Aug

Crypto-Jewish Brazilian Yellow Stew

Sean Sellers in White Wines, Albariño, Blow the Bank, Meat & Poultry 2005, Pazo Senorans, Recipe, Spain

InterWined Food
Every Friday, InterWined.com pairs one great wine that exceeds its normal £10 ($20) threshold with one great meal, prepared following the instructions of some the Internet’s best food blogs.

This week’s ‘Blow the Bank’ comes courtesy of Danielle of Habeas Brûlée and the intriguingly titled Crypto-Jewish Brazilian Yellow Stew, the inspiration for which she explains in her post came from the book A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews, by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson.

At first thought, cooking meats with fruit might seem rather unorthodox in the English-speaking world — like fusion cuisine. Yet, it is a long-standing tradition across most of Asia, the South Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and large parts of continental Europe. After all, who hasn’t heard of such classic fruit and meat pairings as melon and prosciutto or Duck l’Orange?

In contrast to those familiar staples Danielle’s Brazilian Yellow stew is simultaneously classic and modern, steeped as it is in the history of Iberia, the Spanish Inquisition, the Jewish Diaspora and the popular tropical fruits of South America.

And it’s the marriage of old and new that makes the dish so refreshingly light and flavourful. This isn’t the heavy winter stews of InterWined’s youth.

Paired with Danielle’s Crypto-Jewish Brazilian Yellow Stew was the 2005 Pazo Señorans Albariño from Philglas & Swiggot at £11.99 and widely available in the US for around $20. (At Philglas & Swiggot, the 2001 Pazo retails for £26.99.)

Like Danielle’s stew, Albariño is an old wine made new again by the popularity of its dry, sometimes Riesling-like, flavour and crisp fruity nose. While the precise history of the grape seems hard to confirm, its production has reputedly increased five-fold since the 1990s with winemakers exporting the grape for the first time to California, where a handful of winemakers such as Cambiata now produce American Albariño.

With a light straw colour, the 2005 Pazo Señorans smells of stone-fruit, maybe even faint watermelon, and grass. Its slightly acidic flavour instantly highlights the ripeness of the stew’s mango. A treat.

Danielle’s Recipe in Full

Crypto-Jewish Brazilian Yellow Stew

Ingredients:
2 lbs. beef, cut into 1″ cubes
4 dried Thai Birdseye chilli peppers, crushed
3-6 tbsp olive oil
15 cloves garlic, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 onions, sliced
2 large mangoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 C bulghur wheat
1 1/2 tsp saffron threads
1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground chipotle

1. Heat some olive oil in a large stew pot over medium heat. Fry the garlic, bay leaves, and crushed Birdseye peppers for about 3 minutes. Add the onions and fry until translucent, about 5 more minutes. Remove to a plate.

2. Add more oil if need be; then cook the meat in a single layer until lightly browned on all sides, about 6 minutes. Do it in several batches if you have to. Stir the onion mixture back in.

3. Add enough water to just barely cover the meat. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

4. Stir in 1 sliced mango, bulghur, saffron, allspice, salt, black pepper, and chipotle. Continue simmering, covered, for another 45-60 minutes, until the meat is tender. If it looks too watery, remove the lid during the last 15 minutes of cooking, and throw in some corn starch or other thickener if you like. I felt no need to do any of this, but you may wish to.

5. Remove the bay leaves, and stir in the second sliced mango.

Unlike previous weeks’ ‘Blow the Bank’, this week’s recipe takes approximately two hours to prepare. So invite your partner or date over early; be sure to plug in the Wii; and build up an appetite — ed.

Download & Print Recipe

Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to InterWined.com and get the lastest posts delivered fresh to your feeder.

Tasting Notes