Photography & Words: © Anna Rubingh
After a chilly winter's day, warming up by a crackling fire, either outside or inside and with winter comfort food; a caramel tarte with nuts, a warming winter pasta with bacon and Gruyère or a slow cooked lamb stew on creamy polenta for example. Perfect for a winter anywhere, food with a touch of Alps, that fits perfectly with winter comfort food, wherever you eat it.
A fantastic winter tarte, filled with walnuts in caramel.
Perfect for after a long winter walk with a cup of hot coffee, by the fire of course!
A plate of pasta is one of the finest comfort foods around. This linguine with softly braised white cabbage with bacon, garlic and thyme and a good handful of Gruyère is an easy-to-make winter pasta. Great winter comfort food.
A winter potato gratin with layers of potatoes, caramelised onions and bacon. And with a lot of Swiss Gruyère between the layers and a nice crispy crust on top.
Rösti is nothing more than a pancake of grated potatoes, with a crispy crust and soft on the inside, fried in plenty of real butter. In Switzerland, farmers used to eat rösti for breakfast, which is also a good idea, at least if you are facing a long day of exercise outside. Rösti is made in many ways, some Swiss add bacon, others Gruyère, some make rösti from raw potatoes and others precook the potatoes. Whatever the case, it is a fine dish, delicious with, for example, sausage and some fried sage and, as here, with sweet, caramelised onion jam, really good!
Slow-cooked lamb with savoy cabbage is really good winter food. You can prepare it in advance, it tastes even better the next day, then enjoy a winter's day outside and come home to a plate of polenta with delicious slow-cooked stew. Creamy polenta fits perfectly with this.
Melted cheese, sauerkraut and fantastic caramelised onion jam. Toast the bread and melt the cheese on it over a fire, perfect for a winter weekend outside. On other days, you can of course also make this delicious open sandwich under the grill or in the frying pan.
You can eat polenta creamy, as in the lamb stew in this series, but you can also bake it. You can use leftover polenta from the day before, or just make some more to make this tasty baked polenta the next day. By spreading the polenta out in a layer and letting it cool, you can cut it into pieces and use it in this oven dish with mushrooms and gruyere.
This fluffy, airy cake with chopped hazelnuts and fluffy egg whites dusted with snow-white icing sugar tastes perfect with a freshly brewed espresso straight from the fire. Or tea if you prefer.
