Welcome to The Stew!

Summer's heat cools to Fall, which is hardly more than prep time for Winter, which eventually gives way to Spring, which warms up for Summer, and on we go. Sometimes the seasons get away from us, what with this and that; sometimes work has to be put aside for the simple tasks of life and living -- and vice versa. Our planned Fall issue fell away, consumed by life, holidays, and all the usual small things. We find ourselves in a new year, and wonder what happened. Life, the simplest answer.

Sometimes a dish must simmer and age awhile, to allow the flavors to blend and mellow. This issue of the Stew has been simmering rather awhile, but we hope that the wait is worth it.

Our prompts, originally created for the Fall issue, were "color", "memory", and "retreat". As usual, our contributors ran in all manner of directions with one, another, or all of the prompts, or in other directions entirely. Click the links to your left and see for yourself. Thanks for joining us!

The 2004 winter Stew's contributors are teens to over 80, come from all over the U.S. and Canada, and share with us their varied experiences and points of view. Whatever you read here belongs to them: please contact us if you're interested in reprinting any of our materials.

Moop Soup, aka glorified Oyster Stew

Fearless editor Mary Cantrell's mother used to make Moop Soup every Christmas Eve night. Says Mary, "Frankly, I would have welcomed it a lot more frequently. The original recipe was pretty rich, but most ingredients are flexible in both quantity and quality. It’s a very user-friendly recipe."

High Calorie, High Cholesterol Version

Ingredients 


3 medium-sized potatoes, chopped into cubes
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
½ button mushrooms, sliced and rinsed lightly
1 pint small oysters
1 stick butter, cut in half
1 quart rich milk (whole milk or even half-n-half)
2 cans evaporated milk
Salt and pepper
Paprika and parsley

Method

Boil potatoes ‘til soft -- when the potatoes are nearly done, add the chopped onions. Drain and set aside to cool (save the water in case stew needs extra liquid).

Add half of the butter to a large stewpot and sauté the mushrooms lightly. Stir in potato-onion mixture, mix well. Add oysters, reserving oyster juice for addition later.

Add the milk (all of it), bring to almost simmer.

Salt and pepper to taste, sprinkle with parsley. When you’ve dished it out, sprinkle with paprika for appearance’s sake.

Serve immediately, and don’t forget the oyster crackers.

Variations

  • All amounts are flexible -- adjust as needed.
  • You can cut calories and cholesterol by using 1-2% milk (I’ve never tried skim milk), or low-cal low-fat spread instead of butter.
  • I have tried low-fat evaporated milk -- once -- it didn’t work.
  • You can use an onion with more bite than the Vidalia, but avoid the really hot ones.
  • Larger stew oysters are okay -- I prefer the small variety.
  • I usually add in the reserved oyster juice and potato water.
  • I’ve never tried it, but probably a dollop of sour cream would be nice.
  • If preferred, the onions can be sautéed along with the mushrooms instead of cooking them with the potatoes. The onions simply don’t mind either way.
  • But the oysters will mind very much if you sauté them too much, or if you let them come to a boil.
  • And the milk really gets ticked off if it boils.

Enjoy!

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If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly ... very slowly. -- Gypsy Rose Lee