With the cold weather upon us, there is nothing like a hearty bowl or soup, chowder or stew to warm you up after a day of chopping wood, or as I would rather do, hare hunting. It was at this time of the year that my mother, like our Native ancestors before us, had a pot of soup or stew going on the stove all day long. What was in that soup or stew depended a great deal on what we had. Growing up in the ‘20s and ‘30s, my mom knew what it was like to do without so she never wasted a thing. Now, 50 some odd years later, I find myself doing the same thing. My Native American upbringing, combined with the economic situation, makes it so I can’t waste anything, especially food. So, like my mother before me, I make soups and stews and while I make my stews out of everything from beef, deer, rabbit or anything else I may have, this piece is about my fowl stew, or as some of my friends call it, “foul stew”. Despite what they may say, they never seem to turn it down, on those occasions when I am willing to share.
My fowl stew is like chicken stew with a twist. The main ingredient is whatever bird that I happen to have, or it could be a combination of many birds. As I hunt as much as the law allows me to, at any given time I may have duck, goose, turkey, pheasant, grouse or woodcock in my freezer. Heck, I may even have a chicken or two in their as well and any or all of them, or parts of them, may end up in my stew. You just never know. While every batch is different, they all start with a good stock, which is homemade.
The stock:
I make my stock from the carcasses of whatever bird was on the menu the night before.
1) Place the carcass in a large pot, filling with enough water to cover the bones. One turkey or goose carcass basically equals two large chickens or three pheasants.
2
) Add 1 cup of chopped celery and ½ cup (or one medium sized) chopped onion, to the water.
3) Bring the water to a rolling boil, and then reduce the heat to medium and let cook for about an hour or until the meat remaining on the bones has pulled away. The actual amount of time it really takes will depend upon the amount of bones and the amount of meat that is left on those bones. Each batch will be different.
Once I feel that it is ready, I pull the larger bones out and let the mixture cool. Once cool, I will pour the liquid through a cheese cloth. The cheese cloth will catch any small bones and piece of meat left in the stock. The bones get thrown away, the meat gets set aside. Unless I intend to use the stock right away, I will pour it into containers and freeze it for later use.
The making of the stew:
When I get ready to make the stew, the very first thing I do is gather all of my ingredients.
There is nothing worse than being in the middle of cooking only to find out you are missing something.
The main ingredient of this particular batch consists of pheasant and woodcock, but as previously mentioned, any bird you have on hand will work. If there are any larger pieces of meat I will pull them apart before they go into the stew. Reaching into the freezer I pull out a bag of string beans, which I harvested from my garden this past summer. While I was using beans in this batch, I could have just as easily been using summer squash or peas. Next I head to the basement and pull out five medium sized potatoes and a handful of carrots, also originally from my garden. A few good sized cloves of garlic and a medium sized onion (which had come from my neighbor’s garden and I had traded a pheasant for), a few stalks of celery, some corn meal a bottle of Flag Hill Spiced Rum (made right here in New Hampshire) and of course, my stock, round out my supplies. Fully realizing that fresh vegetables are not always available, please feel free to substitute packaged frozen vegetables as needed. I would avoid canned vegetables as they are normally fully cooked and contain added salt.
Ingredients:
- 8 Cups of stock or water
- 1 Cup chopped celery
- 1 Cup chopped onions
- 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 Cup of chopped carrots
- 5 medium sized potatoes peeled and cubed
- 2 Cups beans or other vegetables
- 2 Cups meat (fowl of your choice)
- 2 Cups spiced rum
The Cooking Process:
- 1) Put stock in large pot and neat at medium for about 15 minutes
- 2) Add garlic, onions and celery. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes
- 3) Add carrots and potatoes. Bring heat back to medium and cook for 15 minutes
- 4) Add vegetables, meat and rum. Bring to rolling boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Cook for about 1 hour.
Carefully monitor the fluid level adding more stock or water as needed. This stew recipe can easily feed 6 people. If there is any leftover it can be put in the freezer for later use. My Native ancestors made soups and stews out of everything, from wild game to fish. Stews and soups are a means of getting at least one more meal out of the birds (or any other game) you have harvested. This recipe can be used, and has been, for any type of meat to include venison and beef. Stews are easy to make and are the answer to those cold winter days when you are chilled right down to the bone.