April 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf's Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook by Matt and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

This was again a very good recipe choice from the Daring Kitchen. I've not made or eaten a Brunswick stew before so I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Along with the two recipes given in the challenge, I looked through a few I had laying around. My main objective was to make a stew that was vegetarian yet still maintained the spirit of the dish.

I served this stew with Peter Reinhart's Anadama bread. They went well together with the cornmeal in the bread and the southern style of the stew. Making the bread is a bit more labor intensive but well worth the effort in my opinion. You can find the recipe in The Bread Bakers Apprentice: a book that is fast becoming a favorite.

The following is a variation of recipe 2 given in the challenge. Brunswick stew recipe from the Callaway, VA Ruritan Club.

Ingredients

• 5C vegetable broth
• 4 red potatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 Roma tomato, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 carrot, scraped and diced
• 1 can corn, rinsed and drained
• 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1/4C brown lentils
• 1/4t smoked paprika
• 1/8t white pepper
• 3/4t sage
• pinch of rosemary
• 1/4t thyme
• 2 berries all spice
• 1/8t marjoram
• 1/8t dill

Method

1. Put all of the spices in a mortar and grind or pound together. You could also use a spice grinder.
2. Put all of the ingredients in a Dutch oven. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered. Serves 6