What is your "comfort meal"?

I've mentioned before that one of my all-time favorite comfort meals is fried chicken. Adorned with mashed potatoes and (sweet-based) coleslaw. Whether enjoying it at home or with my love on a hillside picnic, few meals are as comforting and delicious as this old-fashioned classic.

Oh, and I guess I should add oven-fresh chocolate chip cookies as my "comfort dessert".

What is your favorite comfort meal? Perhaps not your favorite food but something that never fails to make you smile and your tastebuds feel at home?

Jeff

Last night I made scalloped potatoes & ham. Pot roast comes to mind, as do soups and stews. To me, a comfort food is something that is cooked for some time before serving and doesn't require a lot of last minute fiddling around. Put the dish on the table and help yourself. So things that are fried or grilled don't meet my criteria for comfort food. I don't find rushing around to get all the food on the plates hot comforting. A stress thing, I guess.

Meat loaf and mashed potatoes.

Lasagna and other baked pasta dishes.

Just about anything braised with a rich meat sauce. Short ribs, pot roast, osso bucco, chicken and dumplings....
Really good mac and cheese fits in there and crispy, crunchy fried chicken (again, like you Jeff). Not KFC!
Meat loaf and mashed potatoes with gravy would be right up there.
Perfectly cooked fish and chips.
Len's ribs (after they've smoked for hours on the BGE.)

Dessert? Peach cobbler or warm blueberry pie with vanilla ice cream melting into it. Or, perfectly executed Chocolate Lava cake with vanilla or coffee ice cream. Must note that sadly there are very few perfecty executed versions of this dessert.
Homemade Toll house cookies (again like you Jeff) hit the spot but I think of them more as a snack. Not dessert.

To me, a comfort food is something that is cooked for some time before serving and doesn't require a lot of last minute fiddling around. Put the dish on the table and help yourself. So things that are fried or grilled don't meet my criteria for comfort food. I don't find rushing around to get all the food on the plates hot comforting. A stress thing, I guess.

From the cook's perspective sure, but not sure that is necessary for the eater's definition!

I would say that almost anything involving cheese would fit in my 'comfort food' category, it's just such a fun thing to eat: pasta, pizza, gratin, polenta, risotto. Those are the basic cheese-based dishes in rotation at our house and more often than not my favorite meals of the week.

For myself, comfort food is most any sort of vegetable potage with good, crusty bread and cheese (salume/charcuterie optional). Split pea soup, potato/leek soup, lentil soup and butternut squash soup all serve admirably in this role. Of course, the bottle of rustic red wine is part and parcel of the comfort here. For my wife, it would be roast chicken with mashed potatoes.

Mark Lipton

For me, spaghetti is probably the #1 comfort food. In college it was the jar of sauce and pasta; now it's the simple, home made sauce and pasta with a side garlic bread, also home made. Simple and satisfying, the sauce smells great while simmering for hours, the bread aroma builds the appetite just before dinner and a glass of decent red wine tops everything off nicely.

[Robin Garr]

I'm very much with either the hearty soup or family Italian choices. Lasagna may be the ultimate, but bean soup with fresh French bread is certainly a contendah.

[Jenise]

No question: #1 on my list is homemade stewed chicken and noodles. I have a long list of comforting favorites which includes a lot of the things others mention, but nothing, NOTHING, reaches straight into my soul the way homemade chicken and noodles does.

biryani

[Jenise]

No question: #1 on my list is homemade stewed chicken and noodles. I have a long list of comforting favorites which includes a lot of the things others mention, but nothing, NOTHING, reaches straight into my soul the way homemade chicken and noodles does.

Btw, that's dinner comfort food. Breakfast would be creamed peas, and lunch is homemade tomato bisque.

Creamed peas? Breakfast?

My comfort food for breakfast would likely be scrambled eggs with well-done bacon pieces mixed in. Just the smell of it alone can arouse all sorts of pleasure come sunrise.

Jeff

No question: #1 on my list is homemade stewed chicken and noodles...

Hmmm... noodles or dumplings? http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43206

[Jenise]

No question: #1 on my list is homemade stewed chicken and noodles...

Hmmm... noodles or dumplings? http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43206

I love chicken and dumplings, but it's definitely the noodle soup (lots of noodles, a little broth, a little chicken) that says HOME to me. Never had C & D until I was old enough to make it myself. Wasn't something my mother ever made.

[Jenise]

Creamed peas? Breakfast?

Yup. But hey, this is comfort food, remember. Comfort foods are like phobias: somewhat beyond the ability to reason with.

Don't get no cumfort from nutin'

Jeff reminded me of another one...
Scrambled egg sandwich (made with lots of butter) on soft white bread so it all sort of melts together. Makes me think of my Mom.