The rain is blowing sideways, your job sucks, you’re tired and hungry... but you know what will help, don’t you? A huge portion of your favourite comfort food.
Irish News journalists have shared their go-to comfort foods, from soup to toasties and a pasta broth known as Italian Pencillin.
Do share your favourite comfort food with us here
Quesadillas - William Scholes
For something to be classed as a comfort food, it surely has to be quick and easy to make. It must be able to be created spontaneously. Where’s the comfort in something that might make you feel warm and cosy but takes hours to prepare and cook?
I can’t remember where we first came across quesadillas, but they’ve been a go-to in our house for years.
Grab a bowl, grate a load of cheese into it and throw in anything else you fancy - various combinations of onion or spring onion, tomato, garlic and peppers usually find their way into ours. Add black pepper, chilli flakes, or whatever else takes your fancy, and mix it all up.
Get a dry frying pan super-hot, and place a soft tortilla wrap on it. Evenly spread some of your cheese mixture on to the warming wrap, and put another wrap on top. As your mixture starts to melt, you’ll need to flip it over so the other side gets a chance to crisp up. When you’re happy with the melt-to-crispiness ratio of your concoction, slide it onto a bread board, cut into quarters and devour - while making more...
My mum’s soup - Maeve Connolly
A big part of what makes something a comfort dish surely has to be nostalgia. Sadly, sometimes the memory of a dish is miles better than the reality. Is there anything more disappointing than getting hold of something you remember from childhood as being ambrosia and nectar, tasting it as an adult and realising you never want to repeat the experience? The prosecution presents Exhibit A - Coke floats.
Happily, one dish that has remained constant throughout my life is my mum’s soup. A sturdy base of diced veg, hearty chicken stock and - let’s face it - ladles of love make this a bowl of delicious and nutritious comfort food. Thanks mum.
Read more: 7 podcasts recommended by our journalists
Super Nova: Belfast Italian offers a taste of St Mark’s Square from behind Marks & Spencer
Crabsticks - Kevin Farrell
There was a beautiful time in my life when the entire world arguably revolved around crabsticks.
Shellfish equals seafood equals goodness equals happiness was the algorithm that massaged all of my crustaceous dopamine receptors.
Then someone told me it wasn’t even seafood, mate. Then someone different told me it probably wasn’t even food, mate.
Did I stop buying crabsticks like money was growing on wet rocks before inhaling them like a fruit machine eats pensioners’ pennies in Portrush midweek? No. No, I didn’t.
There’s just something about pulverised white fish substitute and starch cured to resemble the leg meat of snow crab or Japanese spider crab that I can’t quite put my claw on – even if my constitution doesn’t always thanks me for the binge these days.
Does my entire life still revolve around crabsticks? Possibly not. Yet deep-sea research reveals that an Ohio woman smashed the world record for crabstick eating in 2007 by devouring 69 sticks in two minutes. I can only think ‘Sarah’ needed a 30-second hiatus at some stage of the operation to ponder life choices... or to look for more moreish boat trash.
Read more: Recipes from the Irish News
Egg toasties - Allan Preston
Like remote working and zoom calls, an unexpected legacy of the pandemic for me has been fried egg toasties. Working at home for around a year, my kitchen table usually had both a laptop and a moses basket beside it with my then newborn son fast asleep.
Especially on cold winter days, a hot cup of coffee had to be accompanied by a specific combination of two fried eggs, extra mature cheddar cheese, butter and red onion chutney in between toasted slices of the chunkiest brown bread available.
Normal life has resumed after the pandemic, but the muscle memory of the lockdown cocoon has meant the appeal of the simple egg toastie has survived.
Pastina – Liam Grimley
One of the perks of having a partner with Italian heritage is the food that I never would have thought to try otherwise. One of these is a delightful dish called pastina. Sometimes dubbed as Italian Penicillin, it is a dish made up of tomato broth and stelline pasta and will cure most ailments, hence the unofficial title.
It’s very versatile and simple, you can make it more pasta-based or more broth-based depending on taste and can take as little as six minutes to make. This dish makes you sink back in your chair with comfort. I would challenge anyone to give it a go and tell me that they’d rather have spaghetti hoops.
Granda’s Vegetable Soup - Caoimhe Quinn-McCullough
When the temperatures dropped, we would often be greeted by my Granda Bobby’s huge soup pot on top of the stove when we called by, signalling a treat to a bowl of his famous soup.
Despite containing chicken, we still affectionately refer to it as Granda’s vegetable soup. The secret lay in cooking over a low heat for hours on end which was something I wasn’t keen on as a child but can appreciate as an adult.
20 years on from his passing the recipe lives on and remains one we turn to for comfort from the cold or feeling under the weather.