Sunday Dinner: Spanish Stew

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The good news, dear readers, is that Celia is recovering well from her knee replacement surgery! The bad news is you're getting a recipe from me today, and it's not accompanied by a delightful story of how I met a member of the royal family, or lived in the Far East, or emigrated to New York City. My life has been much, much duller than Celia's. Also, I didn't even think to take pictures when I made this, let alone an instructional video. Julia Child, I'm not.

Instead, I'm giving you a reasonable quick Spanish Stew, perfect for the rapidly cooling weather. If you're in the south, and NOT experiencing any cooling because your power is out, you have all our sympathy and best wishes. Some nights it's a home-made meal, some nights it's a cold sandwich. 

Spanish Stew

 

For the liquid portion:

1/2 cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic or 6 t pre-minced garlic (my fave for speed and simplicity)

1 large or 2 regular cans of tomatoes, with their juice

1 eggplant, peeled and diced

1 bay leaf 

1 t cayenne pepper, or less if you have white-person mouth like me.

1 t Kosher salt, or to taste

For the hefty stuff:

2 T olive oil

Chicken breast, cubed. I used 2 breasts for a smaller serving. You can go up from there, depending on how meaty you want this to be

Two large potatoes, sliced into half-moons. Is there a professional term for this cut? If there is I don't know it.

OPTIONAL: Chorizo or similar spicy sausage. Get the kind you can crumble, not the cured kind you slice.

Halved olives. I like Manzanillas for this dish, but you do you. If you don't want to fuss with cutting, get some pre-sliced ones.

1 t paprika

Garnish:

chopped fresh parsley

 

Directions:

In a large pot (I used my Dutch oven) heat the olive oil. Add the onions and garlic and simmer for a minute. Put the tomatoes with their juice in and smush them with your spoon. Don't fret about getting them small, there's a blender later on in this recipe. Add the diced eggplant, bay leaf, cayenne pepper and salt to taste. Remember, there will be salt in those canned tomatoes, and if you choose to add the sausage, you may need less cayenne. Simmer for 15 minutes to let the flavors blend.

In a generously sized skillet, heat 2 T oil. When it's sizzling, stir in chicken, potatoes and, if you like, crumbled chorizo. Sprinkle the chicken and potatoes with paprika. Saute on high, stirring frequently, until everything is browned. Remove from heat.

Back to the saucy stuff! Either pour the tomato-eggplant mix into a blender/Cuisinart or use your immersion blender. I finally got one for Christmas after seeing how much Celia uses hers, and it has changed my life. 10/10 would recommend. Take out the bay leaf, then blend until smooth and taste to adjust seasonings.

Into the large pot goes the now-blended saucy stuff, the meat and potatoes, the olives and the bay leaf. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are fork tender.

I served this with popping biscuits because that was what I had, but it would be best with a nice crusty bread and a hearty red, like a Malbec or a Rioja.

Dear readers, what are you having for dinner tonight? And have you been affected by Hurricane Helene?

Second Time Around

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Recently, when talking about TV and streaming shows we were watching, several Reds and readers mentioned A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Now, I was in a bit of a drought. Except for the Korean crime drama BEYOND EVIL, I wasn’t feeling it for a lot of shows. I would turn something on and then wind up spending half my time looking at my phone instead. 

 

But I decided to give ADOW a try. Another try, I should say. I’d watched the first two episodes quite some time ago, and my takeaway at the time was 1) Wow, that supposedly accomplished professor and scholar has no self-preservation skills whatsoever and 2) errors. I can’t remember what errors I noticed, because on the second go-round, I absolutely fell in love. I’ve been streaming three episodes a night since then.

 

Which got me thinking about the phenomenon of “the second time around.”

 

Why did I loathe mushrooms as a child, only to find them delicious when I had them in Italy in my twenties? Why did I wrinkle my nose at olives right up through my forties, and now toss them into everything? 

Sometimes, only appreciating something at the second (or third, or fourth) try makes sense. I read THE SCARLET LETTER when I was around thirteen, and no surprise, I got nothing out of it. I re-read it, on a flight of all places, in my early thirties and found it to be a stunning work. I needed to grow and learn before I could understand what Hawthorne was doing.

But what about sleeveless shirts? I avoided them up to my fifties, because I didn't want anyone to see the wobbly bits on my arms. Now those shirts make up 90% of my summer wardrobe. And let me assure you, my arms haven't gotten LESS wobbly. Was it the temperature fluctuations of menopause? Is my give-a-damn busted? It's a mystery.

How about you, Reds? Any flavors, fandoms - heck, relationships - that you only appreciated the second time around?

 

HALLIE EPHRON: Well, my big one: I broke up with my sweet to-be husband before I succumbed to his blandishments. He turned out to be an acquired taste, and thank goodness was extremely persistent. Lucky me because it’s horrifying who I could have ended up with.

 

LUCY BURDETTE: Hallie, my story is similar to yours. When my sweet hub John called to ask me out on a date, I turned him down but suggested we play friendly doubles tennis instead. After about six months of that, I realized that I’d made an error in judgment: he was a keeper, cute, funny, and smart. This time, I did the asking out!

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, my Jonathan story is the exact opposite, but that’s another blog. Second time around, food edition: Scrambled eggs, tuna salad. As I kid I couldn't even think about those things. Now I adore them. Why? What happened?

 

TV edition: The Wire. We started The Wire, right when it came on. I thought–huh? I don’t even understand it. A few months later, I thought–maybe I’m watching it wrong. We tried it again and it’s the best thing I’ve EVER seen.  Why? Well, I can tell you I realized that I was put off by the slang–I didn't understand it. But then I realized the writing was SO excellent that it would explain the very words that were not in my vocabulary in the very next sentence..so when I stopped worrying about it, I adored it.

 

JENN McKINLAY: It took me five tries before I could get into reading the first Harry Potter book. 5!!! I don’t know why I couldn’t get past the first few chapters - they weren’t bad - it was me. I was the problem. 

 

I, too, did not love olives until my forties and now I love them on most everything. I also love spicy food, which I never liked before moving to AZ and then it took me years to acquire a taste for it. As for shows, the only one that comes to mind that took me a while is The Family Guy. Didn’t get it the first time I watched it but it grew on me and I think it’s hilarious. 

 

Off topic, Hub and I just started watching HACKS on Max - it is FANTASTIC!!! I love that Jean Smart is crushing it in her seventies, but also the juxtaposition of a Boomer and a Gen Z makes for some pretty funny dialogue.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Julia, you are seriously tempting me to watch ADOW again. But even as much as Rick loves Teresa Palmer (a lot!) I'm not sure I could talk him into Round Two…

 

Love the second-chance hubbies theme here! You can count us in on that. Rick and I dated on and off for about six years, then in one of the "off" periods, I met my first husband. (Rick was the one who introduced us!) Off I went to Scotland, marriage and child following. Fast forward fourteen years, divorced, Rick called to wish me "happy birthday." And that was, yikes, thirty years ago! But there are things I wish the picky eater hubby would give another chance, like mushrooms, olives, chickpeas, tofu, etc., etc., etc.!

 

JULIA: How about you, dear readers? What food/book/husband did you learn to appreciate the second time around?