Homemade To The Rescue

There's nothing like a homey baked dish at supper time. It could be a baked dish or homemade sausage. These are guaranteed to chase those mid winter chills and blues away.They're relatively easy to make for yourself or for  a weekend crowd..


David Tanis wrote about the rice  in his A City Kitchen column in yesterday's New York Ties Food section. He basically raided his pantry to create a tasty winter dish , perfect on these cold evenings. He does use carnaroli rice instead of Arborio although you can use the last as well.The reason for the carnaroli is that it has a higher starch content and makes it ideal for turning into a bake. More flavor comes in the form of saffron, leeks and onions. Mr. Tanis  also adds thinly sliced winter  squash for texture and more favor, recommending kabocha or Hubbard. Since this is like baked mac , different cheeses are  added, this in  he forms of both Gruyere and ricoota. Fresh grated Parmesan is also thrown in  to give some spark and then the bake is poured in a buttered casserole dish. Since this is a riff on America's classic .Mr Tanis add a layer of bread crumbs to make it crunchy.It's baked for 25 minutes until browned.It's good on it's own  but you can add a green salad and a glass of any white wine to round it out.

Melissa Clark also gives us a home made comfort food in yesterday's  A Good Appetite column as well. It is green chorizo, a specialty of the Toluca region of Mexico. It is an easy sausage to make, great for novice home chefs., There's no meat grinder to deal with or sausages casings to figure out. It's a crumbly kind that can be served with veggies or even eggs as a super spicy huevos rancheros.Ms. Clark got the recipe from Chef Alex Stupak who makes the treat with serrano and poblano chilis, green chilis that will give the sausage a nice verdant hue.Unlike the rice bake, this is a bit time consuming , because the chilis as well as garlic have to be roasted for  six to twelve minutes before mixing. The recipe also comes with a caveat. Wear gloves when removing stems and seeds. These are potent and can cause skin irritations. Mix these and oregano, along with coriander and cumin seeds with the pork.Again wear gloves to avoid any rashes.It can be kept overnight in the fridge or stored in the freezer for a month  before cooking. Ms. Clark uses the sausage crumbles in a black bean stew.

This is the weather for homey dishes. They could be in the form of a sophisticated yet cozy rice bake or a spicy green chorizo, that can be used in a variety of dishes from stews to omelets. Both are delicious chill chasers to make the mid winter bearable.