When I was younger, my grandmother started a baking business out of her kitchen. While she mainly made and sold her famous focaccia, her baking at home was (and still is!) limitless. I remember pineapple cakes, molasses cookies, different kinds of breads and seasonal cookies. I would drop by, and bask in the warm smells and rhythmic squeaking of the bread machine, echoing through the serenity of the house. A good cook always tastes whatever they’re making before passing it off to friends and acquaintances, so we would sit down at the table with a pot of coffee, glasses of orange pineapple juice, and a big plate of whatever it was we were “testing” that day: little square pieces of the oily focaccia, cookies dusted with sugar or coated in nutty sesame seeds, or biscotti with almonds and cranberries. Talking, eating, laughing, and feeling fullness in a myriad of ways: this is what I remember.
Illustration by Phoebe Wahl
Recently I’ve tried to emulate that feeling through baking. While I don’t quite have the careful precision of my Grandmother when it comes to measurement (a sometimes fatal flaw), I do have a recipe that I turn to time and time again when I’m needing to fill the kitchen with the simple, delectable scent of fresh bread. This No-Knead Bread recipe has seen me through many years of reckless baking. I think my grandmother has even made it a few times, approvingly.
In the spirit of turning towards comfort foods, foods that remind us of our families, foods that we will tell our grandchildren about, here are the chosen comfort foods that the teachers at Kalabash absolutely and unconditionally love to make and eat right now:
Stef Schmitz: Boxed mac & cheese but spiffed up with ground turkey
and baked with panko bread crumbs on top!
Lexi Pulido: Steel cut oats with butter
Alex Arango: Butter chicken with basmati rice, naan, and mango lassi!
Laurie Nasica: This Lasagna, or Pasta Carbonara.
Nancy Ross: Soup! Chicken and dumpling, black-eyed pea soup (which is informally known as Roadkill Soup in the Ross family.)
Erin Chan: Gimbap! You can find my favorite recipe for that, as well as other great authentic Korean recipes here.