Stew on This!

Today's post is on one of my family's favorites: Brunswick Stew. This stew is largely southern in its roots, but beyond that there's a bit of a debate about its origins. There's no really set way to go about making Brunswick Stew; it's basic ingredients consist of tomatoes, lima beans, corn, and okra, but meat and other ingredients vary (seriously, the original recipe called for squirrel). So anyway, this is my family's recipe, and its probably a good bit different than another recipe; that's just the nature of this beast. This recipe goes at least 4 generations back, though I'm sure it's evolved along the way as it passed from cook to cook. Oh, and traditionally this thing is cooked most, if not all, of the day; that's why it's a stew.  So, plan accordingly and start no later than noon.

What You'll Need

Supplies

1 big stock pot or iron kettle                                   Knife for chopping and dicing

1 long cooking spoon                                               Measuring cups (liquid and dry)

Cutting board                                                          Measuring spoons

Ingredients

64 oz broth                                                              2 sticks butter

52 oz diced tomatoes                                               40 oz chicken, shredded (2 1/2 lbs)

4 onions, diced                                                         1 cup apple cider vinegar

32 oz frozen lima beans                                           1 cup sugar

32 oz frozen corn                                                     1/2 cup ketchup

24 oz potatoes, chopped                                           2 Tbsp mustard

10 stalks celery, finely minced                                6 cloves of garlic, minced

16 oz frozen okra                                                     Salt and pepper, to taste

Now Let's Make Brunswick Stew!

Before we begin, I have a few notes on ingredients, since, as I've said, the ingredients in Brunswick Stew are by no means set.  For the meat, you want to make sure to use something that can be shredded.  You can achieve that by boiling a chicken (hey presto, you've got your broth, too!), or by using leftover smoked chicken, like I did.  Or, you can do a combination of meats; sometimes I add in pulled pork barbecue.  It's up to you and your taste. Also, if you have the veggies for this recipe hanging around fresh, that's awesome! (I don't, and I'm cheap, and I'm lazy).

Finely minced, as it should be

To start, we need to do some prep work.  You may notice that some of those ingredients have additional descriptions attached, and it's time to make those happen.

• If you haven't already shredded your chicken, do so now.  If it's easy to do, just pull it apart with your hands, being mindful to weed out any bones (especially those long prickly dangerous ones).  If you can't use your hands, or are using cooked chicken breast, pull a fork along the meat to begin the shredding process.  Set the meat aside. 
• Chop and dice your 4 onions, wipe your eyes and set them aside. 
• Chop up your potatoes into small, bite-size chunks.  Don't bother peeling them, but do wash them ahead of time. Set the potatoes aside.  
• Now, take your 10 stalks of celery and dice them up. Now mince, mince I say,  until it's very fine. (I hate celery but know it adds necessary flavor; mincing it fine makes it less noticeable). Set the celery aside.  
• If you need to, mince the garlic and set it aside, too. (I always use the jarred, pre-minced stuff).

Take a deep breath, the prep work is done.  Put your big stock pot on the stove, and add the broth to it (veggie or chicken broth, I'm not picky).  Set the heat to medium-high, which is about a 7 on my stove.  Add your cans of diced tomatoes, juice included.  Then add the add your veggies: onions, limas, corn, potatoes, celery, and okra.  Give it a stir, stirring from bottom to top, scraping the bottom of the pot to prevent sticking.  Cut the 2 sticks of butter into chunks, dropping them into the stew as you go. (stop cringing at the amount of butter and look at all those veggies!).

I forgot a picture when the meat
went in, so you get potatoes.

Once this mixture has heated through, add your meat and stir it in thoroughly.  Let the stew cook for a while.  Stir it regularly during this interval, making sure to stir from the bottom to prevent sticking.  When the veggies are soft enough, begin mashing them up whenever you stir until you've got a thick mush.  It's okay if some of the veggies are still in good shape; you just want a large portion to be mashed up.

After the stew has reached the aforementioned mashed state, add the vinegar and sugar, and stir them in thoroughly. Then add the ketchup and mustard (yes, that's right ketchup and mustard. Shut up! It's tasty). Stir these in well.  Lastly, add the minced garlic and salt and pepper, to taste, and stir them in well.  Reduce the heat to a low setting so that the stew will simmer. Continue to cook for at least an hour before serving, but keep in mind that the longer it cooks, the better the flavor will be.

Brunswick Stew with Irish Soda Bread

Serve with a thick slice of bread. I recommend Irish Soda Bread without the raisins, as it's thick heartiness suits Brunswick stew particularly well.  If you have any leftover stew (and you will, unless you're feeding a horde), you can store some for leftovers and freeze the rest.  This stew freezes really well, and it's great to be able to pull some out during the winter.

 

Sugar and Spice

And yes, both items are ingredients in today's recipe post on Spiced Sausage and Rice. (You can just stop "eeewww"ing about the sugar in a sausage dish).  This is one of those dishes you make when you realize that you're going to have to make do with what's on hand because you were to busy (read, lazy) to go grocery shopping.  This particular dish came out of a throw-something-together night with friends; it turned out so well that I have since taken it and tweaked it until it was an actual recipe.  The recipe below serves 2 - 3 people without side dishes and can be easily doubled if needed.

What You'll Need

Supplies

1 medium pan                                                                 1 cutting board

1 small pot                                                                      1 knife for slicing

1 cooking spoon                                                              1 knife for chopping

Measuring cups

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice                                                          1/2 Tbsp ground cardamom

5 chicken sausages                                                         1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 small yellow onion*                                                     Dash ground coriander

1/2 red or green bell pepper*                                         Small dash ground cloves

1 small handful light brown sugar                                 Olive oil

Now Let's Make Spiced Sausage and Rice

Double, double, toil and trouble

Measure out 1 cup of rice and set it to the side of the stove to be on hand later (or, you know, run around like a chicken with its head cut off like I do when I forget to measure out the rice, either way). Measure out 1 3/4 cup water and pour it into your small pot.  You can also follow the instructions on the back of the rice bag, but I find you get a dryer rice if you reduce the water by 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  Set the pot on the stove and turn heat to high to bring water to a boil.  Once water is boiling add rice and stir once.

Uncovered rice is indecent

Cover the rice and reduce heat to 2 or 3.  Now you can ignore the rice for a little while, fluffing it with a fork occasionally until done.  Meanwhile, get out your cutting board and peel and dice the small onion.  Put a smidge of olive oil into the medium pan and set the heat to medium.  Add the onions and saute.  While the onions are cooking, cut the bell pepper in half, saving one half for a later date.  Remove the core and seeds from the remaining half and dice it.  Add to medium pan to saute. ("why are there no pictures of this step?" you ask.  Because I needed to go to the store so badly that I didn't have them on hand. Fortunately onions and bell peppers are optional ingredients).

Chicken sausage sounds a little wrong

While the onions and peppers are sauteing, slice the chicken sausage into small dials about 1/3 of an inch thick.  I like to use an off-brand italian chicken sausage, since the "italian" part of that seems to mostly consist of peppers. Also, I find that the seasoning is light enough to compliment the dish. When you're done slicing the sausage, add it to the sauteing vegetables (they should be pretty tender by now).  Use your cooking spoon to move the ingredients around the pan occasionally as you saute to ensure even cooking and prevent scorching.

Just ignore the lack of onions/peppers

Add the 1/2 Tbsp cardamom, 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon, dash of coriander, and small dash of cloves. (And I do mean a small dash, unless you want your tongue to go numb).  You can also add a sprinkle of salt to taste if you'd like.  Stir in the spices until the meat and vegetables are fairly evenly coated.  Now add a small handful of brown sugar to the mixture.  In terms of my hands, this equals about 1/4 cup, maybe a little less. Mix this into the sausage and vegetables until they are evenly coated.  By now you should have a thick, slightly goopy (from the sugar) sauce in the pan. Once the sausage is cooked through, reduce heat to low.

Back, foul demon!

Don't forget to fend off any hungry gatos that might be stalking you during the cooking process.  The black ones are especially dangerous, due to their ninja-like camouflage.  I caught this one deviously eyeing my back as I sauteed the sausage, attracted by the scent of raw meat and licking his chops.  But I'm on to their wily ways. (It also helped that he was perched on a white washer and dryer, but still).

I've nothing funny to say about rice

Now, check your rice. Hopefully it's nice and dry and fluffy (see the pretty picture to the right).  If, however, it is not dry and fluffy and there is instead water in the pot still, then your rice is not done yet. The key is to cook the rice until the water has been completely absorbed by the grains.  If your rice does not seem to be doing this, try slightly increasing the heat (I said SLIGHTLY!).  Keep the rice covered as it cooks, and be careful to watch it closely, since you don't want to burn the rice in the bottom of the pot.

To serve, dish rice onto the center of a plate or into a bowl.  Top with the sausage, and nom.

    Follow @TheBookPantry