The weather in Virginia is a rollercoaster of a ride, especially in the winter. The
temperatures can hover in the mid-seventies, then plummet to below freezing the next
day. Needless to say, our home is always stocked with as many cold remedies as
possible.
Happily, the best remedies come in the form of comfort food, and my little cookbook is
bursting at the seams. From homemade chicken soup to four-cheese lasagna, I stuff my
husband and teenage boys with my personal brand of preventative medicine—lemon
zest for the chicken soup, garlic cloves in the lasagna, and raw honey in just about
everything else.
One of my favorite recipes comes from my
mom. She called it Yorky Beef Stew, but I
believe it’s a variation on the delicious
English popovers.
The first thing that you may have noticed is
that the filling looks nothing like beef stew.
That’s because it’s chicken. No matter the
variety, we still call it Yorky Beef. Sort of like
the “green cabinet” that sits in our living
room—a small chest of drawers that was
passed down from my grandparents. The
green cabinet has been painted white,
cream, lavender, green, antique green, and
lavender again. When the piece came to
me, I stripped it back down to the original
wood finish; but it’ll always be the green
cabinet.
Here’s my recipe for “Yorky Beef Stew.”
THE STEW:
First, you need a pot of stew—about 3 to 5 cups worth. My mom once told me that I
could use Dinty Moore, though I could never bring myself to buy it. Instead, I make
what I like to call “leftovers” stew.
I make a roux (melted butter & flour), add broth or stock, then leftover rotisserie
chicken or roast turkey along with peas, chopped carrots, chopped potatoes, corn
kernels, mushrooms, garlic, onion (I like shallots), salt & pepper, a bay leaf or 2,