Friday, January 7, 2011

Big pot of Stew

Day before yesterday, I made a big pot of Brunswick Stew.  I used turkey that was leftover from a meal I had made when Lauren and Jered were here.  Actually, Jered didn't eat with us as he went to the Carolina game at UNC-Chapel Hill  with Mary, Claire and Witt.  But the rest of us enjoyed a delicious turkey meal, with stuffing and a new rice dish I made.  But anyway, I had quite a bit of turkey leftover and Brunswick Stew came to mind when I was trying to decide what to do with it.  I put the turkey carcass in my biggest pot, covering it with water and let it simmer for a half the day, which left a nice broth.  After removing the the bones from the pot I added  chopped onions.  As that was simmering I boiled potatoes in another pot.  I did not remove the skins and once they were done I roughly mashed them.  Into the pot the potatoes went along with lima beans, corn and a large can of crushed tomatoes and the leftover turkey, which I shredded.   For seasoning I used a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and A-1 Steak Sauce.  Unusual spices I know, but in my mind I was recalling my favorite recipe, which is in a cookbook I no longer have.  It's the St. Francis Episcopal Church Cookbook that was given to me when I was newly married.  I looked online for a similar recipe but could only find ones that used barbecue sauce.  I happened to have a bottle of A-1 steak sauce on hand, a small new one in the back of my pantry, perhaps for an occasion such as this.  I carefully read the label to make sure it was gluten-free and it was.  But I was surprised at the list of ingredients in the bottle.  There was the usual corn syrup, yuck (but it only contributed 2 grams of sugar) and other seasonings.  I didn't know it included orange paste and raisin puree among the ingredients.  I guess that's what gives  the unusual taste to the steak sauce.  I let the stew simmer the rest of the day and once it cooled, I refrigerated it for the next day, which was nice  because the girls and I are in Greensboro from 7:45 am to 7:00 pm.  How nice it was to come home to a hot bowl of stew!  I quickly made corn bread with honey and we were ready to eat in 30 minutes.
 I will have to ask my mother-in-law if she has her copy of the cookbook since she is the one that gave me mine in the first place.  I'd be interested to see if I forgot anything.

I was able to make 4 quarts.

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