This Silky Stew Solved My Dinner Party Cooking Chaos
I’m not sure what it is, but whenever I cook for a group, I tend to go overboard. Like that time I thought it would be a great idea to invite 25 people to my apartment (I live in Manhattan!) for Christmas tamales. Or during the last family vacation, when I volunteered to cook dinner for all 13 members—my in-laws, siblings’ significant others, and grandma included—out of our AirBnB in Honolulu. So many roast chickens, so little oven space. Clearly, I love the adrenaline rush, that slight terror of wondering if I can pull it off, and the general drama of it all. But in the end, I spend more time frenzied in the kitchen than with the people I actually want to hang out with.
Thankfully, Claire Saffitz has a solution: This new recipe for a meaty pork stew, fragrant with earthy cumin and tinged with chile-powered heat. The trick is that you make everything the night before your big shindig—browning the pork shoulder; toasting the garlic, onions, cumin, and chiles de árbol; and gently simmering everything with some good ole tap water until you’ve got some porky liquid velvet and a home smelling like some kind of wonderful. Then you shove it all in the fridge for an overnight slumber party, which is brilliant for two reasons: 1) it allows all these flavors to really meld together, and 2) it means all you need to do the day of the party is reheat the stew, get the toppings together (more on that below), set the table, and actually be present.
When I made this stew for a group of friends, they went H.A.M. on all the fixings: Crushed corn nuts and chicharrones to add a bit of crunch; an extremely easy red cabbage slaw for a splash of acid; hot sauce to amp up the heat already coursing through the liquid; and charred wedges of avocado and sour cream to make the stew even more velvety—and straight-up addictive. So don’t skimp on these. Leaving them arranged for your friends to DIY is part of the fun too.
And for once, I could actually partake in the fun, and not just while watching everyone go back for seconds. As invigorating as stressed-out, adrenaline-fueled cooking can be, I think I like this path way better.
Get the recipe:
Silky Pork and Cumin Stew
