#winter
12 viral recipes tagged #winter.
-
Bigos — ensopado de caça polonês
Poland's national stew: sauerkraut and fresh cabbage slow-cooked for hours with a mix of pork, smoked kielbasa and bacon, dried mushrooms, prunes and a hint of red wine. Deep, smoky and sour-savoury, bigos famously tastes better each time it's reheated — a true make-ahead winter classic.
-
Käsespätzle — nhoque de ovo com queijo dos Alpes
The Alps' answer to mac and cheese: tender homemade egg-noodle spätzle layered with melting mountain cheese and crowned with a heap of deeply caramelised onions. Rich, savoury and irresistibly comforting — a one-pan classic of southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
-
Sauerbraten — assado alemão marinado
Germany's national pot roast: a beef joint steeped for days in a tangy red-wine-and-vinegar marinade with juniper and cloves, then slowly braised until fork-tender. The braising liquid is thickened — traditionally with crushed gingerbread (Lebkuchen) — into a sweet-sour gravy that's pure comfort over potato dumplings and red cabbage.
-
Rinderrouladen — rolinhos de carne alemães
The Sunday-roast classic of German home cooking: thin slices of beef smeared with mustard, layered with bacon, onion and pickle, rolled up and braised low in red wine until fork-tender. The braising liquid becomes a deep, glossy gravy. Served with potato dumplings and red cabbage, it's the comforting centrepiece of countless German family tables.
-
Gołąbki — charutos de repolho poloneses
Poland's beloved stuffed cabbage rolls: tender blanched cabbage leaves wrapped around a savoury filling of pork (or pork and beef) and rice, then baked low in a tomato or mushroom sauce until meltingly soft. Hearty, homey and a fixture of family gatherings and holidays — even better reheated the next day.
-
Cassoulet — caçarola francesa de feijão branco e carnes
The great slow-cooked casserole of southwest France: creamy white beans baked for hours with sausage, pork and confit duck until rich and unctuous, under a golden, repeatedly-pressed-down breadcrumb crust. Named after the cassole dish it's cooked in, cassoulet is rustic, deeply savoury winter food — a labour of love that rewards patience.
-
Bœuf bourguignon — ensopado de carne à moda da Borgonha
The great Burgundian beef stew: chunks of beef braised slowly in red wine with bacon lardons, pearl onions and mushrooms until the meat is fork-tender and the sauce is deep, glossy and profound. Made famous beyond France by Julia Child, bœuf bourguignon is humble peasant cooking elevated by patience — a dish that tastes even better the next day.
-
Ossobuco à milanesa — músculo de vitela braseado
Milan's great braise: thick cross-cut veal shanks browned and slowly simmered with soffritto, white wine and broth until the meat is fork-tender and the marrow in the bone turns silky. Finished with gremolata — a bright hit of raw lemon zest, garlic and parsley — osso buco alla Milanese is traditionally served with saffron risotto (risotto alla Milanese). It's elegant, deeply savoury winter food that rewards a long, gentle cook.
-
Pot-au-feu — cozido francês de carne e legumes
France's great one-pot of home cooking: cuts of beef gently poached for hours with marrow bones and a garden of vegetables — carrots, leeks, turnips, celery — until everything is tender and you have a clear, deeply savoury broth. Pot-au-feu is two courses in one pot: the fragrant bouillon served first with toasted bread, then the beef and vegetables with coarse salt, mustard, cornichons and marrow on toast. Rustic, frugal and quietly luxurious.
-
Schweinebraten — pernil assado bávaro com pele crocante
Bavaria's beloved Sunday roast: a joint of pork (often shoulder) with a scored rind, roasted slowly with onions, carrots and caraway and basted with dark beer until the meat is tender and the skin crackles into glassy crackling (Kruste). The flavourful pan juices become a rich, dark gravy. Schweinebraten is the centrepiece of the beer garden and the family table, traditionally served with bread or potato dumplings (Knödel) and sauerkraut or a cabbage salad.
-
Locro — ensopado argentino de milho e feijão
The hearty, slow-simmered national stew of Argentina (and the Andes): white hominy corn and beans cooked for hours with squash, several cuts of pork and beef, chorizo and tripe until thick, creamy and deeply savoury. Locro is the dish of cold days and national holidays — above all May 25th and July 9th — ladled into bowls and crowned with a spicy quiajillo-and-paprika oil (salsa de grasa colorada). It's communal, warming, frugal cooking that turns humble ingredients into a feast.
-
Tartiflette — gratinado saboiano de batata, bacon e Reblochon
The molten Alpine comfort dish of the French Savoie: sliced potatoes and lardons cooked with onion, layered in a dish and topped with a whole Reblochon cheese cut in half, which melts down through everything in the oven into a bubbling, golden, gooey gratin. A splash of white wine and a little crème fraîche enrich it. Tartiflette is après-ski food — rich, warming and unapologetically indulgent — and although it feels timeless, it was popularised in the 1980s to sell more Reblochon. Few dishes say 'cold day in the mountains' so deliciously.