Any dish containing coconut milk coos “cozy” to me. It adds body and creaminess, of course, but also a little sweetness, so subtle that it plays well with any other flavors in the mix. (Coconut milk is also shelf-stable, so I stock up on cans and cartons whenever they’re on sale — knowing they’re waiting for me in the pantry is a very cozy feeling indeed.)
Kay Chun’s new recipe for fragrant coconut chicken and sweet potato is an excellent example of how coconut milk brings the comfort. Kay adds it at the end of her quick, one-pan dinner so that it coats the sautéed ground chicken, sweet potato and spinach with its trademark creaminess and rounds out the sharp edges of the garlic, ginger and scallions. A last, confident squeeze of lime brings everything together nicely.
Featured Recipe
Fragrant Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato
But Mia, you say — while Kay’s recipe does indeed sound pretty cozy, I want full-on, slipper-socks, Sleepytime-Tea-bear cozy. Understood! Let’s poke through this collection of our best soups and stews, shall we?
This ham and bean soup from Naz Deravian is easy and economical, turning dried white beans and a ham hock into a hearty dinner. And I’m intrigued by this chermoula potato and fish stew, a five-star recipe from Nargisse Benkabbou that, with only about 150 reviews, appears to be flying under the radar. “Phenomenal recipe,” writes Ella, a reader. “The effort to reward ratio is off the charts. The flavors are so fresh yet comforting at the same time. This one is going into the rotation.”
A one-pan skillet dinner is also very cozy, both in the efficiency (everything cooks in one pan) and the satisfying finished product (all the elements are snuggled next to one another). Melissa Clark’s skillet chicken with farro and leeks uses all of those leeks — the green tops are sliced, sautéed and simmered along with the whites to turn meltingly tender. A few of the thinly sliced whites are also reserved for a cherry tomato topping that gives this deeply savory dish a bright bite at the end. Cozy with a kick.
Let’s do cozy vegetarian: Kay’s salsa di noci (walnut sauce pasta) turns the walnuts and a slice of the bread I have stashed in the freezer into a beautiful, luxurious dinner. And I didn’t eat black-eyed peas for the new year, so I’ll eat them now in Zainab Shah’s warming recipe for masala black-eyed peas. (The year still feels pretty new to me, so I think it counts.)
And for dessert, how about a warm bowl of vanilla-scented rice pudding? Here’s a classic recipe from Naz, though I’ve been making mine in my pressure cooker with this recipe from Melissa. To loop back to where we started, I’ve used coconut milk in place of the whole milk and swapped out the optional citrus zest and spices for a couple of pandan leaves tied in a loose knot. The resulting pandan rice pudding was — you guessed it — very cozy.
