A Thoughtful Month Of Eating

November is that moment of quiet between two wild months. It starts off with All Soul's and All Saint's Days , which call for reflection and prayer and ends with Thanksgiving - a day where all give thanks for what they have. It's a month of eating simple as we ease into chillier weather and shorter days.

One of the simplest and delicious meals to make is chicken. Allison Roman gives us a good recipe for it in yesterday's New York Times Food section.It only takes an hour to cook a tender falling off the bone bird. She uses the thighs, always the friend of a home chef who work  long hours.It's braised in a Dutch oven.The thighs are then taken out to allow smashed garlic and sliced onion to cook with the chicken fat and skin bits. To give it a spicier bite, Ms. Roman adds tomatillo instead of tomatoes.Using them creates more of a sticky, soupy consistency thanks to the pectin in it. Fresh jalapeno also adds zing giving it some resemblance to the Mexican stew pozole where pork and red chiles or chicken with tomatillos are cooked for a long time.The chicken is returned to the pot where it's simmered with the veggies for twenty-five minutes to half an hour.It can be topped with a mixture of radish, the remaining onions and tomatillos. Lime juice is added for zest. Hominy is used as side to absorb the sauce but red beans or rice can also be used too.

Another easy and relatively simple dish is Melissa Clark's stir fried green beans with pork and chiles for her weekly column, A Good Appetite.Like Ms. Roman's recipe, it's a snap to make, inspired by Sichuan dry fried beans.It's dialed down a notch with the omission of the Sichuan peppercorns and preserved mustard greens. Instead coriander seeds and cilantro are subbed in to give the dish complexity. A big splash of rice wine vinegar gives it more layers of flavor. The dish can be cooked in a skillet or wok.The meat is cooked first, for only six to eight minutes until the pieces are browned and crispy. It's then transferring them to a plate and then cooking the green beans until they're tender and bright green. Chiles,  and ginger are added for fire and bite along with the coriander seeds and cilantro The pork is returned to this and cooked as soy sauce and half a teaspoon  of sugar is added. ( could dark honey be subbed in here instead?) Ms. Clark suggests serving it with a sliced tomato and rice but cellophane noodles wouldn't go amiss with it nor would vermicelli if you have it.

November is a month of just quiet and simplicity. Make these simple  - yet complex with flavor dishes. They're perfect for the long nights ahead.