Tipping the hat to good old stew
A few careless words uttered in a film I was watching on the telly hit me hard. “Anyone can make a stew,” said Irina Asanova, female lead in ‘Gorky Park’, and got me all, please pardon the pun, stewed up. Stews, in my humble opinion, are classic dishes — light, yet robust, and fragrant and healthy. To top it all, there are various kinds of stews, so just what was Irina talking about? Kerala stew, with its light coconut milk flavour? Irish stew with meat and potatoes? Old-fashioned stew with peppercorn and slurry? Or ishtoo — flavoured with whole spices? Unlike Irina, I tip my hat to stews. The dish has a rich history. Legend has it that Amazonian tribes back in time stewed meat in turtle shells. ‘Apicius’ mentions stews in a centuries-old collection of Roman dishes. A noted 14th-century French chef called Taillevent published a book of recipes that included stews. India has various kinds of stews, too — from Kerala’s meat or vegetable stews to Anglo-Indian brown stews, Goan broths, etc.
What makes stews so special is the fact that the dish involves slow cooking on a low flame, which essentially means the juices get infused in the broth. There was a time when we made a pot of stew — with small mutton pieces, carrots, potatoes and beans — whenever someone felt out of sorts at home. A handful of peppercorns in the broth soothed the system, and the veggies gave a sense of wholesomeness. But my favourite is the ishtoo that we get in Old Delhi and other parts of northern India. It is cooked in a lot of oil with whole spices — cumin seeds, whole coriander seeds, peppercorns, green and black cardamom seeds, fennel, cinnamon, cloves, mace and so on. A heap of onions goes into it, giving it a mildly sweet taste and light colour.
One of the most pleasant stews I have had in recent times is a dish called Dacres Lane stew. It is a light stew (though cooked in butter) with large pieces of carrots, potatoes, raw papaya, beans and chicken. You saute white pepper, black pepper, crushed coriander seeds, cinnamon and green cardamom in the butter. Add sliced ginger, onions, and the veggies. Put the chicken pieces and saute some more. Season with salt and some more black pepper. Add hot water, and cook on low heat till the chicken is done. Make a slurry of milk and cornflour or flour. Stir it in. Pour it into individual bowls with one piece of chicken, one papaya piece, a potato, some beans and carrots. Serve it with crusty bread. The dish takes its title from the lane (named after a collector of Calcutta, Philip Milner Dacre). The lane itself is a hub of street food now, and its stew is still among the most popular dishes there, served right off the streets.
The Goan stew is another delicacy, especially the mixed meat one. And let’s not forget the Parsi dish, lagan nu stew, often served at weddings. It contains, apart from the usual vegetables, sweet potatoes and yam and is flavoured with vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.
There are, however, some stews that sound a bit alarming. In her interesting book ‘Squirrel Pie and Other Stories’, Elisabeth Luard mentions a dish called Brunswick stew. It’s a hunter’s stew, named after Brunswick County, Virginia, but is popular across the southern states of the US, she writes. “Other ingredients vary, but squirrel is unarguable, though there are those who substitute wild rabbit.” Not, she hastens to add, the cute squirrels we are all fond of, but the “fierce American grey, classed as a pest in Britain”.
I feel sorry for poor Irina of ‘Gorky Park’. But I have decided to shrug off those thoughtless words — it’s, after all, not a line worth stewing over.
- Vegetable/coconut oil ½ tbsp
- Cinnamon stick 1 small
- Green cardamoms 2 pods
- Cloves 2
- Peppercorns (crushed) 1 tsp
- Onions (sliced) ¼ cup
- Beans (chopped) ¼ cup
- Carrot (chopped) ¼ cup
- Potato (large, cubed) ½ cup
- Peas (shelled) ¼ cup
- Green chillies (slit) 2-3
- Ginger slivers 1 tsp
- Water 1 cup
- Thin coconut milk 2 cups
- Thick coconut milk ¼ cup
- Curry leaves 1 sprig
- Salt To taste
Method
