Sweet Potato Pork Stew -- The Body Still Knows

Spring is fully here now—the dogwood is blooming in the back yard, the one Calvin planted when we moved into this house in 2008, the one that was a stick in the ground for three years and that I said would never amount to anything and that has proven me thoroughly wrong every April since 2011. Dogwood in bloom is Alabama spring at its most definitive: white flowers, black sky when a storm rolls through, the particular light of late afternoon that makes everything look slightly golden, the way a good photograph does. I stand at the kitchen window and watch the dogwood and think about all the Aprils this tree has seen, all the springs it has witnessed from that spot in the yard, indifferent and beautiful and reliably present in a way that I find very comforting.

I have been writing. I finally started—just drafts, just finding my way into it—for the RecipeSpinoff blog. The first post I'm working on is about the dream. About Marcus and the mac and cheese and the 4 AM kitchen and what it means to be called back to a place you thought you might have left forever. I don't know if it's good writing. I know it's true writing, which in my experience is what makes the difference—not whether the sentences are elegant but whether they're true, whether they're saying the actual thing rather than a polished version of it. Bernice cooked the actual thing. Not a polished version. The actual thing. I want to write the same way.

Willie James had a bad week. Two bad weeks, actually, the aide said when I called. He's been confused, agitated in the evenings, not eating well. I drove to Bessemer Thursday and sat with him for three hours. He didn't know me the whole time but he ate the sweet potato pie I brought—one slice, two bites, then he seemed to lose track of what he was doing and put it down. I fed him the rest of it, one small bite at a time, the way you feed a child or a very old man, and he ate it, still not knowing me, but eating. He is in there, eating. The body still knows. The love is still operating somewhere under the confusion. I believe this. I have to believe this.

The pie I brought Willie James that Thursday was store-bought — I’ll be honest about that — because I was driving straight from work and there wasn’t time to do it right. But the dish I keep coming back to when I need something that tastes like care, like patience, like feeding someone one small bite at a time, is this sweet potato pork stew. It has the same warm sweetness, the same softness that requires nothing of the person eating it, and it comes together in one pot the way the best things do. I made it the Sunday after I got home from Bessemer, standing at the stove while the dogwood bloomed outside, and it felt like the right thing to do with my hands.

Sweet Potato Pork Stew

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs pork shoulder or pork stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Brown the pork. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high heat. Season pork cubes with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Add to the pot in a single layer and brown on all sides, about 5–6 minutes total. Work in batches if needed. Remove pork and set aside.
2. Soften the aromatics. In the same pot, reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
3. Build the stew. Return the browned pork to the pot. Add diced tomatoes (with their juices), chicken broth, cumin, and thyme. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
4. Add sweet potatoes. Once boiling, add the sweet potato cubes. Stir, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30–35 minutes, until pork is tender and sweet potatoes are cooked through and beginning to soften into the broth.
5. Adjust and finish. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. If the stew is thicker than you’d like, add a splash more broth. Ladle into bowls and garnish with fresh parsley before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 320 | Protein: 26g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 30g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 420mg