Stew

From Chloe's Kitchen

Chloe Tuttle, Innkeeper

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1607 Big Mill Road
Williamston, North Carolina 27892
252-792-8787

BigMill.com • info@BigMill.com

Ingredients

1 quart water, approximately
3 bunches green onions tops and bottoms, chopped (reserve 1 cup tops)
2 large sweet onions, peeled and sliced
4 hot red peppers about an inch in length, crushed (like Thai hot)
1 pound bacon, fried and crumbled, reserve drippings and set bacon aside
1/2 pound skinned fat back, cut into cubes and fried, reserve drippings
5 baking potatoes, peeled and diced
5 cups catfish, cut into bite-size pieces (approximately 3 pounds)
10 boiled eggs, peeled and diced
Salt and Pepper to taste 

Step-by-Step
Put water, 2 cups of the chopped green onions, sliced onions, red peppers, bacon drippings, fatback and drippings in a large stew pot. Cook uncovered over medium heat until onions dissolve, about 30 minutes. 

Add baking potatoes to the pot. Make a layer of catfish on top of potatoes. Add dumplings (recipe below) on top of the catfish. Do not stir. 

Cook until potatoes are tender and catfish is flaky, about 20-30 minutes. You can shake the pot, but do not stir. 

When pot contents are done, remove from heat. Combine eggs, reserved bacon, reserved cup of green onion tops, salt and pepper. Pour evenly over contents of pot and cover pot. Let stand 30 minutes. When serving, gently spoon out in sections because the stew will be in layers. 

Cornmeal Dumplings (makes about 12 dumplings) 

1 1/2 cup fine, white, non self-rising corn meal
1 1/2 Tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon sugar
Dash of salt
Enough warm water to make a stiff paste. 

Stir together corn meal, flour, sugar and salt. Slowly add enough warm water until you can form small balls about the size of a walnut. Dough will be a very stiff paste. Flatten dumplings to be the size of a fifty-cent piece. 

Place dumplings on top of potatoes and catfish. Cover and simmer but do NOT stir. Keep enough water in pot to avoid sticking and shake pot occasionally. 

Carolyn said that cooking is part art. The amount of water to add to the pot and the dumplings is a matter of judgment. Make sure the water does not boil out because the stew will burn. Also, gently shake the pot from time to time to make sure it is not sticking. But do not stir! 

Note: Fatback is the same as salt pork, sometimes referred to as “streak of lean, streak of fat“. This is readily available in any grocery store south of that famed Mason-Dixon Line. (South of Virginia, and more realistically, south of Richmond) If unavailable, very thick sliced bacon with skin may be substituted.