In order to try to help them get settled in back at home, a number of their friends, mostly friends from St. John's, have been taking them meals every night. Last night was my turn, and so that's what today's posting is all about.
For some time now I've been wanting to make some kind of chicken stew. I often times get these ideas in my head and mull them over for weeks or months before every getting around to making them. What I'd actually had in my head for some time was Brunswick Stew, which is a Southern mish-mash of meats and potatoes, corn and other vegetables. In the old days, good Brunswick Stew was often made chicken and squirrel, but most of the recipes I found called for a combination of chicken and beef (I suppose squirrel does not fit into the urban palate)). I've looked at a couple of recipes for Brunswick Stew over the last few months, but none them spoke to me. So, last week when I was asked to prepare foor for Jackie and Beth, my mind immediately settled on the idea of some kind of chicken stew. I gave up on the idea of Brunswick Stew and looked around for ideas for a simple chicken stew. No squirrel for me, thank you.
I found a excellent recipe on Epicurious.com for chicken and corn stew, flavored with thyme. It was perfect--thick, creamy, rich and delicious! Here's the recipe from Gourmet:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108728
And, here's a picture of the stew while it was still on the stove:
The best thing I could think of to accompany the stew was cornbread, so I dug out one of my favorite cornbread recipes from Edna Lewis's and Scott Peacock's The Gift of Southern Cooking. There's no sugar in this recipe, so it's not sweet. It's an old-fashioned southern cornbread, and the recipe calls for using sour milk (I used buttermilk as a substitute for the soured milk). As with all good cornbread, this recipe suggests using a cast iron pan or skillet, so I used Lou's cast iron pan.
Here's the recipe:
1 1/2 cup fine-ground cornmeal
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 cup soured milk or buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Preheat Oven to 450 degrees
Mix the cornmeal, salt and baking powder together in a bowl. Stir the milk into beaten eggs, and pour over the dry ingredients in batches, stirring vigorously to make a smooth glossy batter.
Cut the butter into pieces and put it in a 10-inch cast iron skillet or baking pan. Put the skillet in the preheated oven, and heat until the butter is melted and foaming. Remove from the oven, and swirl the butter all around the skillet to coat the bottom and sides thoroughly. Pour remaining melted butter into the cornbread batter, and stir well until the butter is absorbed into the batter. Turn the batter into the heated skillet, and put it in the oven to bake for 30-40 minutes, until cornbread is golden brown and crusty on top and pulls away from the sides of the skillet.
Remove the skillet from the oven, and turn out the cornbread onto a plate. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges. Serve cornbread while it is hot.
The cornbread turned out perfectly, and it was a hit with Jackie and Beth. Here's a picture of the cornbread shortly after I took it out of the oven (I had to taste a piece!):
And, to finish off the dinner, I made a simple salad with sweet gorgonzola cheese, toasted wlnuts and homemade thyme and fresh lemon juice vinaigrette (I pulled about 50 lemons of the tree in our back yard last weekend). And for dessert, I make brownies (pictures of me stirring the batter below) which I took to Jackie and Beth to eat with Dolce de Leche ice cream.
Babies sure a good reason to cook! I'm glad you're here Caroline.
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