Comfort foods that make the holidays

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas — or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Ramadan — now is the time of year when food takes on a whole other layer of meaning. 

After all, winter holidays are all about traditions, for better (latkes) or worse (fruitcake), and holiday food is atop an ever shrinking list of things that bind together the generations. Why do you serve turkey or tamales? Probably because Mom or Grandma did.  Taking the time to serve them is about so much more than just making a feast. It's a sign that we respect our roots, that tradition isn't simply a matter of buying gifts and mailing cards.

We thought it was time to consider some foods with true personal significance: long-loved dishes that link us with our pasts, or recently discovered ones that offer a chance to forge traditions anew. That makes these true holiday foods in the most essential way.  —Jon Bonné

Rice pudding
As a lonely international graduate student 13 years ago, I found myself unimaginably alone on an empty campus. It was Christmas, and everyone but me had gone home. Home was two oceans away in India so I had to stay put that season. TV, radio, newspapers and magazines buzzed with photographs and articles on family festivities of the season.

As I withdrew into my shell, I remembered mom’s velvety rice pudding being a must at Indian holidays back home each autumn during Diwali, the Indian festival of lights. Nostalgia is a comforting partner on lonely days and I found myself making rice pudding.

As the warm milk enveloped the rice and the sugar thickened the dish, the sweet smell took me back home. As I crushed the cardamom to garnish the dish, the way my grandmother had taught me, their spirit seemed with me. I did not feel so alone anymore.

Later that night, I ate my pudding complete with slivered almonds, crushed cardamom and a lighter heart.  It has been a must at our holiday table since that lonesome night. —Monica Bhide

French onion soup
I always thought the French onion soup we made during the holidays came from my mother's French-Canadian roots.

In truth, she and my father made it once, and it stuck. I've continued what they began. I crafted a vegetarian version for my future wife during our first Christmas together, but now she's reformed and I can make it with the traditional beef stock.

I spend all day making the rich, savory liquid and slow-cooking the onions until they're a deep russet. I top the soup with a thick piece of sourdough and slices of Gruyère, and then pass it under the broiler until the cheese is hot and bubbly. We pour a good Beaujolais, and dig in.  —Derrick Schneider

Bubble and squeak
Slide up to the sturdy farm table at my friend’s house on Boxing Day and you’ll be served fried Brussels sprouts and mashers with a little turkey drippings, otherwise known as bubble and squeak.

There’s no match for leftover mashed potatoes fried in a cast-iron skillet with those tiny cabbages, the edges crispy and browned, then drizzled with last night’s gravy. Apparently named after the noise it makes when cooked, this dish dates back hundreds of years in England, where it traditionally is served the day after Sunday roast dinner as a way to use up leftovers.

Back home in Big Sur, Calif., it is an annual event the day after Christmas. Not even noon and there we are, family and friends huddled around the massive stove — poking our noses and fingers in the pots, fork at the ready, waiting for our plate of food. —Romney Steele

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