December 9, 2008
Ex-pat Chicken-scratch Black Bean Tortilla Soup
comments
Leave a Reply
comments:
- Deron Bauman: yep.
- Deron Bauman: to put it another way, I’ve been looking for a worse first sentence for fifteen years. and the...
- Michael Lang: Fifteen years is impressive. Crap to stand the test of time
- Deron Bauman: I found mine fifteen years ago.
- Michael Lang: Wow, while I’ve plenty of ideas for awful, I don’t even know where to begin with judging...
- Coop: Love this. Will go now to the others.
- Terence: Pretend like you don’t care and let the resentment slowly come to a boil over a period of years,...
- Aaron Winslow: Of course, you eat cake with your hands. You’re lusty, bold fellows who know how to kick up your...
- Rick neece: Danny and I will do everything in our power to have the boys here when you visit,
- Michael Lang: Get pissy, stew over whether I’m going to be able to deal with that, become the person’s...
- Dave Vogt: I eat cake with my hands, sometimes. Honestly, I’ve just always been more of a cookie man.
- walt: I think that if it hasn’t come up until now, either in discussion of politics or the author, that it...
- OP: We’ve been sort of drifting apart, for mostly geographic reasons. So it goes.
- Sheila Ryan: Taking a look!
- Sheila Ryan: If I come visit Rick and Danny, will you come over, Robert? (You, too, Doc?) And maybe we could track...
Almost as visceral as Deron’s hand.
Probably tastier, too.
A chicken in every pot.
I think I could live on soup – and bread of course, well, as long as I could have Gin as well. But, I could live on soup.
Do they have cookers (hot rings) in motels in the states? I mean could you have a motel existence and make soup?
I am slightly disturbed by the leg/wing configuration! Is that normal in a Black Bean Tortilla Soup or just artistic licence, Derek?
hot rings
Phil, some motels do have kitchenettes, although only the oldest and most charming would have an actual hot plate or little stove. Microwaves are more common. Of course, you could purchase your own hot plate to take from motel to motel, or a crock pot.
I agree, soup is wonderful. I’m very sad about this particular chicken, though, and would like to point out that black bean tortilla soup is very good without the inclusion of a dead Kenyan chicken.
Cindy, you have given me hope! I like the idea of buying a hot ring and just trawling it motel to motel. That sounds perfect.
So, are we saying we could have the chicken and black bean soup without the chicken? Would it taste good? Would it be spicy? Would you cook it?
Address please.
I eat chicken a lot, but that poor little tyke sort of bothers me. I hope the meal was great, Derek!
phil, are you considering a motel existence….?
Alek, I may be but I promise I won’t hiding photos – I know what you Balkans are like!
Phil, not to toot my own horn, but I am a master of vegetarian Mexican cooking. I fix a wonderful black bean and white corn soup (more of a chili, really) that’ll knock your socks off. One of Daryl’s favorite meals is vegetarian caldillo–a kind of Mexican beef stew, but without beef. It doesn’t sound like it could possibly be good, but it’s delicious. If I weren’t so anti-social these days, I’d invite you to swing by Dallas on your American Motel-A-Thon for a Mexican feast. But, alas, I can’t see anybody until I either lose some weight or lose some vanity (neither of which looks promising).
sorry Cindy to get between your culinary and Phil but i just want to let him know the knife’s between my teeth
Wow, Alek. Not to worry. My beans can’t hold a candle to your knife!
It doesn’t look done….
You SO lost your deposit on that chicken.
Cindy – sorry for the delay – I could wear a sack over my head to spare either and would of course wash – damn what you suggest sounds Yummy!
I just have to deal with Alek and the knife – not to self, don’t try and misappropriate an idea from a Balkan – it will end in tears at best or a pool of blood at worst.
OK, I’m done – where would you like me?
Sorry for the time zone delay. In you’alls time zone, I used to make black bean or tortilla soup without chicken. But you need a good stock, and that’s what the whole exercise was about. Vegetable stock is about as much an oxymoron as vegetarian mexican cooking. (Though the only saving grace about Kenya that they have in Mexico is the roasted corn, with lime and chili even.)
“Hot rings,” yeah, I know, it’s not right. I’ve never had an electric stove before, it’s especially hard when the power goes off half the time. Like on thanksgiving day cooking the turkey, you think that chicken looks scary, … (and yes, some artistic license was involved).
For our next exercise, Derek will send Cindy a list of vegetables common to the Kenyan market this time of year, and Cindy will see what kind of vegetable stock she can make with them. She will then spend about $75 in shipping costs to send Derek a couple of jars.
Oh, I wish I could find the page of kenyan vegetables (wild leafy greens mostly) that they consume here, there was hundreds. I just have a weakness for chicken broth.
They do make make these green mashed potatos here, with ground in pumpkin leaves and maize, which are to die for. I’ll have to try making that next. They also eat “sukuma wiki” (literally means “stretch the week) on a daily basis, which can be pretty damn good, kind of like collared greens.
Francis bacon comes to mind –
There studies for figures at the base of the crucifixion and other distorted figures
Nice one, Jack! Yea, Bacon, which is odd given that it is Chicken!
Cindy -
If you just whip up those vegetarian meals and ship them over to me, I’ll happily eat them, saving you the trouble of being social. Also, as a fellow vegetarian, I’ll happily take any vegetable stock you throw together as Derek seems to have little interest.
That is, if you feel the need to cook for somebody. Otherwise some guidelines on how you go about some of those mexican meals (I know you don’t do recipes) could be sent to me…
Phil, you’re welcome to come to California and enjoy Cindy’s food with me once she ships it.
I’m a vegematarian too!
We should start a club.
When Cindy sends me that food, you can drive up north and help Phil and I consume the food. We can reheat it on Phil’s hot rings.
It’s a deal.
I’m surprised nobody has said anything more about “sukma wiki.”
Sick bastard.
But I thought u liked collared greens….
Michael – I’ll be on the next plane. Texas, California – I’ll cross the globe for good free food!
When you mention hot rings, did Cindy mention Chilli to you? I must have missed that – anything that makes me pant is always attractive!
The chicken almost looks superimposed on a photo of a pot. I like it. Maybe you should make it the cover image for Chickens in the Worst Way, an Expat cookbook you could do while you’re there.
Cindy, I was thinking about you the other day when I realized that I’d never made a veggie stock. I would like not to have to rely on using a chicken every time I make it, so would you post a recipe for your veggie stock sometime?
By the way, we love your fresh garden herbs from Deron’s get well package. I think I’m going to start rubbing Lemongrass behind my ears every day. It smells wonderful.
Thank you, Amy. Truth is, I generally buy vegetable stock, since the making of it is so time consuming–but if my only choice were to kill a chicken or make stock from the vegetables I could find in Kenya, I’d make a lot of stock!
One of these days I will force myself to write down my processes for the things I make best. I will post them, along with pictures of the actual food, and of Daryl’s happy face after eating them.
I do love to cook. It’s such a satisfying activity.
And, yes, the herbs Daryl grows are just wonderful–I’m so glad he thought to take you some. Sometimes I’ll be piddling around the house and he’ll come up with a sprig of something, and it just makes the whole day better, having smelled that.