Written By: Marlene Osteen | Concern: Winter 2022
Hugh Acheson’s traditional Catfish Stew comes drenched in historical past, with a tough kernel of ache at its core.
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Maybe you landed on one other web page on this month’s problem about Hugh Acheson, featured chef at The Farm at Outdated Edwards, and had been intrigued and tantalized by his flavors and historical past.
The recipe right here for Catfish Stew, reprinted from his guide, The Chef and the Sluggish Cooker, offers you a glimpse into his distinctive slant on the South’s culinary historical past and a style of the daring taste that catapulted him to stardom.
Catfish Stew From Hugh Acheson
Serves 4 – 6
“Is it Southern? I imply, what’s Southern meals? You bought six months for a chat over numerous instances of bourbon? There might be some tears and a few wrestling of feelings and possibly actual wrestling, too. The in need of it’s that the thought of a catfish stew is broadly present in western Africa, notably Nigeria, and the very related technique and outcomes of that stew has been round earlier than George Washington’s mother and father ever bought to first base. So sure, it’s a Southern recipe, as a result of it exists in our tome of Southern meals, but it surely had a unique cultural significance lengthy earlier than that and solely exists right here due to slavery. That’s true for a lot of the Southern culinary canon and the time is true to acknowledge the place a number of our treasured gastronomy comes from and the ache that introduced it to the desk. So go make some meals and collect around the desk, and discuss the place all of those flavors come from and what that every one means. ‘Trigger it means rather a lot.”
Substances
1 28-ounce can Italian Plum Tomatoes
½ pound Slab Bacon, diced
1 massive Candy Onion, diced
1 massive Pink Bell Pepper, cored and diced
1 department of Celery, diced
4 cloves Garlic, minced
4 entire Cloves
1 teaspoon Floor Mace
1 teaspoon floor Allspice
2 cups Clam Juice
2 cups Fish Inventory or Vegetable Inventory
1 pound Fingerling Potatoes, minimize into 1-inch lengthy rounds
Kosher Salt
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon Sizzling Sauce
1½ kilos Catfish Filets, minimize into 1-inch items
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) Unsalted Butter
¼ cup minced Parsley
½ cup Pickled Banana Peppers, thinly sliced
Freshly floor Black Pepper
Instructions
1. Preheat a gradual cooker on excessive for no less than quarter-hour.
2. Place the can of tomatoes and their liquid right into a meals processor and pulse to interrupt them down a bit.
3. Set a big skillet over medium warmth, add the bacon and cook dinner for 10 minutes or till many of the fats has rendered. Add the onions, peppers, and celery and cook dinner for two minutes, then add the garlic and cook dinner for 1 minute extra. Take away from warmth and add the combination to the gradual cooker.
4. Add the tomatoes, cloves, mace, allspice, clam juice, inventory, potatoes, and 1 teaspoon of salt to the gradual cooker. Prepare dinner for 4 hours on low warmth. The potatoes ought to be fork-tender at this level.
5. Add the Worcestershire, sizzling sauce, and half-teaspoon of salt.
6. Season the catfish items with half-teaspoon of salt, then add them to the gradual cooker and cook dinner for 20 minutes. Add the butter to the pot, stir gently, then ladle the stew right into a soup tureen or particular person bowls. Garnish with the parsley, banana peppers, and end with a grind of black pepper and extra salt to style.
by Marlene Osteen
