Snowy day food
Yesterday, in a fit of snowy day inspiration, I decided to make some chicken soup. As the day wore on, I realized that a local lunch place makes a “Caribbean Chicken Soup,” that I always enjoy. I set out to make a version of that.
At the supermarket, I bought organic dead chicken and ginger and cilantro. I lurked around the root vegetables that I am unfamiliar with cooking -yuca (cassava), yautia (tarot root) and ñame(?), but rejected them as requiring too much research for a cooking project that needed to be eaten 3 hours later. I ended up buying a sweet plantain and figured that with the ginger and cilantro, that would work out well with the chicken. Once I got home, I veered away from the Caribbean and added some of the kale that I had in the fridge. The soup worked out fine, but the plantain didn’t go as expected. Even with putting it in for only 15 minutes, the sweetness seemed to cook out of it. Bananas would have been a better plan–I believe that’s what they use at the place where I get my lunch.
But there’s still a bit left and I enjoyed it. I’m thinking of doing soup again tomorrow. When the mother and I were away we had a root vegetable puree that we loved. I’m tempted to do some research on that, but chicken soup and red lentil soup are are safe standby foods. It’s hard to ruin them.
February 23, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I’m planning to make a ratatouille stew tomorrow. With toasted pita points to soak up the broth. Yum.
February 23, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Before you prepare a plantain, it has to be black, like seriously should-I-throw-this-in-the-compost black. Then you peel it, slice it on the diagonal into 1/2-inch slices and fry in butter or olive oil until crispy brown. It’s fantastic.
February 23, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I used to make a root vegetable puree with some combination of carrots, rutabagas and parsnips, I think. I need to make that again. If I can find the recipe, I’ll send it to you, but given where you were vacationing, I imagine the one you had was quite different.