In case you don’t know what a bog is, it’s “any stew that includes wet, soggy rice,” at least in South Carolina and Georgia’s Low Country. Sullivan’s Island Shrimp Bog is just one of the easy, satisfying recipes in Villas’s new collection. Long-time food editor of Town & Country and of more than half a dozen cookbooks, Villas has a discerning palate and a engaging, knowledgeable style. He loves good stews and all their relatives?ragouts, burgoos, mulls, pilaus, gumbos?and deplores the chefs and cooks ready to dismiss them as old-fashioned and out-of-date. Some of his recipes are hearty, homey affairs, but others, like Duck Braised with Fresh Figs, show that these dishes can be sophisticated, too. Recommended for most collections.
Whatever you’ve got a hankering for, you’ll find a stew for it in Stews, Bogs, and Burgoos – pork, chicken, beef, game, fish, shellfish, even vegetables, beans, and fruits can be transformed into sumptuous one-pot wonders. Savor Mother’s Old-Fashioned Oyster Stew, hunker down with Braised Bourbon Rosemary Beef, revel in Chicken Gumbo Ya Ya. Feel like a walk on the wild side? How about Low Country Stewed Rabbit Smothered with Onions, Minnesota Braised Pheasant with Wild Rice, or Tennessee Quail Burgoo? For those meals when you want the satisfaction but not the meat, try Cajun Maque Choux, Jack Czarnecki’s Stewed Wild Mushrooms, or California Vegetable and Chickpea Chili. And don’t put your stewpot away just yet – there’s still dessert. Enjoy the heady flavors of Bucks County Stewed Spiced Pears or Stewed Gingered Figs.
Excellent cookbook! My dad owns a copy and my brother was trying to make similar recipes with another source and found the outcome to be quite disappointing. Ordered it for him as a birthday present and he loves it. Very yummy recipes as I grew up eating a lot of them! Wish they’d republish it someday!
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