The Cornbread Gospels (54 page)

3.
Using a ladle, scoop out about ½ cup cooking liquid from the vegetables and place it in a medium heat-proof bowl. Stir or whisk in the peanut butter until the mixture is smooth. (You could also do this in a food processor.) Add this back to the pot along with the honey to taste, spinach, if using, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook just until heated through, about 5 minutes more.

For the cabbage and frozen spinach, substitute 1 to 1½ pounds assorted hearty greens (collards, kale, and mustard), well washed and chopped. Follow the recipe through the point in step 2 where the vegetables cook with the onion-gingerroot-chile sauté for 5 minutes. Then add the greens, cover the pot, and turn the heat down just a bit; let the greens cook until they start to wilt. Give a stir or two, cover again, and let cook for a few minutes more. Add the tomatoes and stock, and cook for 10 minutes more. Continue through step 3.

S
ERVES
6
TO
8

Healthy, hearty, and garlicky, a bowl of this stew with Portuguese broa (see
page 103
), is a meal that gets you through any literal or figurative stormy weather. I’ve heard caldo verde described as Portuguese soul food.
Caldo
means both “stew” and “stew pot” (like cauldron) and
verde
, “green.” Here, I’ve combined a dozen different versions to come up with this one, rich and complex. Please note that this is one of those stews that uses both of cornbread’s favorite partners: beans
and
greens; it is also a stew I used to eat with meat but now make vegetarian; both versions follow.

Garlic heads and individual garlic cloves vary greatly in size; you are probably looking at 3 to 4 heads of garlic to get the requisite cup. Although I am usually a stickler for peeling my own garlic right before use, caldo verde requires so very much garlic that you might be served well by buying one of the jars of prepeeled garlic available in many supermarket produce sections.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

2½ quarts (10 cups) vegetable, beef, or chicken stock, or water

6 to 8 medium potatoes (about 2 pounds), peeled and coarsely chopped

2 bay leaves

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 Golden Delicious or Gala apple, peeled, cored, and halved

1 cup peeled garlic cloves (yes, you read this right), chopped fine

3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, chopped

¾ pound chorizo sausage, removed from its casing and crumbled

½ to 1½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes

1 to 2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika, preferably smoked

1 pound kale, tough center ribs removed, cut crosswise into thin ribbons

1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice

2 cans (15 ounces each) white beans, either navy or Great Northern

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Broa, for serving (optional)

2 or 3 lemons, quartered lengthwise

1.
Spray a large stockpot with the oil and add the stock or water. Bring it to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and drop in the potatoes, bay leaves, ground cloves, apple, and about half the garlic. Let simmer, half-covered, over medium heat until the potatoes and apple are fairly soft, about 20 minutes.

2.
Meanwhile, heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the chorizo, lower the heat slightly, and continue sautéing for a few minutes more, until the chorizo is browned and has rendered most of its fat (which you may then drain if you like). Add the remainder of the garlic, the crushed red pepper, and paprika, stirring and cooking 1 minute more, then turn off the heat.

3.
Back at the soup pot, once the potatoes are done, scoop out about half of them along with whatever apple pieces you can find (much of the apple may simply have dissolved into the soup). Mash these together in a bowl.

4.
Scrape the onion-chorizo mixture into the soup pot, deglazing the skillet with a little of the potato broth and pouring the deglazed bits into the soup pot as well. Then add the kale to the soup pot and simmer, giving the occasional stir, for another 15 minutes or so. When the kale is nice and tender, stir in the mashed potato–apple mixture, the tomatoes, and the beans. Bring to a full boil, then turn back down to medium low.

5.
Let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste (lots and lots of black pepper, in my view the more the better).

6.
Serve the soup with Broa, if you like, either right away, or cool it overnight and reheat it the next day—even better. Pass the lemons at the table.

I can almost hear the Portuguese fishermen snorting, but this is great. Follow the recipe above, using vegetable stock or water as the cooking liquid, and substituting vegetarian chorizo, such as Soyrizo or Tofurky Chorizo, for the meat sausage.

S
ERVES
4
TO
6
GENEROUSLY

In an ever more time-pressured world, we all need the occasional quick-and-good fix. As fast as opening a few cans, this is uncannily good, even without the optional toppings. Begin baking a batch of High Desert Blue Corn Muffins with Sage and Toasted Pine Nuts (
page 129
); this will be done by the time they emerge from the oven.

Vegetable oil cooking spray

1 can (15 ounces) black beans

1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans

1 can (15 ounces) chickpeas

1 can (15 ounces) black-eyed peas

1 can (28 ounces) chopped tomatoes

2 cans (15 ounces each) New Mexico–style green chile enchilada sauce (mild, medium, or hot)

1 cup canned, unsweetened pumpkin purée

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Grated Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, for serving (optional)

Reduced-fat sour cream or tofu sour cream, for serving (optional)

Minced cilantro, for serving (optional)

1.
Spray a large, heavy soup pot with oil.

2.
Place the beans, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, and tomatoes, including all their liquid, in the pot and heat together over medium-high heat, stirring often. When the mixture is good and hot, lower the heat to medium low and stir in the green enchilada sauce and pumpkin. Reheat, season with salt and pepper to taste, and, when piping hot, ladle it up into good thick soup bowls. Pass the optional accompaniments at the table. That’s it! Can you believe how good it is?

S
ERVES
4

Although this stew is prepared differently throughout Central and South America, cassava (or yuca) and green plantains are always key ingredients. Leyla Torres, author of the children’s book
Saturday Sancocho
, says that the recipe below has been handed down in her family from one generation to the next. “When I researched it for my book I did call my Aunt Lola. She explained to me with great detail what I should put in this sancocho first and second and next, but when it came to amounts she never gave me anything with the precision I needed to write it and put it in print in a book. She assumed that I exactly understood how much she meant as she said ‘Place THE plantains and THE corn in the pot before THE cassava.’ When I pressed—‘How much plantain, Lolita?’ she said, ‘You’ll see, two or three, and if you feel like it, throw in a bit of squash.’”

There, Leyla and I agree, speaks a good cook. Leyla undertook the setting down of measurements.

Before beginning this, a trip to a Latino market or, in larger areas, the Latino produce section in the supermarket, will almost certainly be in order.

2 medium onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1½ teaspoons salt

1 3-pound broiler-fryer chicken, cut into pieces

2 green plantains, peeled and cut crosswise into thirds

2 ears of fresh corn, shucked, cobs cut crosswise into fourths

2 small to medium yucca roots, peeled and cut into large pieces (see
Note
)

3 carrots, quartered

1 bunch of fresh cilantro, including stems, well rinsed and chopped, plus extra for garnish

2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

4 small tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Accompaniments (optional): Leyla’s Arepas (
page 99
) and/or white rice

1.
Combine 2 quarts water, half the onions, half the garlic, and the salt in a 6-quart soup pot. Bring to a gentle boil, and add the chicken. Cover the pot and reduce the heat; simmer for 10 minutes.

2.
Add the plantains and corn; simmer for 5 more minutes. Add the yucca, carrots, and
cilantro. Let simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes, over medium heat.

3.
Toward the end of the 40 minutes, place the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the remaining garlic and onions, and cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are soft but not brown, about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the cumin, then add salt and pepper to taste.

4.
Transfer the chicken to a large serving bowl and spoon the stew over it. Sprinkle with additional chopped cilantro and serve steaming hot, with arepas, and/or white rice, if you wish.

N
OTE
:
Yucca, also known as manioc or cassava, is a white, starchy tropical root vegetable some what similar in flavor to a potato. Its cooking qualities are similar to that of potato as well, except that when it cooks in liquid, it has a clearer, more translucent quality than potato, and it tastes—well, yucca-y instead of potato-y.

To use yucca, peel away the thick brown skin with a sharp knife and cut the parchment-white flesh as needed. You might also need to cut away and discard the root’s tough fibrous core.