Comfort Food
Last week at market one of my fellow vendors asked me for my best recipe for macaroni and cheese. They want to make it for their Thanksgiving dinner. I thought to myself, “Who makes mac & cheese for Thanksgiving?”
Over the years there’s been turkey, ham, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, creamed corn, coleslaw, but never macaroni and cheese. But then I got to thinking about all that’s been going on in the world over the last year and realized that this year’s Thanksgiving feast is going to be one filled with comfort foods. There are plenty of ways to add in flavors of home that signal your brain that all is well in your world despite what is happening elsewhere.
Marylanders love to stuff their stuffing with oysters, but did you ever think to baste your bird with Old Bay? I’ll tell you where else Old Bay has been showing up--on cookies. That mix of seasonings is culinary home for many of us. For others hailing from other parts of the globe, ones who don’t celebrate turkey day, there have been worthy mash-ups of flavors in feasting.
Over the years while sharing a meal with international friends I’ve had turkey crusted with za’atar, curried bird, and even General Tso’s Turkey. The south has their deep fried turkeys. Are turduckens still a thing? Not everyone likes big bird and so ham is often on the menu as well. There will be a line around the block at every Honey Baked ham shop in America come next Wednesday. If a pork-flavored salt lick is your thing, go for it.
Potatoes can be cooked seven ways to Sunday—mashed, scalloped, au gratin, boiled, with lots of butter, cream and even cheese. I once saw a chef use a whole brick of cream cheese when making his whipped potatoes for a swank mountain resort restaurant where reservations sold out for Thanksgiving a year in advance. If you really want to turn those taters into comfort food, don’t use all the turkey drippings in the gravy. Take some of that skimmed fat and whip it into your potatoes. Think of it as putting the gravy in your potatoes as well as on them.
Side dishes tend to expose our cultural roots when it comes to comfort food. Every self-respecting southerner will have collards and most of the Pennsylvania Dutch have sauerkraut (extra points if it’s cooked with the turkey neck). Californians were always keen on broccoli while middle America goes for corn and green beans. New Englanders have lobster while Marylanders have crab cakes. And we haven’t even gotten to the best part of the day…dessert!
There have been some tough years when I could have skipped the turkey, the mashed potatoes and gravy; just piled my plate with apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, sweet potato pie, and wash it all down with a mug of warmed spiced apple cider followed by spiked eggnog.
So I’ll pass along my recipe for macaroni and cheese made from scratch with bechamel, cheddar and asiago cheeses, baked with buttered bread crumbs on top for a crispy crust in hopes that it will offer a creamy carbohydrate coma to those who imbibe on a Thursday afternoon in late November. May it offer comfort.