A Big Rich Bowl of Stew
Stew is where I learned to cook: trimming meat, chopping vegetables, simmering and braising, various means of thickening, using bay leaves, and learning how to turn some simple ingredients into a satisfying, flavor-rich one-bowl meal. Stew is soup’s chunky cousin, and though you don’t often find it on the menu at restaurants, it’s a favorite in home kitchens. Our family cookbook has a whole section on stews, including a couple I came up with myself.
I interviewed Chef Jon Forshey at Elk Creek Cafe & Aleworks, right here in beautiful downtown Millheim. Jon made a crawfish étouffée served on grits with a crispy rock shrimp topping a few weeks ago that was just great. I asked him about it, and learned that he’d cooked at several New Orleans restaurants, including Brennan’s and La Petite Grocery. Was this a stew? Not exactly, but…kinda, and that’s when I thought, “Stew. Stew would make a good episode.”
Jon and I talked about what stew is, and isn’t, and he gave us some tips on making better stew. Then we talked about how stew is, as Jon put it, “poor people food.” He talked about his grandmother, who inspired his love for cooking, and told me how he called her "the patron saint of Poverty Hollow."
I tried something new in this episode, a structural thing: a sidebar on bay leaves. We stop the narrative flow about stew, and sidestep to talk about bay leaves for a while. I love them, and they’ve hit a bit of a rough patch lately, with chefs and “influencers” bad-mouthing them. Don’t believe it! Bay leaves are even more interesting and versatile than I realized, used in cooking from Baltimore to Baton Rouge, Germany, Delhi, Manila, and back to the Bay Area!
I guess I did two sidebars in this one, come to think of it. Because just after the Smack Dab in the Centre spot, I broke out and talked about Bounded By Buns, a sandwich blog done by my friend Jonathan Surrat, from Chicago, where he tracks down or reverse-engineers great sandwiches he’s had, seen, or heard about, or makes up new ones, down to baking special rolls. He even tackles the apocryphal Diablo Sandwich (yeah, that’s a direct link to the story, you know you’re curious!) , ordered on the run by Jackie Gleason, playing Sheriff Buford T. Justice in the 1977 classic Smokey and the Bandit. Check out the blog, it’s great.
Then I'll walk you through making my own birthday dinner, a nice pot of Carbonnade Flamande, a Belgian beef stew made with onions and beer, and about the State College pub crawl Cathy and I did while it was simmering at home.
What I'm Drinking Today is one of the beers I used in the Carbonnade, Ommegang Abbey Dubbel, a rich, spicy old friend from back in the early days of craft beer.
The Smack Dab In The Centre segment is about the new 2026 Happy Valley Inspiration Guide, tons of great things to do in Centre County.
Next episode might be about Kane, PA, if I can get the interview scheduled in time; the person I'm interviewing has a very busy schedule, but they're the right person for the job. If not, there are other STAG irons in the fire!