Implements
One 55gallon drum or empty pickup truck bed, for containing the Cooter
One machete or well-sharpened cane knife
One two-pound ball peen hammer
One set of industrial strength vise grips or channel lock pliers
(The above three tools induce Mr. Cooter to leave his shell)
One cast iron pot
Cast iron skillet and associated cooking tools
Robinson says "It's a lot easier cooking in the kitchen but something like Cooter Stew deserves a cast iron pot over an open fire. On a cool Fall evening with some hot corn bread and a bowl of Cooter Stew-man, that's some good eating".
Ingredients
Serves 6-8
2 to 3 pounds Cooter (substitute dark-meat chicken, catfish, veal or all three)
2 quarts water
4 tablespoons cooking oil
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 big onions, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 small can tomato paste
¾ cup chopped celery
1 cup green spring onion tops
1 pinch each paprika and cayenne
4 bay leaves
1 1/4cup good sherry, not cooking sherry
1 tablespoon molasses or brown sugar
6 to 8 boiled eggs, chopped
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed seasoned salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
¼ cup cooked, crumbled bacon
Cooking
Cover meat well with water and parboil over medium heat for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool and then trim to small chunks. Skim fat from broth and set aside.
Heat oil to just short of smoking. Stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly for 15-20 minutes to make a dark roux. Add big onions, garlic and tomato paste. Add 4 cups of reserved broth and meat and cook 30 minutes over medium to high heat. Add celery, spring onions, seasonings, bay leaves, sherry and molasses or brown sugar and cook 30 minutes. Add water to thin stew, if needed.
Add chopped eggs and cook 1 ½ hours. Add potatoes and cook 20-30 minutes longer, until potatoes are tender.
Serve
In large, bowls with a salad on the side and hot bread, preferably corn bread made in a black iron skillet.
Some Musings
1. Beware of any food ingredient that arrives snarling.
2. The best turtle soup I've ever had was at Carvel Hall, now demolished. It was called terrapin soup. The turtle soup at Gallatoire's in New Orleans in recommended.
3. Ms. Rombauer, in the Joy of Cooking, is a font of turtle-cooking lore. For example, she suggests ridding the turtle of waste and pollution by putting it in a deep, open box with a dish of water and feeding it for a week or son on 3 or 4 small handouts of ground meat. On the other hand, she suggests beheading snappers immediately, since she characterizes them as short-tempered and capable of inflicting nasty bites. She then further says that if you have occasion to handle 300 pound sea turtles in your kitchen, the greenish meat from the top shell is preferable to the whitish meat from the bottom shell. Terrapin is the choicest for all turtle meat, she says, but only the female of the species weighing less than 3 pounds, males being unacceptably tough.
4. Maybe we should solicit stories about Guys Who Know What They're Doing for the newsletter, which has had so few articles sent in for publication.
5. Maybe we should solicit stories about Guys Who Haven't a Clue for the newsletter. One of the inhabitants of Bent Creek comes to mind. He made a famous trip down the Rappahannock which began at Opal with the purchase of a new Old Town Tripper, continued at the Route 29 put-in at Remington in high water and concluded at the Kelly's Ford Bridge take-out with the canoe completely gutted and not enough left to secure to the racks. The remains were duct -taped to the car and returned to Scott's for any possible repair. His name will not be mentioned.
Next issue: Cheese Bombs
