Comfort Cooking/Eating

It has been a weird couple of weeks here. More than one death in my wider family - all completely unrelated to The Thing, but two were very sudden and unexpected - but I'm far too far away to be involved, so instead I just get to stay here and wonder if there's a way you can wrap people in cotton wool from afar. Do let me know. The distance issue is not made worse by current events, because I'm always several hundred miles removed from my family and the chances of my going up for funerals was small even in the Before Times, but it does mean that there are now additional risks that I get to worry about. I know most people have similar kinds of issues, but it doesn't make them any less worry-inducing. 

What this, coupled with the arrival of grey autumn weather, has meant is a lot of cooking of comfort food. I've made a vegetarian shepherd's pie, a fish pie, pollo all cacciatore with orzo - all full of wonderful carbs and comforting cooking processes. Wonderful as Sarah's Persian feast sounds (and I will be copying it), I've not had the mental energy for that sort of thing. My bookmarked recipes from the BBC Good Food website have been my guide, and it's to the internet I've turned again this evening for this - Pork and butter bean stew.

It's simple enough - fry chorizo, then soften onion and garlic in the chorizo oil. Remove from pan and add chopped pork chops (although I used pork steaks), brown them and add the onion/chorizo back in. I added a red pepper early on, and a teaspoon of paprika with some dried thyme to boost the flavour a bit. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock, then cook for 15 minutes. I ended up leaving it 25 because I got distracted. Add your butter beans, or in my case cannellini beans, and cook for a further 10 minutes. It doesn't look very exciting, but it's warming and tastes good. That's a win for the moment.