Kara Elder | Vox

The best things to eat and drink to fight wintertime dread

2019-12-30T09:37:22-05:00

Cold winter months are unavoidable for many of us. In these literal and metaphorical dark times, you may find that what you choose to eat can have a profound effect on your outlook.

Before you eat, it helps to set the scene. And who better to advise on embracing winter’s charms than our northern neighbors? Germans have Gemütlichkeit, Swedes have mys, and Danes have hygge; though there are subtleties to each, they are all about creating cozy and warm feelings, especially in the winter. “Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience, rather than about things,” writes Meik Wiking in his 2017 book, The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living. Light a few candles, put on some music, cuddle up under a heavy blanket, and you’ll be feeling snug and comfortable in no time.

Food and drink may be the heart of hygge, as Norwegian writer Signe Johansen notes in her 2016 cookbook How to Hygge: The Nordic Secrets to a Happy Life, but this is not an article about hygge. (Since we’re on the topic of Scandinavia, you should also know about the Finnish practice of kalsarikänni, or drinking alone at home in one’s underwear; a story, perhaps, for another time.) Rather, this is about you, your kitchen, your neighborhood restaurants, and the food you will eat when the next cold front strikes.

Buy ingredients that’ll save you grocery store runs in the cold

For the cooks among us, take a peek in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer to assess the situation. Spring cleaning may be the norm, but if Marie Kondo’s taught us anything, it’s that organization has no season.

Decide which ingredients you want to stock up on, because one of the best things about winter is staying in and avoiding sludging through piles of dirty snow just to get groceries. Do you enjoy baked goods? Stock up on chocolate, butter, and eggs so you can make your favorite brownie recipe. More of a savory tooth? Get a can of tomatoes, a package of panko bread crumbs, a block of aged cheddar, and a few types of dried or canned beans so that you can make a cheesy tomato and bean bake. Must have your meat and potatoes? Get some stew meat and slide it into the freezer so you’re ready for a slow-cooked soup whenever the next snow day strikes.

“We spend a lot of time in the late summer putting fish up for the winter,” says Emma Teal Laukitis who, with her sister Claire Neaton, owns Salmon Sisters, a clothing, home goods, and seafood company in Alaska. “When winter comes around, it’s so great to have good food in your freezer that’s easy to pull out,” she says.

Fish such as salmon is an especially good choice, says Teal Laukitis, as it’s rich in vitamin D and omega-3s. These are good for you no matter the season, but particularly in the winter: You may be less likely to get enough vitamin D through sunlight, and omega-3s have been linked to improved mood (as well as heart health). Having a full freezer and pantry is not only practical: It’s a comfort, a reassurance that even when the next bomb cyclone polar vortex sharknado strikes, you’ll be ready to make something nourishing and warm.

Take stock (and eat your vegetables)

Warming up over a cup of steaming hot chocolate or a spiced latte is all well and good, but to avoid the inevitable sugar crash and caffeine jitters, try sipping on something a little more savory. You could go the bone broth route — simmering bones, such as chicken, in water for many hours, often with aromatics and a splash of vinegar — or, if you don’t eat meat, try something plant-based: “I like to start the day with a nice broth, like a miso broth balanced with a little garlic,” says Kale Walch, who, with his sister Aubry, owns the Herbivorous Butcher, a vegan butcher shop in Minneapolis. “It makes the crushing cold a little better in the morning.”

Keep some carrots, onions, and celery around — plus a few other pantry-friendly ingredients — and you can make your own sipping vegetable broth. Or, store a jar of concentrated bouillon (such as the Better Than Bouillon brand) and a container of miso in your refrigerator for a quick, just-add-water broth to sip on or put in soups. Using a broth from concentrate not only takes up less space, it also cuts down on packaging waste from store-bought broths and tastes better than most broths or stocks you can buy in a grocery store.

And don’t underestimate the power of soup. A hefty, long-cooking Guinness stew is pure comfort, but look around for lighter options, too, like noodles in broth with whatever vegetables you’ve got, or red lentils simmered in water and served with a squeeze of lemon and lots of herbs. “My favorite is a coconut milk-based salmon chowder, with lime juice, too,” Laukitis says. “It’s tangy and not super heavy.”

It also helps to think a bit outside the chicken noodle can, and even far away from cold climates. Lisa Aganon, co-owner of Hafa Adai Fiesta Food, a restaurant serving Chamorro (indigenous Guamanian) food in Colorado Springs, makes kadu (Chamorro for soup or broth) in the fall and winter. “The chunks of meat, squash, beans — it fills you up,” Aganon says.

And tempting though it may be to drench all of your vegetables in cream and cheese or eat cookies and cake for breakfast, in the interest of your health, enjoy them in moderation. Cold weather is also the time to enjoy winter squash, potatoes, roots like carrots or parsnips, and hearty greens like kale and cabbage. In contrast to the summer, when the last thing you want is to turn on your oven, now is the time to crank it up to 400 degrees and roast everything. Plus, leftovers are great in soup.

Spike the flavor

Fight winter malaise with big and bold seasonings. Stock up on all of the citrus that’s in season in warmer climates (especially lemons, which are all-purpose and add a pleasant acidic brightness to anything you’re eating) or use spices and herbs to amp up flavor.

German cookbook author Lisa Nieschlag loves to bake in the winter, turning especially to family traditions like sugar cookies filled with red currant jam and topped with lemon icing, or classics such as gingerbread cookies. “The ground ginger, gloves, freshly grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon fill the house with such a delicious Christmassy scent,” she writes by email.

Spices can lend their warmth to your beverages, too. The Walch siblings like to pair mulled wine with food, such as a dry white wine mulled with spices typically found in pho — star anise, cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon, plus a few twists like Sichuan peppercorns, lime leaves, coriander seeds, and lemongrass — to go with a (vegan) cheese party. “That makes the meal kind of magical,” Aubry Walch says. “People often think mulled wine is just cheap wine and spices, but you can do it in a way that’s kind of gourmet.”

Eat out in cozy places

Let’s say you’re not into cooking and live in a city with lots of dining options for cold days, or you’re just too tired to cook. As much as you may want to stay in and order delivery, remember that it’s good to get out and be around people. Find a place within walking distance and make it your go-to. Get to know the owners. Make connections and become a regular. “Maybe more than other times of the year we turn to our favorite Chinese restaurant,” Aubry says. “It’s nice and warm in there; the windows are nice and foggy like they are in the movies.”

You might be sad that it’s not really margaritas on the restaurant patio season anymore, but that just means you should find a cozy, dimly lit spot with dark beers. Go to the windowless restaurants and bars that you avoid in the summer. Take a book and read for a while at a coffee or tea shop. Appreciate the charms that winter affords, like candles and restaurants with fireplaces.

If you do opt for delivery, especially on the nights with a charming wintry mix, tip the delivery person a little extra. They are out in the cold so you don’t have to be, plus you’ll get a boost of warm and cozy feelings from your small token of appreciation.

Share the load, or treat yourself

Misery loves company, so invite your friends over and get through it together. Try not to focus on the negative; it might be kind of ugly out, and yes, everyone has some level of anxiety around the state of the world. You can’t change that, but you can put down your phone and have face-to-face conversations with people you care about.

If company’s coming, food and drinks are right behind them. Make it easy and ask everyone to bring a bite or a beverage to share, or borrow someone’s fondue pot so you can go all out and get cozy and close around some bubbling cheese. Find a recipe for stuffed grape leaves, tamales, dumplings, or other labor-intensive foods, enlist the help of your friends, and make it together.

If none of this sounds appealing, well, winter is also the ideal time to retreat, look inward, and spend some quality time with yourself. Use this opportunity to buy a cookbook — something with recipes and techniques totally new to you — and really dive into it. Learn about cooking styles from a culture other than your own. Cook all of the recipes that sound interesting to you, and take notes so that you’ll know what worked and what didn’t.

Above all, the key to eating and cooking in the face of winter doldrums is to do what comforts you. And if all else fails, there’s always kalsarikänni.

Kara Elder writes about food and cooking. Her work appears in the Washington Post, Eaten: The Food History Magazine, and more.

How to pack a Norwegian sandwich, the world’s most boring lunch

2019-12-11T14:57:21-05:00

The Norwegian sandwich, called matpakke, is famous for utilitarian simplicity. | Zac Freeland/Vox; Getty Images

It’s a weekday morning, in the dimly lit hour when you meander into your kitchen, blink blearily into the light of the refrigerator, and try to decide what to pack for lunch. You could take leftovers or pile together odds and ends between two slices of bread and call it a sandwich, or, now that you think of it, you have been wanting to try that hummus place around the corner from your office, and — oh, would you look at the time? Your five minutes are up.

If you were in Norway, this would probably never happen: You’d have matpakke. Meaning “packed lunch” in Norwegian, the word refers to a specific, minimalist style of open-faced sandwich that’s easily assembled and eaten every single day by much of the country’s inhabitants.

“Norway doesn’t have a warm lunch tradition,” explains Andreas Viestad, food writer and host of the public television series New Scandinavian Cooking. With the exception of employees at some large companies that offer hot lunches, he adds, traditionally everyone from the lowest-level worker to upper management would eat their own individually wrapped, brought-from-home matpakke.

So what exactly is it? To borrow from the architect Louis Sullivan, matpakke’s form follows its function: The point of these open-faced sandwiches is to provide a quick, easy, somewhat nutritious lunch-time meal that provides sustenance without leaving you too full. They typically consist of two or three slices of bread, smeared lightly with butter, each topped with a single slice of cheese or meat, or perhaps a thin layer of jam, liver paste, or tubed caviar.

And that’s … basically it.

The tradition evolved from the 1930s Oslo Breakfast, a government program that provided a free meal of bread, cheese, milk, half an apple and half an orange to school children at a time when Norway was a poor country. “It’s become a symbol of frugality and egality, but for those who are not big fans, it’s a terrible thing,” says Viestad. “It has many good things to be said about it, but there’s also this element of something a little bit gray and boring.”

“It can be very plain,” confirms food writer Nevada Berg, an American who has traveled to and lived in Norway for the past 15 years (and married a Norwegian). “For outsiders, it can look kind of sad — in the States we’re kind of used to a sandwich that is full. Here it’s the bread, and one little thing. It’s very simple, nothing extravagant at all.”

In this instructional video, Ronald Sagatun, who runs a YouTube channel explaining Norwegian culture with a friend, describes in careful, exacting, hilarious detail how to make a traditional matpakke. “It’s not supposed to taste like anything,” he says while putting a single slice of cheese on buttered bread. “It should be a disappointment when you eat it. You’re not supposed to look forward to your lunch in Norway.” (Do watch the video: While slightly exaggerated for comedic effect, it captures just how plain the matpakke can be.)

Matpakke may seem like the original sad desk lunch, but on the other hand, why must everything we consume be happy and exciting? Surely there is some feeling of stability and comfort that comes from knowing that your lunch will be cheap, simple, and not leave you in need of a nap during working hours. Plus, it might help cut down on the dreaded decision fatigue faced by workers every time lunch rolls around during the week. As Ece Aybike Ala wrote on her experience eating matpakkes, “Maybe then you realize how simply eliminating the decisions on your weekly lunches gives you more mental clarity during the day, the week, the month.”

Here are a few tips for you to make your own Norwegian-style open-faced sandwiches:

Choose a textured bread

You don’t have to spring for the highest-quality artisanal loaf, but do choose bread that has a little flavor and texture from whole wheat or seeds. Berg suggests using knekkebrød, or crispbreads, a.k.a. crackers; she has a recipe on her website, but various types of Scandinavian crackers are widely available for purchase — think Wasa brand — often near packages of the small, dense loaves of German rye bread, made by Mestemacher, which would also do the trick. A loaf of whole-wheat or oatmeal bread from a grocery store’s packaged bread aisle would also work, but avoid the super-processed stuff that reminds you of cardboard. You’ll pack two or maybe three slices of bread, if you anticipate being very hungry.

Take it very easy on the toppings

There is one word in Norwegian that means all the toppings (other than butter) that can go on bread: pålegg. The word applies to sliced meat, cheese, liver spread, jam, caviar — anything that is eaten on a slice of bread. When assembling matpakke, choose one pålegg per slice of bread. “We think the Danish sandwiches are too fancy, a bit too much,” says Sagatun, referring to smørrebrød, or the beautifully composed style of open-faced sandwich that you probably thought this article was going to be about. “The principle is the same,” he says, “but their toppings are too far off. We’d make it more modest.”

To go the traditional route, spread each slice of bread with a thin layer of butter (or whichever butter-like substance you prefer). Then, top each with one slice of meat or one slice of cheese, not both. Brunost, which is a brown cheese sold in blocks as well as pre-sliced, matpakke-sized packages, is a classic. But if you can’t find it, use a slice of your favorite mild cheese.

Cheese from a tube, caviar from a tube, and mackerel with tomato (from a tube or a can) are also popular choices in Norway, along with jam or leverpostei (liver paste), which comes in a can adorned by a smiling child (because in Norway, children eat liver too). You can add some freshness with a piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato, or a little cucumber or sliced bell pepper. “But not too much of it,” says Sagatun, and “not on all of them. But maybe on one.”

If this sounds like a lot of processed food, well, it is. Although it is a land of plentiful fish, moose, deer, wild berries, and foraged foods, Norwegian stores also carry plenty of processed and ready-to-eat foods like frozen pizza and hot dogs. You might consider borrowing the minimal toppings idea and adapting it to include fresher options such as slices of a hard-boiled egg or a few slices of bell pepper.

Whatever you choose to top your bread, it shouldn’t be excessively saucy or heavy. You don’t want the bread to be a soggy mess by the time you eat.

Pack it up with sheets of paper

The topped bread slices are traditionally stacked in between small layers of paper, called mellomleggspapir, that are manufactured for just this purpose. These papers are perhaps the most important component of a traditional matpakke. They allow you to stack the open-faced sandwiches on top of each other while keeping their toppings more or less intact. They also prevent the toppings from mingling with the bottom of the next layer. (Open-faced sandwiches are more common throughout Scandinavia than two slices of bread enclosing various fillings.)

Unless you have a stash of these papers, you can cut pieces of parchment paper to act as buffers between your sandwiches or use small pieces of reusable beeswax food wraps. Then, wrap the stack of topped bread in a large piece of parchment paper, folding it all up like a package to keep the whole thing enclosed. You could also use something like a bento box, good old-fashioned Tupperware, or a large beeswax food wrap.

Eat your lunch without enjoyment, and get back to it

The typical Norwegian workday lunch break is only about 30 minutes. But in general, says Sagatun, Norwegians don’t spend a lot of time eating, often taking only about 10 minutes to eat lunch and even dinner. (This varies and depends on the occasion too, of course.) “My grandmother from the north always said you had to work,” says Sagatun. “So you eat fast, so you can work more, in a way. I think that’s kind of the philosophy behind a lot of our cooking.”

To that end, matpakke are quite practical: Since you eat it every day, you always have the ingredients on hand to make it. You don’t have to spend time meal-prepping, planning or deciding what to make for lunch. Simply unwrap, eat, clean up, and keep working. Their high functionality — and people’s habitual nature — has kept the matpakke tradition thriving.

Perhaps the best part of matpakke is the fact that it is over with so quickly. This sounds like a backhanded compliment, but it’s really a celebration of food as sustenance, pure and simple. It’s not quite so extreme as meal replacers such as Soylent, but these open sandwiches do have a utilitarian flair to them. And in our current culture of hyper-curated, beautiful, and often fussy food, it’s good to be reminded that it’s okay for something to exist purely for function.

Even if it is a bit boring.

Kara Elder writes about food and cooking. Her work appears in the Washington Post, Eaten: The Food History Magazine, and more.

A smarter way to read recipes

2022-11-23T17:14:18-05:00

Part of Issue #5 of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.

If you’re not a frequent cook, browsing through recipes can be an anxiety-riddled affair.

Search for a way to make sesame noodles and you’ll see results promising to be “quick and easy” or “the world’s best” from glossy food magazines, television personalities, and small-time bloggers alike. With so many options, it can be tempting to just quit, open your Seamless app, and order delivery. But learning to follow a recipe is a rewarding life skill. And, at the very least, you will have something to eat.

Written recipes came to prominence once it was no longer the norm to cook side by side with someone more experienced in the kitchen, says journalist and author Toni Tipton-Martin, whose 2015 book, The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, dives deep into the history of recipe-sharing. “Traditionally, you would’ve been standing in the kitchen with your mom or your auntie, who would’ve shown you how to make [a dish],” she says.

Here’s some advice they might have shared: There is no one right way to make a dish; there is only the way that’s right for you. “Cooking is a creative art,” says Tipton-Martin. “There is an inherent science in there, but there’s always room for creativity.” She prefers to think of a recipe as a set of suggestions, rather than rigid rules, and compares different recipes to get a sense of how a dish ought to be made.

As for what to make, you may also find it helpful to take stock of what you have on hand, or let what you find in the produce aisle guide you. “I rarely go shopping with a list to make a certain recipe,” says cookbook author Amjaad Al-Hussain. “I usually just go shopping and see what looks good and then find a recipe from there.”

Once you have one in hand, here’s how to use it:

Consider a recipe’s source

“The newspaper style is to abbreviate and truncate a recipe as much as possible,” says Tipton-Martin. They often omit articles, and the instructions are brief. (Online versions may be more detailed than print, though.) Recipes in cookbooks can be longer, depending on the author; someone like Edna Lewis, who came from an oral, hands-on approach to cooking, can get “really lengthy” with recipes, adds Tipton-Martin. “A lot of words are helpful, but they can also be intimidating to the reader,” she says.

“Don’t be scared by baking recipes that look really, really long,” says cookbook author Genevieve Ko. The recipe writer wants you to succeed — it’s not a long recipe because it’s an intricate 50-layer cake, “it’s because they’re trying to teach you and put in all the detail they can.”

Brian Hogan Stewart, the creator and host of the cookbook podcast Salt + Spine, tends to get recipes from cookbooks rather than online. “Sourcing is important,” he says. “Not to say you can’t get good recipes from the internet,” but consider whether the outlet is likely to have tested it. “Major publications have resources and energy to make sure the recipe is going to work. Same for some bloggers.”

For online recipes, it’s a good idea to read the comments and see how other people have fared. This can be particularly helpful to flag a missing ingredient, omitted oven temperature, or when a recipe mistakenly calls for twice the necessary amount of molasses, turning cookies into sad, goopy puddles. But just because one person had a negative experience doesn’t mean you will; the best way to determine a recipe’s feasibility is to read that recipe for yourself.

Which brings us to the No. 1, clichéd-but-true rule for cooking from a recipe …

Always read the recipe all the way through

Yes, from start to finish. “It’s important to do that before you start cooking but also before you commit to a recipe,” says Hogan Stewart. You might think a roasted chicken is doable on a Monday night, until you realize that the chicken needed to marinate for eight hours before going in the oven.

Reading the recipe in its entirety helps establish that you have everything that’s called for, adds Tipton-Martin, and prevents you from being surprised by a step. “You give yourself a mental picture of what is to come,” she says. “It also helps you visualize the completed dish, even if you’ve never done it before.” Take this time to make sure you have the necessary equipment, too. If you don’t have a stand mixer, maybe that chocolate chunk shortbread recipe isn’t for you.

Another reason to read the recipe closely: Many people don’t realize ingredients are typically listed in the order that they appear in the body of the recipe. It might seem strange — a recipe for whole roasted cauliflower lists a bunch of spices first and the cauliflower last.

Why doesn’t the recipe list the star front and center? “It’s helping you follow the recipe step by step,” says Hogan Stewart. You’ll first mix those spices, and then rub them over the cauliflower. This is also a good indicator of the quality of the recipe. “It shows that the author has thought the process through,” says Tipton-Martin.

Don’t skip the headnote (the paragraph or two before the ingredients list) or any notes on the side or at the end

These provide more context and clues to help you succeed. This is where the author might explain why they are using a particular spice or cut of meat, or tell you about an ingredient substitution you can make. A note might also point you to other recipes or types of dishes to pair with it, to make it a complete meal. “Sometimes it’s a personal thing, or an anecdote, which sort of brings the recipe to life,” says Hogan Stewart. “It might not affect the recipe’s outcome, but knowing its context helps you think about how it matters to the author.”

Technique can be hard to master. It’s okay to turn to YouTube.

“You can and should watch videos,” says Ko. If you’ve never whipped egg whites but a recipe says “whip until stiff peaks form,” how would you know what that means? A video, a GIF, or a few photos can go a long way to help fill in the gaps that a less precise recipe may leave, but try not to be intimidated by them. Some publications and cookbooks have food stylists and photographers to make that food look beautiful. “You shouldn’t expect that you can emulate a professionally styled photograph in your home kitchen,” says Hogan Stewart.

Common recipe terms and what they mean

Measure or chop your ingredients before you start cooking

Known as mise en place, French for “everything in its place,” this time-tested technique is a general truth that will help you make a recipe not only as directed but more efficiently. It’s an especially good rule to follow when you are just starting to cook, because you’re literally setting yourself up for success. Once you become more comfortable with chopping, measuring, and otherwise prepping ingredients, you’ll do so more quickly, even under the pressure of a skillet of sizzling onions that are thisclose to burning.

Employing the strategy of mise en place is particularly useful if you’re making multiple recipes. “When I cook, I make a lot of dishes at once,” says Al-Hussain. “I take everything that needs chopping and wash and chop it all at once. Depending on the recipe, I know I can prep some ingredients as I’m going, like chopping a tomato while something else is cooking.”

Ingredient prep can also be key when baking. Many recipes will call for eggs or butter to be at room temperature, for example, which takes time: Get those ingredients out and let them come to room temperature before you start.

Take note of a recipe’s cooking times but don’t be hampered by them

It’s important to pay attention to descriptors of when something is done or ready to go on to the next stage, says Ko. “Recipe writers are trying to appeal to all your senses — how it should look, taste, smell.” Plus, everyone’s appliances are different: “Medium-high” or “350 degrees” won’t be consistent across the board. “Don’t just set the timer for five minutes and walk away. Stay there with it and follow the visual cues,” says Ko. This also helps you know when to adjust the cooking time or temperature, adds Hogan Stewart. “If it says to sauté the garlic for two minutes or until golden brown, check to make sure it’s not golden brown in 30 seconds, or your [heat] might be too high.”

Most importantly, remember that the recipe is there to help guide you along, not to make you feel like a failure. Once you’re done, not only will you feel more confident but you may just learn something deeper.

Cooking from a recipe is “a way to break down barriers and show that many dishes cross cultures,” says Tipton-Martin. “Recipes have more value than the provision of sustenance.”

Kara Elder writes about food and cooking. Her work appears in The Washington Post, Eaten: The Food History Magazine, and more.