Pine Bark Stew With Jimmy Kennedy
It’s origins may be truly unknown, but that doesn’t make Pine Bark Stew any less delicious. Try it out Jimmy Kennedy’s way with fresh catch of the day.
So we’re out here on
Lake Champlain, Southern Lake Champlain,
and we’re going to be out here
all night and, you know,
kind of bad thing,
I guess you can say is the weather
has been about 70 to 75 all week.
And last night it snowed
eight inches at my house
and it’s about 36 degrees now.
But we’ve got a good fire.
We got some tents set up.
So we’re going to be good
and hopefully go catch catfish here soon.
This dish here, what
we’re going to make tonight
and we’ll go get it started now
and catch a catfish here a little bit.
I’m pretty sure we’re going to catch one.
I’m pretty confident,
you know, it is fishing.
But anyway, it’s pine bark stew.
And this is a super famous
dish, especially in South Carolina.
And the name Pine Bark Stew comes through
when there three
or four different versions of this.
But when the Patriots during
the Revolutionary War
were hiding out in swamps,
they were forced to eat their fish stew
from pine bark plates.
And a couple other versions would be
where they saw Indians eating the fish stew
using pine utensils, utensils
carved from pine,
which I kind of believe that.
And other folks say it was just
the flavor of the stew
because it was cooked on pine
and they use pine and bowels, you know,
and all type of wood– pine .
And
for me, I think that’s
probably what it was, you know, maybe
a combination of all of those.
But either way, it’s a super simple dish.
It’s great to cook outside,
especially with fresh fish.
And
we’ll get it started.
Like I said,
we don’t have a fish yet, but
we’re going to be confident.
First thing we did is
we cooked a bunch of bacon
and just got that crumbled off over there
that we take that out, remove it.
And that’s right in the bacon
grease right there.
Got some onions.
And that is one
nice, hot, fire right there.
You know, all that smoke
and I’m also throwing
in some juniper berry
and I cook with these a lot,
I was at home,
I would probably
just put these in cheesecloth
and just kind of season it.
But I’m just gonna go right in.
And this is so hot
that I think it’s just going
to soften those up
and the juniper berries
are going to give it
kind of that little tiny flavor
that we’re looking for.
All right,
next, we’re going to add some
I don’t really measure this
round here and it’s cold
and we’re just going to kind of go with.
The combination of.
The fish stock I had left over.
And some chicken stock.
So next thing is, I’m going to put some
tomato paste a lot of times
this recipe calls for ketchup, but,
you know, you can use that if you want.
But I’m going to put in
some tomato paste.
I like I like the flavor.
It gives
just a little bit in there,
maybe a little more.
We could put some tomatoes in too.
And we’re going to add some potatoes
and these are some beautiful
little red and gold and they’re so small,
I’m just going to leave them whole.
What we’re going to do
is we’re just going to let this summer
I’m going to cool it down,
pull it off the fire a little bit,
it’s a real slow summer.
Maybe put it on top of the Breeo here
and just let it kind of stay warm.
Then we’re going to add the tomatoes in
right before we add the fish
and add the bacon back in
and it’ll pick it up a little bit
and be real tasty.
Oh, baby,
we got fish for the stew.
Not a bad one either.
So we got us a catfish right
as the sun went down,
they kind of started biting a little bit
and these are a couple of filets
that fish probably weighed
about four pounds for eating size.
And what we’re gonna do now is cut this,
I think, into quarters.
These are nice, nice,
firm white filets right
here, about as fresh as you can get.
First, we’ve got the stew
and here we got it going really, really
good. Going to add some fresh tomatoes.
Already got the tomato paste in there.
I’m going to throw a more tomatoes in.
We’ve got some seasoning.
We got a little bit of cinnamon, too,
to give it that new flavor. some thyme
with salt, pepper, just a little bit.
You don’t need much.
And then what we’re going to do
is put the catfish
right on top of that,
I’m going to lay it
on top of the potatoes, tomatoes.
Just let it steam for a little bit.
We started this.
It was probably an hour ago
before, you know, when we got
it started and then we just it took us
a little bit to catch one.
And this is Pine Bark Stew
this could easily
be the state dish of South Carolina
or anywhere in the South, really.
It’s really, really tasty.
Too easy to make and easy
to make out outdoors.
No, you don’t need that many ingredients,
especially if you plan on catching fish.
All we did was bring tomatoes, potatoes
and some seasoning,
a little bit of broth.
And you could even do that,
you know, over the campfire.
We just go let this cook.
We put the
put the lid on for a little bit.
It’s been raining out here.
So you can see there’s that.
Weather not always agreeing with us, but
we’re having a great time.
All right, folks,
we got some done Stew in here.
Ready, man, I’m ready.
And we’ve done this before.
And we have I’m always ready,
you know I do.
Doesn’t get any better than that.
Now, this is this is right
out of Lake.
Get you a bit of this good stuff right there.
Let me know what you think.
We’ll see who’s next.
You know, burn my mouth off.
Yeah, it’s pretty hot.
Pine Bark Stew
This is one of the all-time classic Southern dishes and could very well be the official state dish of South Carolina. When I cook this over an open fire, I sometimes add a small amount of green pine boughs to the fire to get the authentic aroma.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Yield: 8 big servings
1/2 pound thick-cut smoked bacon, chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped (about 2 cups)
2 quarts fish stock or broth made with fish bouillon
3 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 to 3 cups)
3 or 4 fresh, ripe tomatoes or one 28-ounce can chopped or crushed tomatoes, with juice
6-ounce can tomato paste
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar
2 pounds catfish fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons of juniper berries, crushed
- Line a plate with paper towels.
- In a skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on the lined plate. Discard all but about 1 tablespoon of the bacon grease.
- Sauté the onions in the bacon grease until they begin to soften, about 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from the skillet with a slotted spoon and set aside.
- In a large soup pot, heat the fish stock or broth. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Cook until almost done, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes (and juice), tomato paste, vinegar, cinnamon, sugar, juniper berries and cooked bacon and onions. Stir well and cook, uncovered, at a low simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the catfish. With the pot mostly covered, cook until it is done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve in a big soup bowl with your favorite bread and enjoy!
(Justin Broulliard)
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