Chop it Up: It’s soup season, and OKC chef Jonathon Stranger is whipping up in-season West African stews

Chop it Up: It’s soup season, and OKC chef Jonathon Stranger is whipping up in-season West African stews
Oklahoma City chef Jonathon Stranger / Provided

On one of many trips to Española in preparation for opening his own New Mexican-style restaurant in Oklahoma City, chef Jonathon Stranger had a realization while eating chuck roast covered in a flavorful chile sauce.

“Sure, I can chef it all up and make it more expensive than it needs to be, but it wouldn’t be that much better,” Stranger said. “I can buy a really fancy short rib and put it in an enchilada, but you don’t need to do that. It’s just as good with chuck.”

After going to culinary school and working at some of the top kitchens in New York City, Stranger returned home to Oklahoma City, where he started One Table Hospitality restaurant group. The business’ restaurants include El Coyote, Stranger’s New Mexican concept, shareable small plates spot Bar Cicchetti and Italian eatery Osteria, which has closed its Nichols Hills location before a move to the Plaza District planned for early 2025.

El Coyote, which opened in 2022, has a lower price point than One Table’s other restaurants. 

“I didn’t have to reengineer anything,” Stranger said of El Coyote’s New Mexican cuisine, which uses dried chiles as a flavor-boosting foundation. “This stuff is great the way it is. Let’s just make sure we’re really nailing it.”

Stranger on how home cooks can save: One protein three ways and knowing the difference between polenta and grits 

Sometimes saving money on your grocery bill means knowing some marketing basics. Stranger pointed out polenta and grits are both ground corn, but polenta is sold at a higher price because it’s marketed as an Italian food item. 

“Everyone always asks me about the difference between farro and wheatberries, and the answer is easy: It’s about nine dollars per pound,” Stranger said.

Online price comparisons show a five-pound bag of organic wheatberries selling for $7, while Amazon sells multiple three-pound bags of organic farro for $20 to $23

Don’t shy away from meat that is on sale, Stranger said. If it’s near its expiration date, it won’t go bad as long as it goes into the freezer until it’s ready to cook. He recommends going to the farmer’s market later in the day, when vendors might lower prices to get rid of overstocked produce.

Braised meat recipes easily port to a crockpot meal that can be ready when you get off work or home from school. 

“I try to focus on cuts of meat that will last a long time, while your more tender cuts like steak will not last as long in the fridge,” Stranger said. “Whatever liquids come out as your cook, store the meat in that liquid.” 

He added that he recently roasted a pair of chickens for his family.

“When we’re done and I tear it apart,” he said, “I use the carcass for a stock, but then I’ll pour all of those juices over the chicken to keep it moist because it’s one of those things that dries out quickly.” 

Meal planning gets easier and more affordable if you cook meat in bulk in a versatile manner so that it can be the base for innovation. Stranger’s roasted chickens are a great example. He said the first night they had pieces of chicken with lemon dill mashed potatoes. The next night they had chicken tacos, followed by a third meal of chicken with gnocchi and an olive tapenade. 

Adapting a West African pepper stew with winter produce

During the winter months, Stranger is a fan of pairing in-season roasted root vegetables with the vibrant flavors of a West African-inspired stew. 

“I love it because it holds for a long time, but you can put meat on top of it. You can make dumplings and make it feel heavier,” he said. “I used to serve it with catfish.” 

I took Stranger’s advice. I made a fish stew and fufu adapted from a version by Adjo Honsou, winner of PBS’s The Great American Recipe cooking competition. I served the stew with catfish instead of Golden Pompano and added acorn squash, rutabaga and beets. 

Jacob Threadgill’s fish stew with winter root vegetables and fufu / Jacob Threadgill

I visited Mama Z’s, a local African supermarket and restaurant in Oklahoma City, to pick up a pepper stew curry spice blend and a time-saving box mix for fufu. The combination of the curry blend, fresh ginger, habanero and garlic provided so many powerful flavors, making it the perfect compliment for the earthiness of the root vegetables and catfish. 

I want to try making fufu from scratch because it was difficult to get the texture correct with the box mixture so that the starchy side could be used as a utensil; it was too sticky. As a dumpling, I really liked the nuttiness of the cassava flour, and I’m on a quest to perfect my fufu technique. 

I followed Honsou’s recipe for the stew and marinating the fish. Then I roasted the squash, rutabaga and beets at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes and added them as garnish. 

Check out Honsou’s recipe here.

Chop It Up is a column from Jacob Threadgill, a “semi-retired” journalist in Oklahoma City, where he wrote for the alt-weekly Oklahoma Gazette for three years. Prior to the Gazette, he wrote music and lifestyle features for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi.

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