Callaloo, Strange Callaloo

I love soup. I used to eat Progressive Soup (Thanks editor Rob! If only there WAS a progressive soup.) Progresso Soup a lot. A.Lot. I would stash a few cans and a big 'ol mug in my desk drawer and on those days that I would forget frozen my box of Lean Cuisine, or just cuz, I would have some soup. Oh, Chickarina how I loved you. And Wedding Day! Ever want to get yourself off those cans, first read the salt content. 630mg (29% for the day!) Yea, that is just for ONE serving. Double it and that is what I was ingesting. Regularly. Thinking about it now, makes my skin feel tight.

These days I try to make my own soup. Red Lentil Chard still tops the charts in our household, but I ams always up to try something new. So when we got Callaloo also known as amaranth in our share this week, I looked up a 4 1/2 star rated soup on allrecipes.com and said what the heck...(but fyi, I did change out the salted beef for bacon. I just can't leave well enough alone. But hey, we had some in the fridge.)

Off to the store...

Shallots. Check. (Never bought these before.  THAT's what they look like.  Like little red onions.)

Chile peper.  I hope a jalepeno is the same thing, because that is what I got.

Okra.  Couldn't find it since, um I didn't know what it looked like.  I read the signs...but wow.  A very nice RocheBros worker got me a bag, said she LOVES okra and told me how she cooks them up (Good thing too, because she got me WAY more than the cup I needed.) 

Crab meat.  Holy Crap!  6oz. for almost 9 bucks??? Do I go imitation?  No, get the good stuff.  Actual food.  Michael Pollan eat your heart out.  I followed another one of your food rules. Sigh. 

Ok ready to cook.     

Got everything ready and then read this: "Puree the soup in a blender or food processor." 

I have a wonderful Cuisinart.  I love it. Really.  But here is the thing.  All these wonderful ingredients...puréed like baby food?  I don't know about you, but that feels like a total waste to me.  I mean, the whole reason SlimFast sucked was that I actually like to chew my food.  Ok.  SlimFast sucked for a lot more reasons than that.  But I digress.

Yet I did it, I gave the recipe a chance. Cuisinart-ed the sucker out of it. 

Cooked. puréed. 

And you know what.  It IS really good.  This is one flavorful soup.  It doesn't look beautiful...sort of green monster-ish. But it is quite tasty.   

Maybe next time for kicks, I'll only purée half so I still get to chew some of that $22 lb crab meat.  

Callaloo Soup

1 pound callaloo leaves or spinach

6 cups chicken stock

1 onion, chopped

4 strips of bacon

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

6 tablespoons minced shallots

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 green chile pepper, chopped

1 cup okra

1/2 pound crabmeat

Directions

Remove the thick stems of the callaloo leaves, chop roughly, and put into a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock, onion, bacon, black pepper, shallots, thyme, chili pepper, and crab meat. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 35 minutes.

Add the okra, and cook for 8 minutes.

Remove the chili pepper. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. Reheat, and adjust seasonings.

Oh, and for the record.  I got about 10 bowls of soup out of this recipe which cost about $12 to make.  That means, it was still cheaper than the Progresso soups I used to get on sale for $1.25 each.  Cheapassmama booyah!

Wanna see what's in my drawers? - Watermelon and Callaloo

Friday Farm Share Post!  This week we had a 100% Local Box! I love when we have a total local farm share week. Especially during the Loving Local Blogathon Week!   But hmmm....there are things in there I haven't seen before.  Interesting....

Callaloo, Salad Mix, Basil, Watermelon, Yellow Onions, Rosa Bianca Eggplant, Loose Beets, Green Bell Pepper, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumber

The first thing we dug into last night was the watermelon. Seriously.  The best tasting watermelon since my little water babies I grew when I was 10 years old.  So sweet!  Screw Michael Pollan's Food Rule # whatever (Eat at the table)...I ate this bad boy at the counter.  Down to the rind. O.M.G.  Heaven.  Slllluuurp!

Enterprise Farms, please more of these next week and the week after and the week after that....please. :)

I really think watermelon should have seeds.  Don't you?

Now...about that Callaloo, that big leafy bunch in our share this week...Yes, I had to google. And guess what came up...Jimmy Buffett.  Wha????

Callaloo

Callaloo, Strange Calaloo

Mysterious curious roux

Try as you might to avoid the hoodoo

Sooner of later we're all in the stew

We got Crab and pigtail

Squid ink and fish scale

Okra and daheen leaves

Chitchat and chatter

Fill up the platter

With a garnish of pure make believe

--Jimmy Buffet

What is this interesting green?  And I don't mean Parrot heads..... Callaloo people.  Callaloo. 

According to my sources, um...wikipedia....it is a leaf vegetable (also a dish)  from the Caribbean served in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, with variants in Barbados, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Grenada, Dominica, Saint Lucia and the Virgin Islands. It is often pared with okra, meat, lobster, crab and coconut milk.  

I found a recipe on allrecipes.com that I am going to try to make this week. ..I'll keep you posted!

Callaloo Soup

Ingredients
1 pound callaloo leaves or spinach
6 cups chicken stock
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound salt beef, fat removed and diced
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons minced shallots
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 green chile pepper, chopped
1 cup okra
1/2 pound crabmeat

Directions
Remove the thick stems of the callaloo leaves, chop roughly, and put into a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock, onion, beef, black pepper, shallots, thyme, chili pepper, and crab meat. Cover, and simmer until meat is tender, about 35 minutes.
Add the okra, and cook for 8 minutes.
Remove the chili pepper. Puree the soup in a blender or food processor. Reheat, and adjust seasonings.

Time to put on some calypso and start cookin'!  

This post is part of Loving Local, a blogathon to support Mass Farmers Markets, a non-profit that helps farmer's markets. The blogathon was the idea of Tinky over at In Our Grandmothers' Kitchens.