before adding it with butter to the potatoes, then mash. Use a good sea salt to finish.

Beef Stew

Makes 6 servings

2 pounds beef, either short rib or shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 tablespoons flour

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion

3 carrots

3 sticks celery

3 cloves garlic

1 quart red wine, preferably a full-bodied table wine

? pomegranate, with pips detached

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1? tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 bay leaves

-- Generous sprig of thyme

? sprig of rosemary

? sprigs lavender

2 quarts good-quality beef stock, reduced by half

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the flour in a plastic bag with the beef and shake to cover. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat and sear the beef, then remove. In the same pan, caramelize the onions, garlic, carrots and celery over medium-high heat. Add the wine and the pomegranate pips to the pan and return the beef. Add the brown sugar, balsamic, herbs and reduced stock and cook for at least two hours.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson

@pressdemocrat.com.

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