My husband
had a great-aunt who lived in the coal country of West Virginia. Lillie Mae Williams Taylor was a lovely lady,
widowed by the time I met her. Her husband had been a coal miner, and he died
of black lung. She lived in a house they had built, not far from Bluefield, on
a hill overlooking the tracks where coal trains rumbled by.
My husband
and I visited a couple of times, both in summer and in winter, on our way to or
from somewhere else. It was a bit like
stepping back in time. Part of her hospitality was making sure we ate well, and
as I remember it, she always had a pot of something between a stew and a soup
simmering on the back burner of her stove. Aunt Lillie kept a large vegetable
garden, and a lot of what she cooked came from that garden.
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| The vegetable garden |
I guess
you'd have to say she was ahead of her time:
if you're talking about farm to table, the distance at Aunt Lillie's was
about forty feet. She grew no-nonsense things like onions and potatoes, and she
also grew a kind of bean that I'd never seen before. If I remember correctly (sorry, I wasn't
taking food pictures that early), it was kind of speckled, and she used them
fresh, not dried, saving the seeds over the winter for the next season. (I
subscribe to the Seed Savers Exchange catalog from Seed Savers Exchange,
and it could be one of the beans there, or it could be something with no name
that had been passed down for generations.) She didn't do fancy, just good,
plain and very fresh food.
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| Aunt Lillie's kitchen |
My husband
and I were comparing our memories and we couldn't agree whether there was meat
involved in that always-simmering soup pot.
I don't remember it, but it's easy to picture some ham or bacon going
in. I don't remember herbs or spices or
even garlic—which is kind of a testament for fresh vegetables. This was a
stew/soup that was all about the vegetables, slow-cooked together for a long
time, waiting for the next guest to appear.
Aunt Lillie
never used a recipe—she just added some of that and a bit of whatever was ripe
from the garden. I'm not sure she knew what an herb or spice was. I can't claim
that this is Aunt Lillie's recipe, but it's as close as I can come. It makes a
good side dish with dinner, or a good soup with some bread or cornbread alongside.
Aunt
Lillie's Vegetable Stew
1 pound
fresh green beans, cut into 2" pieces
2 lbs
potatoes (use russet/bakers, not the waxy kind. If they're large, peel and cut
into 1" cubes; if they're small, skip the peeling. I used Yukon Gold new potatoes.)
2 onions,
coarsely diced
2 cups
water or broth (vegetable or chicken)
Cooking oil
Salt and
pepper to taste
In a large heavy pot, heat the oil and sauté the onions and potatoes and cook on medium-low for about ten minutes; add the green beans and cook for another five minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the
water or broth and simmer slowly, stirring occasionally. When you're ready to serve, taste for
seasoning, then mash a few of the potato pieces to thicken it.
And that's
it—simple food that tastes good. There's no reason you couldn't add
some left-over veggies, or carrots (as I did), or maybe some cabbage. And herbs. A lot of
recipes of this kind call for tomatoes, but that makes it a different
soup. Summer versions often suggest
squash, but that would disintegrate if cooked for long. But don't be shy about adding whatever you
have on hand—as long as it's fresh!
