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 Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

I made this stew believing it was going to be one of those simple, no-nonsense, mild-mannered stews which abound in country women's cookbooks ... and I wasn't wrong. In fact, Brunswick Stew was so easy to ingest that even Daniel, my 4 year old nephew, was willing to have a go at it. What's not to like? Brunswick stew sticks to your ribs and quells your hunger in each and every spoonful. Everyone, adults included, ate it very contentedly and mentioned it was a really nice dish. I used chorizo instead of bacon as that's all I had and also added some green beans (I felt sorry for them in the fridge). In this challenge I inadvertently found a dish toddlers like and that's quite a find. Thank you, Wolf, for organising this event.

Brunswick Stew, recipe adapted from “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Serves about 12

• Chorizo or bacon: 120 grams, roughly diced
  
• Fresh or dried red chillies: 2, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened
  
• Rabbit or pork: 500 grams, quartered, skinned
  
• Chicken: 2 kilos, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed
  
• Sea salt: 1 tablespoon for seasoning, plus extra to taste
  
• Sunday chicken broth (recipe below) or your own chicken broth: 8-12 cups
  
• Bay leaves, fresh or dry: 2
  
• Large celery stalks: 2
  
• Waxy potatoes: 1 kilo, peeled, roughly diced
  
• Carrots: 350 grams or about 5 small carrots, roughly chopped
  
• Onions: 4 medium sized, roughly chopped
  
• Fresh corn kernels from 4 ears
  
• Butterbeans: 700 grams butterbeans, canned or freshly cooked
  
• Peeled tomatoes: 1 kilo can, drained
  
• Red wine vinegar: ¼ cup
  
• Juice of 2 lemons
  
• Tabasco sauce to taste

In the largest stockpot you have (a 10-12 litre sized), fry the bacon or chorizo over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon or chorizo fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chillies. Fry them until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute. Remove to bowl with the bacon.

Season liberally both sides of the rabbit (or pork) and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit/pork pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chillies, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Don't crowd the meat, you'll be stewing rather than browning. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon/chorizo, chillies and rabbit/pork. Set it aside.

Add 2 cups of your chicken broth to the pan and deglaze the pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark colour and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit/pork, bacon/chorizo, chillies and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil or high simmer, over medium to high heat.

Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. Supposedly, the stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chillies. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.

With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf, celery, chillies, bacon/chorizo and discard.

After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add the carrots and stir gently allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes or until the carrots have started to soften.

Add onion, butterbeans, corn and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, crush them up with fingers. Simmer for another 30 minutes stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly and onions, corn and butterbeans are tender. Remove from heat, add vinegar and lemon juice and stir to blend ingredients. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.

You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors more pronounced and a better stew. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.

Optional, not required for the challenge:

Sunday Chicken Broth From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Makes about 4 cups

Bones and trimmings, but not giblets, of one 1.5 to 2 kilogram chicken.
Large onion: trimmed, peeled, quartered
Fresh flat leaf parsley: 6 large stems
Celery stalk: cut into 4 cm lengths
Bay leaves: 2 large
Cold water: 5 cups
Crisp dry white wine: 1 cup
Salt and pepper to taste

Place bones and trimmings in a medium size stockpot and add onion, parsley, celery and bay leaves. Add wine and water, liquid should cover all ingredients, if not, add more until it does. Bring to vigorous simmer over high heat then reduce heat and simmer gently for roughly 45 minutes to an hour skimming any scum or fat that comes to the surface.

Strain broth into bowl through fine mesh strainer. Discard the solids. Measure what you are left with, if not planning to further reduce, then salt and pepper to taste.

Store in tightly sealed container in refrigerator until the remaining fat congeals on the top. Remove the fat, and unless not using within 2 days, keep tightly sealed in the refrigerator. Otherwise, freeze, and it will keep for upwards of a month.