Chicken Stew with Beer
This recipe comes from Vikingars Gästabud (The Viking Feast), and is for four servings.
Ingredients
1 chicken, about 2 to 2-1/2 lbs.
3-4 carrots
3 yellow onions
1 turnip, about 1 lb.
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash black pepper
Thyme
6-8 whole allspice
1 bottle (12 oz) dark beer
Chop the chicken into 8 pieces. Peel and cut the vegetables into pieces. Fry the chicken in butter, about 5 minutes on each side. Season with salt and pepper and place in a pot. Add the vegetables, thyme, allspice and beer. Let boil for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve the dish with bread.
Note:The use of allspice in this recipe probably isn't a very good recreation. Allspice is the dried, unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, an evergreen tree in the myrtle family. After drying, the berries are small, dark brown balls just a little larger than peppercorns. Allspice comes from Jamaica, Mexico, and Honduras, all in the New World in areas where the Vikings never visited. Christopher Columbus discovered allspice in the Caribbean, mistaking it for black pepper, which he had heard about but never seen himself, calling it "pimienta," which is Spanish for pepper. Its Anglicized name, pimento, is occasionally used in the spice trade today.
Ingredients
1 chicken, about 2 to 2-1/2 lbs.
3-4 carrots
3 yellow onions
1 turnip, about 1 lb.
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash black pepper
Thyme
6-8 whole allspice
1 bottle (12 oz) dark beer
Chop the chicken into 8 pieces. Peel and cut the vegetables into pieces. Fry the chicken in butter, about 5 minutes on each side. Season with salt and pepper and place in a pot. Add the vegetables, thyme, allspice and beer. Let boil for about 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Serve the dish with bread.
Note:The use of allspice in this recipe probably isn't a very good recreation. Allspice is the dried, unripe berry of Pimenta dioica, an evergreen tree in the myrtle family. After drying, the berries are small, dark brown balls just a little larger than peppercorns. Allspice comes from Jamaica, Mexico, and Honduras, all in the New World in areas where the Vikings never visited. Christopher Columbus discovered allspice in the Caribbean, mistaking it for black pepper, which he had heard about but never seen himself, calling it "pimienta," which is Spanish for pepper. Its Anglicized name, pimento, is occasionally used in the spice trade today.