Comfort food = Soul Food

Today I was musing about what are my comfort foods: Foods you crave for when you are low, or tired or ill and by eating them, you instantly feel better. Some people call these soul foods.

Most of our comfort foods come from our childhood memories of Mama whipping up these delicious foods for us. Interestingly, my experience is most comfort foods are from the carbohydrate families. There must be a scientific explanation for that which I must look up some time.

For me, comfort foods start with all the delicious rice dishes: Tamarind rice (Puliodorai), Curd Rice, Lemon Rice & my relatively recent addition BBB or Bisi Beli Bath. I actually discovered BBB only 4 years ago on a trip to Bangalore where I had it twice and now its a fave. all the others I have grown up eating. Tomato rice is nice but not as high a favourite as the others.

I would also add Aloo Parathas with curds and pickle to the list.

In Italian cuisine, it would be Pesto Pasta (again only started eating it over the last 8 years but just love it) & an occasional aglio olio or white sauce baked dish macaroni.

Warm freshly baked bread always qualifies and I miss my breadmaker which used to make my house spell like a bakery every week.

Maggi Noodles also qualifies for hostel memories of waiting patiently in the saucepan queque for the single hot plate to be free.

The rare hot mushroom capuccino soup, the strawberry and fresh cream, a good cheesecake are all instant mood uppers and GJs (gulab jamuns) and ice cream sometimes is nice.

The moment you eat your comfort food, the world rights itself, all things are in perspective and I am happy again:-)

How do your comfort foods impact you? and what are they? Share them here.

It takes just a little lemon to make delicious Lemon Rice

Had a surprise visit from my folks with some delicious Kadu Manga (fresh green mango pickle) and of course I had to have some at lunch. Decided to whip up some Lemon Rice for lunch. Its a very easy dish to prepare and takes less than 20 mins (do u see a pattern here in what I choose to cook:-)). I had just come back from a couple of hours of pampering at the spa and didnt want too much prep time.

The ingredients are:
Onions 1. Finely chopped
Ginger: 2 inch piece finely chopped
Tadka / seasoning: Rai (Mustard) and then Ulva and Urad dal
Whole dry red chilli - 4 or 5 torn into 2 pieces
Lemon juice  - I substituted with Lemoneez as didnt have any lemon
Turmeric: 1 tsp


Take a little oil in a kadai and sputter the rai. Once its sputtered, add the ulva and urad dal. Add the Onions and Ginger and saute till onions turn pink. add the whole red chilli torn up. Add the turmeric and lemon juice and saute. Add the freshly made rice into this masala and stir well.

Eat it hot with curds and pickle. Very cooling for the summer.