I participated in my first Daring Cooks challenge this month. A friend of mine described this dish as "succotash with chicken." Alas, I am in the throes of frenzied last-minute packing, so this post will not do justice to the Southern classic. Here are a few quick thoughts on the finished product I ended up with:
1. Brunswick Stew is traditionally made with not only chicken, but also rabbit. We were, however, allowed to substitute other meats, including beef, for the rabbit. I had half a pound of stewing beef in my freezer waiting to be used before Moving Day, so I went with that. The beef turned out more tender than I expected, so that was a success, but if I were to try this again, I would probably use pork (another acceptable substitute - in fact, from what I gather, the preferred one). I'd love to try rabbit, but it would involve too much of an expedition.
2. Canned lima beans are much better than frozen ones. Who knew? Brunswick stew should be made with butter beans, but again, not easy to find around here. Enter Stockely's limas. Nice find.
3. I have an uncomfortable relationship with the onion family. I HATE raw onion of any persuasion, but can handle it if sauteed or caramelised. This recipe called for, I think, two medium onions, put into the stew towards the end of cooking. That is a lot of onion. A lot of onion which has not seen the bottom of a frying pan. Not raw, but still a bit off-putting. It reduced my enjoyment of the dish. Personal lesson learned: next time, use less onion, or pre-cook it before putting it in.
4. I halved the original recipe. As a mostly solo diner, I probably should have cut it to one-sixth. I had Brunswick Stew on its own, Brunswick Stew with green beans, Brunswick Stew with rice, Brunswick Stew with sweet peas (even though it already has the aformentioned lima beans, as well as corn). I even added Brunswick stew to tomato-basil spaghetti. I kid you not. It wasn't entirely successful, although I would probably do it again.
5. My finished product was soupier than I would have liked (and definitely too soupy to serve as a pasta sauce!). Since I don't have any other experience with Brunswick stew, I don't know whether that is normal.
6. Brunswick stew freezes very well, potatoes and all. It's providing me three fuss-free meals on moving week. A huge help. Now, if only I could think of more easy side dishes for it...
Overall, this was a really interesting experience, and a nice opportunity to play around with the leave-simmering-on-the-stove-top type of cooking that I don't get to do very often. Probably not a dish I'll be making very often, but I'm glad to have become acquainted with it.
