Creole Pork Stew can be Super feast

This has to be the ideal menu suggestion: a Super Bowl pork stew recipe from a seasoned football fan who’s also an acclaimed author of cookbooks on meat and sausages.

“A bunch of friends meeting for the football game and eating – we do this a lot at my place,” food writer and sausage maker Bruce Aidells said, speaking from home near Berkeley, Calif., recently, “and we’ve been celebrating Super Bowls together for about 20 years now.”

He allowed that although he and his pals get together every Monday night ostensibly to watch a game, “the real reason is to get together to have a meal; it has very little to do with the football now.”

For Super Bowl, wives and families are invited, too, so the group grows to 14 to 20.

“In my part of the country,” Aidells said, “the Super Bowl is over by the time we sit down to eat. We usually watch at someone else’s home, then all come over to my place to eat together in my big dining room.”

The recipe he’s suggesting is a robust Creole-style pork stew, using boneless country-style pork ribs, although he said another quite acceptable cut is Boston butt. He emphasizes the recipe’s big advantage: It can be made ahead of time, up to two days ahead, then refrigerated – in fact, it’s one of those things that taste better reheated the next day, he said.

“If you have an informal crowd, what you can do when you rewarm it is put it on a low fire, tell them ‘Soup’s up’ and people can take what they want. It’s impossible to overcook this stew.”

Basically, it’s a one-dish meal, he added, with snacks served to begin with. “You can have a salad with it, too – we do at our Monday night meals.”

The stew is best served in bowls. “I like to use big pasta bowls,” he said, and you don’t need a knife, just forks and spoons.

What to offer to drink?

“We have our beers – it’s awfully good with beer,” he said. “Now for our Monday nights we have a beer first, then wine with our meal.” If you want to serve wine with this Creole stew, he suggests a fruity red, perhaps a zinfandel or syrah.

The recipe has not been published, Aidells said. It was among those he created for his most recent book but omitted because he just had too many. The book is “Bruce Aidells’s Complete Book of Pork: A Guide to Buying, Storing, and Cooking the World’s Favorite Meat” (HarperCollins, 2004, $29.95), written with Lisa Weiss.

Creole-Style Pork Stew

AP recipe developed by Bruce Aidells, courtesy National Pork Board

1/2 cup peanut oil

1/2 cup flour

2 cups chopped onions (about 1 large onion)

1 cup chopped celery

1 medium green bell pepper, chopped

4 links andouille smoked sausage, chopped (about 1 pound, 2 cups)

2 tablespoons minced or chopped garlic (about 4 large cloves)

4 cups chicken stock or 1 carton (32 ounces) low-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground red pepper (cayenne), depending on personal taste

2 pounds boneless country-style pork ribs, cut into 1 1/2 -inch pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Hot pepper sauce or white vinegar

4 cups cooked long-grain white rice

Make a roux by heating oil in large, heavy pot over low heat. Stir in flour; cook and stir over low heat until mixture turns a rich red-brown color (about 20 to 25 minutes). Remove from heat; carefully stir in onion, celery, bell pepper and about 1 cup chopped sausage. Return pot to heat; cook and stir 5 minutes over medium heat. Stir in garlic, chicken stock or broth and tomato paste. Add Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, sage, oregano and cayenne pepper; bring to a boil over high heat. Add pork pieces and reduce heat to simmer; cook uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours or until pork is tender. Stir in remaining chopped sausage; cook 5 minutes more to heat through. (At this stage, if you do not want to serve right away, stew may be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

Discard bay leaves and skim any visible fat, if desired. Add salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce to taste. To serve, spoon 1/2 cup rice into shallow soup bowls; ladle some of pork mixture over top. Add more hot pepper sauce, if desired.

Option: Add 1 pound okra cut into 1/2 -inch pieces during the last 20 minutes of cooking time.

Yield: 8 servings.

Nutrition information per serving, without having skimmed off fat: 692 calories, 42 grams fat (13 grams saturated, 55 percent fat calories), 38 grams protein, 38 grams carbohydrate, 104 milligrams cholesterol, 2 grams dietary fiber, 1,234 milligrams sodium.