Stew for summer

One of our earliest posts was Ruth on the panic-buying of stew ingredients, and subsequent learning. I'm pretty much with Ruth on stew not generally being in my repertoire, but I was flicking through Supra (that's the Georgia-the-country cookbook) and remembered the joy of their Chicken Stew Without Walnuts. Almost all Georgian cooking is full of walnuts, and though I like them the way that it's prepared (ground to a powder then till the oils run), it is a fiddle. Also, I don't have any walnuts.

Anyway, I didn't make the stew without walnuts. I made one over the page, summer chicken stew. It just felt more mid-May. It's almost not a stew at all, being about shredding cooked meat and adding it to veg with herbs. It would go brilliantly in a flatbread or similar, I think. But I treated it like stew, with mash, which god help me was not a great choice on the warmest day of the year.* Better for seconds today though.

To make Georgian stew, you will need:
A chicken or chicken bits (or you can use leftover cooked chicken)
Onions, sliced, lots
Garlic, crushed
Tomatoes, a kilo or so (or a tin)
Herbs: ALL THE HERBS

I shopped for this on the day of making, intending to buy a couple of chicken legs. There were no legs, nor thighs on the bone, nor even little whole chickens. So I bought:

This was not an ideal start. I'd prefer making this with leg meat mainly, or breast on the bone, considering the first thing you do is poach the chicken for 20-40 minutes in plain water, to ensure it's fully cooked. Georgian cooking does this kind of thing, which I would usually consider a big no-no, and then puts the flavour back later. I did the drumsticks for about 25 mins, breast about 15. A whole chicken would be 40, and would probably be better to shred, because that's what you want to do with your cooked chicken when it's cool enough to touch. (This would be a good leftovers dish if you roast a chicken.)

Meanwhile, slice your onions (my onion angst does not decrease, but you need them here), and cook them in oil at least 10 minutes till they start to collapse. Add the garlic. Take tomatoes and chop them, and add them to the onions to cook off a bit of juice. (Or you can skin them, discard the juice and seeds, and just add them later but honestly I would never faff like that.)

Proper cooking

Shred the chicken off the bone when you can face it, and then mix into the tomato and onions. Cook it all together for about 15 minutes.

Now, assemble your herbs. Ideally, coriander, parsley, basil and dill. This is why I made this on shopping day: it cleared a lot out of my fridge, and let me buy stuff I was missing, so I did the lot.

Imagine the state of my fridge before this lot came out. Yoghurts have been hurling themselves off shelves every time I open the door

 
Chop everything except the basil, which you rip of course. Mix it all into the stew, and let it cook gently for 5 minutes for everything to mingle. Season. Consider adding lemon/vinegar. Eat.

Unphotogenic, but it's pretty nice. It avoids all the sloppiness of stews where you add liquid. Not as nice as my ongoing wine and cheese party at lunches, mind you. But not all of life can be wine and cheese.


*It's possible my mini meltdown this week was based in being just too hot in my small flat; it warms up a lot in sunshine and doesn't cool well overnight due to everso thrifty bastard insulation. Which makes me really look forward to June. And July. And however else long we stay inside. Thank god I panic bought that massive fan back in March. Sound panicking.