Considering how regularly we posted about our food adventures ever since the start of this blog, we can't believe it has been MONTHS since our last post. MONTHS?! In our defense, we had a lot going on as we moved across the river to New Jersey. Moving, as we all know, is a lot of work! So our blogging time kind of fell by the wayside as we got settled in. But we're happy to report that though we weren't writing, we still took pictures of the food and cooking adventures we had in the midst of all the relocating. Now that we're all comfy and settled in, keep an eye out for lots of posts about home cooking in our new kitchen and restaurant exploration in our new area. Some of our entries may be about stuff that happened at the end of 2014 as we try to catch up. But rest assured - it'll all be yummy!
We figured our first entry for the new year should feature our first home cooking experiment of 2015: Soup Joumou. This soup is a January 1st tradition in Haitian families to commemorate the anniversary of Haiti's liberation from France. It also makes for a very warm, soothing way to start a new year. Mel's grandmother used to make this soup, and once in a while her father has made it as well. But this year, after seeing cousins post Facebook photos of their versions of the soup, Mel decided to give it a try herself! It used to be hard to find Haitian recipes online, but fortunately a Google search for "Soup Joumou" yielded a result from Saveur immediately!
Chopping up all the vegetables is kind of time consuming, but Mel took the opportunity to channel good thoughts for the new year into each slice and it became quite meditative. (So many chefs say a key ingredient is love, right?!)
She followed the recipe almost to the letter, with a few slight alterations:
- Our supermarket didn't have scotch bonnet peppers, so she used a habanero for the beef marinade instead.
- Mel's family usually added macaroni elbows to thicken the stew up a bit, so two handfuls of those were thrown in toward the end of cooking time.
- One of Mel's least favorite things to do is cut up any type of squash or pumpkin raw. So much gets wasted, and it takes a lot of extra muscle. So she roasted the squash whole until soft (about 45 minutes at 400 degrees), then cut it in half and pureed the flesh with a bit of water until smooth. Worked just as well, and less knife work was required.
It smelled delicious as it simmered, and the end result was SUPERB!
DJ fell in love with it at first bite, and suggested we make it once a month instead of just once a year. And the ultimate critic, Toto, said it was excellent!
Woo hoo! New year, new energy, and a home cooking victory to kick off 2015!
::HAPPY DANCE::
I'd wager you got a much more rich flavor from your roasted squash than you would have from boiled squash. Good call!
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