Monday, November 26, 2007

Cookbook Review 5 - Stews, Bogs And Burgoos!


Still have any leftover turkey? By this time, probably not. If you do, here is a yummy way to use it up. Saturday I was tired of turkey soup, turkey sandwiches and poultry in general. But still starring me in the face when I opened the fridge was a good portion of left over turkey. So off to the book shelf I went. Now here is a book that I have had for several years and enjoy turning to when I want a one pot meal.
Stews, Bogs, and Burgoos – Recipes from the Great American Stewpot by James Villas. James has been the food and wine editor at Town and Country magazine and he has had several articles in Gourmet Magazine, Bon Appetit, New York Times and Esquire. I like his comment at the beginning of his introduction, “In a large, heavy pot… Just these five words, repeated over and over in recipes throughout this book, immediately evoke timeless memories of sitting around a big wooden kitchen table in North Carolina and watching my grandfather fill blue and white bowls with his steaming rabbit stew…”
This is just the beginning of a wonderful book filled with “down home” cooking such as stews, ragouts, burgoos, mulls, braises, bogs, hotpots, kettles, gumbos, chilis – whew, now I am hungry. After his introduction, which will keep you turning the pages of this book, James has chapters on Beef Stews, Pork Stews, Lamb and Veal Stews, Poultry Stews, Game and Variety Meat Stews, Seafood Stews, Vegetable, Bean and Fruit Stews and to accompany all these delicious pots his last chapter is on Biscuits! Another informative feature of his book are the "Stew Savvy" comments throughout the chapters. These are great helpful hints to make life easier while spending time in your kitchen. Here is an example of one of his tips - "To prevent small whole onions from coming apart during the cooking of stews, take a knife and score the root ends with an X". Good advice James!
Now it is time Mr. Turkey leftovers, you are headed for a Mull. Here is my version of James’ Turkey, Corn and Lima Bean Mull.



Turkey, Corn and Green Pea Mull

4 slices of pancetta, or you could use bacon
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 pieces of celery finely chopped
1 green bell pepper finely chopped
3 cups turkey stock and 1 cup chicken stock
One 10 oz. package frozen corn, thawed
One 10 oz. package frozen green peas – my favorite ingredient!, thawed
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
Whatever leftover turkey you have cubed, I had about 2-1/2 cups
One teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon dried tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large heavy pot, fry the pancetta or bacon till crisp, remove from pot, drain on paper towel and crumble. Add a touch of olive oil to the pot if it is too dry and add the onions, celery, bell pepper and cook until soft. Add the remaining ingredients plus your bacon and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are fork tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.





As you can see, this is a great alternative to those cold turkey sandwiches. I served it for lunch, but you could definitely do this for supper and just add a crisp salad and some great biscuits to make a satisfying dinner on a “cool” fall evening.

If you are doing it for dinner, a nice wine to serve aside would be a crisp Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio!

Cheers!

13 comments:

Peter M said...

Deb, this looks like a hearty cold weather dish...more apt for Canada than Key West.

Gloria Baker said...

Deb, this a nice and yummy recipe!!! xxx Gloria

RougeAndBlanc said...

Thanks for the recipe. I wish I had seen it before I made my modified version of turkey pot pie.
I like the simplicity of this dish (no gravy). Just like an unoaked Chardonnay.
Cheers!
Andrew

winedeb said...

Hi Peter, you are probably right, it would be great in your neck of the woods!

Hey Gloria, so easy and I am sure you could use left over chicken also!

Hi Andrew, thanks for stopping by! Yep, I was searching for something simple and this hit the spot. Can't waste that leftover turkey!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

Mull sounds intriguing. Maybe all the turkey will be gone by Christmas ...28 days from now.We have turkey in October for Thanksgiving and so by Christmas it is turkey time again.

Gloria Baker said...

Debs, How I know you like this things and you like the pudding corn dishes I fin an address of Pomaire (where they are made) and put at blog. Here is www.todoamano.cl only pick Pomaire when open the page. Gloria

Nora B. said...

Hi Deb,
I have no idea what a mull (or burgoos, bogs, kettles), but yours sure looks very tasty, colourful and healthy.

Nora

Anonymous said...

ooo pancetta! Wonderful!
Thanks for the comment on my blog. I appreciate it very much.
I'm not sick of turkey like the rest of you. I had the dinner at my sons and forgot to bring home some turkey for sandwiches. So, to appease the english bloke I am doing another turkey dinner this weekend. Crazy? hmmmaybe :)

winedeb said...

Actually Valli, I might even be in the mood for turkey by then myself!

Thanks Gloria, I will check it out!

Hi Nora, they are all sorta like stews, I will post more about them later.

Maryann, sounds good to me! I probably would have done the same. Gotta have turkey sandwiches!

Christina said...

Oh wow! I have this book! I got at my school's library when they were cleaning out books that the students no longer used--although I don't know how often they would have used this anyway, as it's not like we offer Home Economics anymore. I'll have to look again at it and mine it for ideas.

Happy day!

Katie Zeller said...

I dearly love stews, soups, braises, etc. Unfortunately mon mari refers to all such methods as 'boiling', so I have to limit them. I'm slowly winning him over...
Nice grape tomate...

Jann said...

This is a wonderful version of the stew~I would much rather have the soup/stew instead of the tradional sandwiches we make with the leftovers. This year we cooked a smaller turkey ~not much left in the left-over department!I will need to file this recipe!

Betty Carlson said...

I adore stews and often make them for dinner parties, although it's usually French-style recipes. This looks like a great cookbook...