Annalena and the cannon (again): caldo verde

Ragazzi, you have undoubtedly read of my forays into "national" dishes: cassoulet. Red sauce. Paella. And so on. Annalena has made very few forays into one of her favorite cuisines, however, which is Portuguese. Why? It is difficult to say. In thinking about it, it is perhaps because to moi, Portuguese food has just enough of the element of "foreign" about it that makes it a bit unapproachable (Please know that when Annalena speaks of Portuguese food here, she speaks of IBERIAN Portuguese food. It is a gross oversimplification to say "Portuguese" and forget the food of Northern and Central Africa, Brazil, Goa, and the other regions where the Portuguese flag once flew). Some recent events, however, pushed Annalena to trying this one.

One of her favorite restaurants, Alfama, has reopened. She and the Guyman made a trip, caught up with good friends Miguel and Tarcisio (who's name I may have FINALLY spelled correctly), and had a fabulous meal. Our paper of record, however, did not agree with us.

Remember the scene in the movie "Spartacus" when dozens of people stood saying "I am Spartacus?" That is how Annalena felt as she and others started writing ripostes. They continue. Well, one of the dishes criticized in the negative review, was caldo verde, which is arguably the national dish of Portugal. And it is one that , in all of our visits, the Guyman and I have never eaten. I suspect it is because our hosts feel it is too "common" for sophisticated foodies.

Well, "sophisticated" hardly describes us. We do like to eat well, but I do not think of our tastes as sophisticated. In any event, with all of this in mind, Annalena began researching the recipe.

I wish I could write "OH MY GOD" in Portuguese. In the space of 30 minutes, I believe I found twenty recipes. All used the same ingredients. And... all were different. Very interesting and very challenging, since the number of ingredients... is four. Ultimately, isn't this what many "cannonical" dishes are about? A few ingredients, usually inexpensive ones at that, where the cook can improvise. She (and it is almost always a "she" with these dishes), improvises, based on what she has available, and produces a dish which all love.

Anyway, here is mine. And I dedicate this to my Kaley friend, Jason Nunan. Jason, make it. You will love it.

Here are the four ingredients: onions, potatoes, kale, and chorizo sausage. So it is not a vegetarian soup. Annalena spent some time thinking about how you could make it such. I suppose you could leave out the sausage, or put in a chipotle pepper or some adobo sauce, but I would be reluctant to call it caldo verde at that point.

No stock, just water. And plenty of salt. And olive oil. So, ragazzi, let's get to work.

First ,the prep. Peel and chop two large onions. While surgical precision is not necessary, you are not going to puree this soup, so try to eliminate the big pieces. Three pounds of potatoes. I used yukon golds. You can use any potato that you would use for mashing. Idahos, russets, etc, they'd all work. For this one, please avoid the "pretty potatoes" that have the blue or red flesh. Peel them (bigger potatoes are easier to peel, gang), and cube them roughly. A pound of chorizo. Good chorizo comes in a casing that you should remove. Slice it thinly. Finally, two nice, big bunches of kale. Strip the leaves from the stems, unless you have very tender stems at the tip. Chop the kale into strips.

You've now done just about all of your work. Put about three tablespoons of olive oil into a big soup pot (I mean BIG for this one), and add the chorizo. Fry it at medium until it is beginning to color, but try not to brown it. Then remove it from the pot. It will have left some of its flavoring in the oil. Add the onions, and saute' them, turning every now and then, until they go translucent, and they actually begin to give off a bit of liquid. Now, in go your potatoes, and water to cover. Taste this NOW. Insipid, eh? Yup. Season well. A talespoon is probably right, but that's... how many teaspoons? Ah, good . All of you who said three, pat yourself on the back. Add it by tablespoons and keep tasting. Bring the water to a boil, and then reduce the heat, and cook the potatoes until they are softening. This will probably take a while, since there are so many of them - maybe 30-45 minutes. When you can crush a cube by pressing a spoon against it, it's time to add the sausage, and cook for about ten minutes more. At this point, the potatoes should be soft enough so that, if you stir the soup, you see the potatoes disintegrate. If you're there, add the kale and stir it in. Alternatively, you can steam the kale in some hot water until it gets beautifully green. Either way, stir the greens into the soup, taste for salt, and....

Caldo verde! Lots of it.

This is a perfect soup for the weather we are having now. It's satisfying, it's really very inexpensive, it makes tons so you can bring people over, open up some RED wine, and have a lovely meal.

And yes, if you have a variant on this you would like to share, please do so. And be passionate about it, because passion motivates these cannonical dishes, as it should all of your cooking.