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.

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How Do You Like Them Apples

Personally, I prefer mine in pie form.  It's certainly the right time of year for it, since seasonal apples abound.  If at all possible, you want to make this from fresh apples when they're in season.  It'll yield a much better flavor that way.  This weekend, my father and I took a trip up to a local orchard to invest in apples, apple cider, and other items of appley goodness.  If you're lucky enough to have a local grower, I strongly encourage you to make a visit: you'll be helping a local business and get fresh produce at good prices to boot!  This particular recipe for a lattice-work apple pie is really easy, but I warn you it's a lot less precise than my previous postings.

What You'll Need

Supplies

2 pie plates                                                                            1 knife for slicing

1 peeler                                                                                  1 large bowl

1 cutting board

Ingredients

6-7 apples                                                                             All-purpose flour

4 pie crusts (that's two boxes of pre-made)                         Brown sugar

Ground cinnamon

Now Let's Make Apple Pie

Neat and trim

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line each pie plate with a crust, making sure that it fits perfectly against the bottom and sides of the dish.  Trim off any excess crust that hangs past the edge of the plate.  You can save this if you have a recipe that enables you to use it immediately (like a fruit turnover if you have extra apple or other fruit), you could save it for a decorative finishing touch, or if there's not very much, you can toss it. Put the crusts into the oven for a about 9 minutes, until they are just barely cooked: no longer raw, but no where near brown. A note about the crusts, for this go round, I used boxed crusts, because I was 1) feeling lazy and 2) didn't have the time to make them from scratch.  You may either make the crusts from scratch or buy them from the grocery, just make sure you have enough for two bottom crusts and two top crusts.  If you choose boxed crusts, get Pillsbury, they're only a few cents more and the off-brand doesn't brown properly. (and we can't have subpar pie floating around)

Golden Delicious and Winesap

Once the crusts are done, set them aside to cool.  Now comes the labor intensive part: prepping all those apples.  The ratio is about 3 to 3.5 apples per pie, and this recipe makes two pies.  You want to choose at least two different apple types that are excellent for baking purposes, so that's about three of each type.  This time I used Golden Delicious and Winesap; these apples are good for both baking and eating (so I know any extras will get nommed instead of wasted).  This combination gets a nice sweet apple pie, if you want a tarter pie I recommend using a Granny Smith as one of your apples.

Peeeeeeeel

Using your peeler, peel each apple thoroughly. I like to do this sitting in front of a good show with a plastic sack for peels in my lap, but that's just me.  I like to do the next steps in the apple prep one apple at a time.  On the cutting board, quarter each apple and then slice off the part of the core that is on each quarter. Then, place each quarter so that it can stably lay on one of its sides and thinly slice up the apple.  Place the sliced apples in your large bowl as necessary to clear room on the cutting board. Repeat this process for each apple, and make sure to fend off any apple-loving cats while you're at it.

Final layer with brown sugar

Fetch your cooled pie crusts.  For each pie, dust the bottom with flour. Add a layer of apples; make sure to cover the entire bottom of the pie, overlapping a little if needed. Follow this with a layer of liberally dashed cinnamon, another dusting of flour, and a slight sprinkle of brown sugar.  Repeat this process once more, starting with the apples, to create a second layer.  For the last layer (it should be the third), do a layer of apples and a layer of cinnamon. Instead of the flour, liberally sprinkle the entire top of the pie with brown sugar; this should be a much more significant amount than the barely noticeable sprinkle of previous layers. (Yes, I know these amounts are incredibly vague)

Now it's time to create the lattice-work top crust; you'll want to do this one pie at a time.  Take the top crust and roll it out over your cutting board.  Slice the crust into long strips that are about 3/4 of an inch wide.  Place strips less than an inch apart going across the pie one way.  Seal the strips along on side of the pie, leaving the other end of the strips unsealed.  Peal them back. One at a time, add strips that travel across the pie perpendicularly to the other strips. Seal the strip to one side and then weave this strip in as you lay it across the pie by alternately laying the peeled back strips either under or over the strip you're working with.  When you reach the other side, seal the strip your working with (both sides should be sealed) and peel back the other strips again.  Repeat, spacing your strips a little less than an inch apart until you reach the other side of the pie.  Seal the pealed back strips to their side of the pie.  Fold any excess crust from the strips along the inner edge of the pie and then seal the entire edge using a fork. (Now would be the time to add any other decorative flourishes you might have planned)

Mmmmm... pie!

Bake the pies at 350F for about 30 - 40 minutes, until the crusts are golden brown.  Let cool a bit, then slice and serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (or both!)

And, just for a little fun (also he's threatened me with claw-filled violence if I don't), here is some photographic evidence of my cat's obsession with apples.

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Titles are Cheesy

And really, who doesn't like cheese; it's a food group all on its own as far as I'm concerned.  Today's post features my recipe for pimento cheese. Pimento cheese is a primarily Southern food, often eaten in sandwich form on white bread.  It can also be used as a spread on crackers (my favorite), or, really, anywhere sliced cheese might make an appearance: hamburgers, grilled cheese, etc.  Growing up, I remember my mother eating pimento cheese sandwiches regularly, which I thought was disgusting (cause pimentos are weird and icky, duh).  Clearly I got over this and my southern roots proved true, because I certainly love the stuff now.  A word of caution, however, do not take the easy route and buy pimento cheese in a tub from the grocery (cause that will always be disgusting); this is one recipe that has to be homemade.

What You'll Need

Supplies

1 large mixing bowl                                                         A beloved mixing spoon

Measuring spoons                                                            Cling wrap or sealed container

Cutting board                                                                   Knife of choice

Ingredients

16 ounce block of sharp cheddar                                      1/2 tsp ground red pepper

7-8 ounce jar of diced pimentos                                        2 Tbsp mayonnaise

6 Tbsp sour cream                                                            Cracked pepper to taste

4 green onions

Now Let's Make Pimento Cheese

Mmmmmm... cheese!

Shred the entire 16 oz block of cheddar (do not use reduced fat, blegh) into your large mixing bowl. Try not to press down to much on the cheese while you do this; you don't want to squish or compact it - it needs to stay fluffy and shredded.  Also, do not attempt to take a short cut by using already shredded cheese, as this won't mix into the spread properly.  Whatever they do to packaged shredded cheese forces it to stay in little shredded pieces, and this will ruin your pimento cheese. (You don't want to ruin your pimento cheese, do you? DO YOU?!)

Sliced, not diced

Set your bowl of cheesy goodness (aka the shredded cheese) aside.  Place your four green onions onto your cutting board. It's okay if the onions each have multiple stalks; count out your four based on the roots not the tops.  Slice up your onions by starting at the green top and thinly slicing your way down to the white base.  Once you get to white part of the onion, stop slicing and discard the base.  You can slice your onions either one at a time or all together, whichever you're most comfortable with. Scrape your sliced onions into your bowl of cheese.

Already looks tasty

To your bowl of hand-shredded cheese (please tell me you didn't shred your hand!) and onions, add 6 Tbsp (some heaping) of sour cream and 1/2 tsp of ground red pepper. Most often, pimento cheese is made using mostly mayonnaise, but I don't really like too much mayo.  I find that using sour cream enhances the flavor and texture of the spread. I usually use light Daisy sour cream, as that brand has the best flavor and texture hands down. Using light sour cream will not effect the flavor of the pimento cheese at all, and will cut the calories significantly since you're reducing the amount of fat in the recipe.

Broken down. *sniffle*

Mix this all together until the cheese breaks down completely, transitioning from shredded to a more spread-like texture.  It's really important that you make sure all the cheese breaks down. Any remaining pockets of shredded cheese will effect the quality and texture of your spread.  It will also inhibit the mixing in of later ingredients. So, mix! (*cracks whip*)

Is pimentoey a word?

When your done mixing, drain the jar of pimentos by holding the lid partially open and tipping it over the sink. Try to drain away as much of the liquid as possible, but don't fret over it too much.  You won't be able to get all the liquid out, and it will add flavor to the pimento cheese.  Also, a small amount of liquid will help keep the spread from being too dry, which means you won't have to add as much mayo in the next step (which equals less fat). Add the pimentos to the cheese spread and mix in well; you want the pimentos to be even throughout the spread, without clumps.

I swear it gets prettier

Now, add about 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise (more if spread is dry) and the cracked pepper.  I use the new mayo made with olive oil, as this reduces fat but doesn't effect the flavor of the mayo or the spread.  If you don't have fresh peppercorns around just waiting to be cracked, don't worry about it.  Regular pepper will work just as well.  Be careful not to overdo it; you don't want to forget that you've already added some red pepper, which adds a good bit of spice.  I probably add 2-3 tsps of black pepper, but it's hard to tell, since I usually just eyeball it.  Anyway, mix the mayo and pepper in well.

Once your done mixing, you can either scrape the sides of the bowl and cover it with cling wrap, or you can scrape the pimento cheese in a tupperware container.  Either way, you'll want to refrigerate your cheese for at least an hour or two before serving in order to let the spread set. to the right consistency.  Serve your pimento cheese in the manner of your choice: sandwich triangles (if you're feeling fancy), grilled ham and cheese, hamburgers, cheese and crackers.  I chose a selection of crackers for my pimento cheese (but let's not kid ourselves, it's just a means of conveying the pimento cheese to your mouth). Of the crackers, I think Ritz pairs the best.  Whatever you're method, you're ready to nom away.

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Oh Snap!

Gingersnaps that is.  Today's post is going to delve into the food side of the blog.  I thought I'd start with one of my absolute favorite cookies.  Fall has definitely been in the air here in the South lately, which puts me in the mood for baking.  I can feel my annual holiday cookie frenzy just around the corner. (Just ignore my twitch.)

What You'll Need

Supplies

1 medium mixing bowl                                                     1 large mixing bowl
Measuring cups and spoons                                             1 cookie sheet (nonstick)
A whisk or sifter                                                              A beloved mixing spoon

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour                                                   1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground ginger                                                      3/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 tsp baking soda                                                             1 cup sugar + some for rolling
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon                                                          1 egg
1/2 tsp ground cloves                                                      1/4 cup molasses

Now Let's Make Cookies (Mmmmmm... coooookiess)
To start, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. This is the hardest part; seriously, I always forget.

Whisk, whisk, whisk!

Now, in your medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.  You may also choose to sift the ingredients together, but I usually choose whisking because it's less messy and just as effective.  (Also, I have no idea where my sifter is at the moment.  Heh heh).  Set the dry ingredients aside.

Effectively beaten shortening

Beaten til fluffy. Violence!

In your large mixing bowl,  beat the shortening until it's soft.  Try to keep it in a concentrated area of the bowl.  The more it spreads out, the more scraping of sides you'll have to do later when you're trying to mix in all the other ingredients.  Since it's vegetable shortening it should already be fairly soft, unless you have been storing it somewhere cold.

Now you're going to add that cup of sugar.  Gradually.  I usually do this at about 1/4 cup at a time, measuring as I go, but you're welcome to choose your increments; the important thing is to not just dump it all in there.  After each addition, beat the sugar into the shortening.  By the time you're through, the mixture should be light and fluffy.

Add the egg and molasses. Mix this in thoroughly; you don't want any pockets of liquid. (There was going to be a photo for this step, but it looked a wee bit gross on film, so I refrained. You're welcome.)

This is nothing like chocolate chip

Grab your flour mix from earlier in the recipe and dump it onto the shortening mixture.  Again, mix this in thoroughly; there should be no pockets of flour or excessively dry bits.  I do this with my favorite (and well loved) mixing spoon, pictured above; however, you could easily do this with a mixer set to medium low.  It's a dryer batter, so I prefer low tech here.  When you're done, you should have a stiff, caramel colored batter.  Scrape any remaining batter off your spoon and into the bowl.

Set your dough to one side.  Take your flour bowl and wipe out any remnants of the dry ingredients.  Add about 1/4 cup of sugar to the bowl. If you haven't washed your hands yet (for shame!), do so now as you'll be handling the dough quite a bit. Pinch off a small amount of dough and roll it between your hands to form a ball 1" in diameter.  If the dough is falling apart, squish it a few times in your hand before rolling it into a ball. Place it in the sugar bowl.

Roll the ball in the sugar until it is lightly but evenly coated in sugar granules.  I usually do about three balls at a time, but there's no firm rule.  Once the ball is covered, place it on a cookie sheet.  Your dough balls should be placed at least an inch to and inch and a half apart on your sheet.  Repeat this process until your dough is gone.  The recipe should yield about two sheets worth of cookies.

Bake each sheet in the oven at 350F for about 9-10 minutes.  I bake one sheet at a time, as it typically yields more uniform results, and you are less likely to burn or undercook your sheet of cookies. The cookies will be

Cooling Cookies

quite soft when fresh out of the oven and will have cracking surfaces.  Let it sit on the tray for a few seconds to solidify and then remove the cookies to cool.  If you're lucky enough to have a cooling rack, place the cookies there.  However, paper towels on top of a clean counter work just as well and have the added benefit of absorbing any greasiness. As the cookies cool, they will harden into their snappy goodness and you can place them in a convenient container.

Noms

Now you're ready to settle down on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket with a good book and a plate of homemade gingersnaps by your side. NOM!

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