Ahoy! Pirate Stew Ahead!

About author / Christine Gable

Culinary enthusiast; kids cuisine and slow cooking; magazine recipe developer; professional writer. Her simple recipes are great for family dinners.

When I laid my eyes on the title of this slow cooker recipe, it was a shoe-in for Halloween. Few of us ever see a real pirate except for those little buggers that traipse down our street in hopes of filling their plastic pumpkin with sugary treats. It’s that once-a-year event that gets kids thinking their most creatively when it comes to going undercover for those coveted delights: sugar in all its glorious (and grotesque) forms.

So visions of pirates swirling through my mind, I took a look at this recipe. Hmmm, beef, tomatoes, potatoes, some rice and beans. Sounded pretty darn ordinary to me—in fact, the combo reminded me of a recipe that my mom used to make during one of her Casserole Years. It was called Shipwreck. Ever hear of it?

It was layers of beef, potatoes, kidney beans and tomato sauce in a casserole, baked until bubbly and hot. Especially good with hot buttered biscuits. But lest I digress, let me first say that I couldn’t help but wonder if the titles, Shipwreck and Pirate Stew, had some commonalities. Coincidence? Could it be that the pirates had something to do with the shipwreck? And if they did, what exactly was it? And was this something that the pirates would eat? Was it really a dish that might have been served up in their galley kitchen?

Hmmm. Well, they probably did have dried meat (not the fresh lean ground variety we know today). Add that to some dried beans, toss in some potatoes (that’s definitely a root vegetable that traveled well on ships) and then simmer in a broth (I wonder if they used tomatoes?) and you’ve got yourself a mighty fine Pirate Stew.

I can’t help but think that much of what the pirates did eat was probably scary. Very scary (much like they were). So I couldn’t quite make the connection between how this tame recipe from the pages of my Fix It and Forget It Cookbook would hold up with its title.

So be it. I was off and running. Another busy day on the agenda precluded me being home and peeking in the lid as this new experiment got underway. Nope, I was gonna toss it in and hope that when I arrived home later that our dinner would not be too scary. Hopefully fully edible.

Good news: This slow cooker casserole came out surprisingly similar to mom’s good ol' Shipwreck. Only difference was that I substituted pinto beans and black beans for her standard kidney beans. While I’m not a beef-lover extraordinaire (and often opt for vegetarian selections), this dish was hard to avoid the beef crumbles (forget picking around ‘em). For beef-lovers it’s a winning combo: one pound of beef really goes a long way. In fact, it seems like almost twice as much when it’s spread throughout this combo.

So if you have some hungry ghosts, goblins and pirates to feed during this trick or treat week, here’s an all-in-one dinner that will have ‘em filled up before they head out to gather the goods. Best of all, you can toss it in the slow cooker in the morning and have dinner waiting for you when you arrive home.

One word of warning: this makes a lot. If you have some leftover like we did, know that it tends to look a lot like hash the next day. Still tasty, but an all-together montage that (to some) could be considered scary.

Hmmm, now maybe that’s why it’s called Pirate Stew, eh?

Serves/Makes: 4

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can (28 ounce size) crushed tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 can (15 ounce size) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (15 ounce size) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup water

***Seasonings***

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce