Today's kitchen and dish celebrates my mother's tried and true recipe for Seafood Stew. When I go home to visit with my parents, I often request that my Mom make homemade seafood stew in my honor. She first learned to make seafood stew as a newlywed in the early days when they lived in the small South Carolina town of Cheraw. She tells the story that when the fisherman would bring in their daily catch, they would go by Sam's icehouse to ice it down. Sam would make a huge pot of fish stew so the fisherman would stay around and drink his beer. Mom learned to make it from Sam but tweaked the recipe over the years because the original recipe was made to serve hundreds of hungry fishermen.
I choose one of my favorite kitchens - fresh and simple - for today's
kitchen and dish. It has many of the design elements that I am really smitten with these days, like open shelving, white dishes, horizontal plank paneling, gorgeous industrial lighting and of course, that killer flat weave rug. It's the coastal kitchen from designer Amelia Handegan's Folly Beach retreat that everyone went nuts over when it was published in
Architectural Digest. Handegan is one of my long time favorite designers based out of Charleston, South Carolina and Folly Beach is just over the bridge from Charleston.
Sometimes, I think we blog about these over-the-top gorgeous kitchens that are more fantasy and than real design for our own everyday homes. This little kitchen is attainable and has great style for such a small space. It offers great design inspiration for those vacation homes that have been in the family for generations and need that little facelift.
One of my favorite things to do when I visit Charleston and the surrounding beaches {Isle of Palms, Sullivan's Island, Wild Dunes, Kiawah Island and of course, Folly Beach} is to attend the Coleman Boulevard Farmer's Market on Tuesday afternoons. It is truly like no other farmer's market you have ever visited. Lots of the fresh produce {picked the morning of the market}, live music, fresh seafood, Charleston gourmet specialty products, local meats and eggs and my favorite, homemade pasta and sauces from
Rio Bertolini. If you go, be sure to go to the pasta dealer first as they sell out of the most popular items quickly. My favorites are the Sweet Potato, Gorgonzola and Walnut Ravioli and the Browned Butter Sage Sauce.
This is what the board looks like at the farmer's market. The line through the pastas means they are sold out of that kind...get there early!
So for today's Friday entertaining post, I envision hosting - GBW in Charleston, South Carolina at my newly renovated beach cottage on Folly Beach. When I was twenty something, my five best friends from college and I went to the beach to celebrate our graduation. We vowed that every year we would return to the beach together. We have been going for twenty seven years now. GBW stands for girls beach weekend...pretty cheesy, a nickname only a bunch of twenty-two year olds might come up with. We go out for one or two really nice dinners but also enjoy bringing our favorite new recipes to share. Here are just a few of the recipes that I would love to try with my favorite girl friends and some colorful things that are inspiring me lately.
I love the combination of khaki stripes and colorful flowers.
Wouldn't these colorful floral bouquets make anyone happy? They combine some of my most favorite spring flowers - Peonies, Ranunculus, Anemones, Sweet Pea, Dahlia and Hydrangea. I would arrange them in blue Mason jars for the table and use simple white plates on a khaki striped tablecloth.
I absolutely can't wait to make these two recipes I discovered on Pinterest. They both feature really fresh summer ingredients and look like they are easy to make.
{Gorgeous Seafood Stew - from food photographer
here}
Sue's Kitchen - Fish Stew with Shrimp and Scallops
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- {I use olive oil but my Mom actually uses 'Streak of Lean' otherwise known as fatback}
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 5 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup thinly sliced carrot
- 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
- 1 can chopped plum tomatoes
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 (8-ounce) bottles clam juice
- 1/2 pound peeled and deveined shrimp, chopped
- 1/2 pound sea scallops
- 1/2 pound halibut fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- Dash of Texas Pete Hot Sauce {Made in Winston Salem where I live}
- Toasted baguette slices, buttered and rubbed with garlic
- Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet and sauté the onion until translucent; add the garlic and sauté for an additional minute stirring constantly. Reduce the heat and add the tomato paste cooking for about 10 minutes or until it begins to turn brown. Add carrot, red pepper, clam juice, tomatoes and white wine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes until vegetables are just tender. Stir in shrimp, scallops and fish and cook approximately five more minutes, then turn off the heat and let the pot sit covered for five more minutes while the seafood continues to cook. Serve with toasted baguette slices rubbed with garlic.
I would love to sit out here on the screen porch for hours after dinner, listening to the ocean, feeling the ocean breeze and talking for hours into the night.
Have a nice weekend!
