eggnog stew

Left: Eggnog Stew
Right: Spoonful of Eggnog Stew

You might be wondering what caused me to think up such a crazy recipe. I needed recipe ideas for videos for the last week of December and when I was going grocery shopping two weeks ago, I saw lots of eggnog being sold and I have a go-to stew recipe that up until now, I have used beer, as per the recipe. But I wanted to change things up and turn a holiday dessert drink into a hearty dinner, so I used non-alcoholic eggnog in place of beer.

I honestly thought this recipe wouldn't turn out well. My hypothesis was that since eggnog is so thick, there's no possible way for it to boil. It turns out eggnog does boil(hooray!), as done any other liquid. This revelation opens up the way for future stews using other types of liquids(ex. soda, juice, wine, milk).

As for why I chose the other ingredients for the stew, I wanted ingredients that symbolized the holiday season(i.e. both Thanksgiving and Christmas), so I used turkey stock(which is only sold around November-December, strangely enough), corn, butternut(winter) squash, and Roman beans.

Wait, what!? How does Roman beans factor into the holidays? These type of beans are also known as cranberry beans(which have no relation to actual cranberries) and we all eat cranberries in some shape or form on Thanksgiving(mainly in the form of "cranberry sauce" which is really just some sort of cranberry jam). I also read online that Roman beans taste like chestnuts(even though to me they tasted like black beans) and that is related to Christmas via the song "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire".

Allspice is related to cinnamon and the holiday season.

You will need:

For the cooking equipment:

A large saucepot
A small bowl

For the stew:

2 cups of eggnog
2 cups of turkey stock
3 1/2 cups of drained Roman(cranberry)beans
4 cups of winter(butternut)squash & corn, combined
Pinch of allspice
Pinch of marjoram
Pinch of onion powder
Pinch of black pepper
Pinch of salt

For the thickener:

2 tbsp. of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. of lemon juice
1 tsp. of sugar
1/4 cup of water

1. Put all the stew ingredients in a large saucepot.
2. Mix all the ingredients together so that the spices and everything else in the saucepot are distributed evenly among the stew.
3. Cover the saucepot and bring the stew to a boil on the stove.
4. Once the stew is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the stew simmer for 45 minutes. Stir the stew around every 5-10 minutes.
5. As the stew is simmering, put all the thickener ingredients in a small bowl. Mix all the ingredients up to distribute them evenly.
6. Once the stew is done simmering, turn the stove off for now. Add the thickener to the stew. Mix the thickener into the stew.
7. Cover and bring stew to a boil again.
8. Once the stew is boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the stew simmer for 3 minutes.
9. Once the stew is done simmering a second time, uncover the saucepot and let the stew cool off for 5-10 minutes before putting it in your mouth.
10. Serve with wonton strips or garlic bread. Bon appetit!