HUNGRY GERALD

No snow. No white Christmas. The big presents and feasting extravaganza is a few days away and the weather is cold. HG, age 94, has a need for warming comfort food. BSK (Top flight home cook) meets the challenge. One night, BSK does a riff on Melissa Clark’s (NY Times) “Red Lentil Soup.”The ingredients are red lentils, mmonions, tomato paste, cumin, garlic, chicken broth, salt & pepper,a roughly chopped carrot; olive oil (for drizzling). The soup is a puree with some chunky bits in it for texture. When completed, it gets abundant squeezes of lemon (plus the olive oil). Farewell chills. This is a great comforting  (but exotic) soup somehow evocative of many cultures. Red wine, a baguette, and endive salad were the table mates. The next night was New England style, BSK made a chowder “chowda”. No milk or cream or flour or other dread ingredients that find their way into many regional “chowdas.” BSK  simmers BSK’s version in a tangy mix of clam broth and vegetable broth, Ingredients are simple–mainly cod, potatoes and onions. It’s a wonderful dish. Its splendor is derived from BSK’s adroit handling of the fish and potatoes–not too soft but just right. The secret of BSK’s triumph over winter chills is Aleppo pepper. BSK adds it to both soups to bring up the picante level.  (HG gilds the lily by making a bowl of mayonnaise mixed with an over the top amount of sriracha). Take that, Jack Frost !!!