Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

[ts]
I don't remember exactly how, why, where or when I first discovered caldo verde, but it has been one of my favorites soups since then. It is so simple to make and so satisfying.



[ts]
I start by cooking some chorizo in some olive oil. Look at how the rendered fat colors the oil! I set the cooked chorizo aside, then add diced onion. I let the onions cook until softened.



The diced potatoes go in next, then water to cover. When the potatoes are tender, I process the soup (using a hand blender) to my desired consistency, return the cooked chorizo, then add the kale. I simply let the kale cook and the flavors meld together.

I actually prefer some kale to be really cooked down, and some "fresher". So, I simply divide my kale, letting half cook for a longer time, and the other half for only about 5 minutes or so.

I also find that I prefer less chorizo pieces while I'm eating the soup (blasphemy, I know!), but then, I'm afraid there won't be enough chorizo flavor in the soup if I cut back.

Oh, the problems I have in life!

Since we tend to have a lot of chorizo pieces left in the soup when the liquid has long gone, a simple reusing of the chorizo solves all problems. Add them to eggs! Make fried rice! How can anything not be enhanced by the addition of chorizo?



[ts]
I didn't mind eating this for 4 straight meals in a row. I didn't mind at all.


[eatingclub] vancouver Portuguese
Vinho d'Alhos (Portuguese Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)
Jag (Jagacida, Cape Verdean Beans & Rice)
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

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Recipe
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)
Makes 6 generous servings

2 chorizo, cut into slices or cubes
1 onion, diced
3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
8 cups water (or, to cover)
2 bunches kale, leaves chopped

In your stockpot, heat a scant amount of olive oil over medium heat. Add chorizo and brown. Remove chorizo and set aside. Remove excess fat, if desired, but leave some in the pot.

Heat the rendered fat in the pot, and add onions, cooking until softened. Add diced potatoes and stir for about 30 seconds. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer until potatoes are tender.

When potatoes are tender, process the soup in a blender, or use a hand blender, until desired consistency. The soup shouldn't be too thick. Thin with water if necessary.

Add back the cooked chorizo and let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in kale leaves and let cook until your desired level of doneness. Season to taste. Serve.

Jag (Jagacida, Cape Verdean Beans and Rice)

[js]
It is an ongoing project of mine to incorporate more legumes into my diet.

Growing up, beans made scarce in our household. Save for the occasional desserts with bean pastes in them, we never ate beans. Bean-eating must have skipped two generations in our family.

A couple of weeks back, I bought some dried lima beans because I couldn't find the canned ones. I get canned beans because I have always been intimidated by dried ones, but I really should be buying dried because they are cheaper and I do have more control vis a vis the sodium.

When we were looking for a side dish to go with our Portuguese wine-marinated pork stew, we lucked out and found a dish called "Jag," short for Jagacida. Oh goodie, the bean-and-rice dish called for lima beans, which I already had soaking that day.

[ts]
Of course, you know we had all sorts of fun saying the name. JAG!

[js]
The recipe called for sweating an onion in some olive oil. Add some paprika (I used about a teaspoon of smoked hot paprika) to the onions and continue to sweat the onions until lightly brown. Then some minced parsley (I used about 8 sprigs) to the mix.

At this point, I took about 2 cups of rice and dropped the grains in with the onions and parsley. I let them toast for a couple of minutes before I added in 6 cups of water.

Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the rice is done. When the rice is done, mix in the lima beans. The lima beans were cooked separately and then drained before being added to the rice.

[js]
The dish, for something so simple, really tasted very rich, almost buttery. In fact, it even tasted like the rice had been simmered in chicken stock, which it wasn't.

I ate this with the simple sautéed kale with some hazelnut gremolata on top.

It was very good, very filling, very comforting dish.

So, how much did this filling and comforting dish cost?



Costing
[js]
For those of you who are interested, here's the breakdown.
(I'm practicing for Hobo Mondays at Thursday Night Smackdown. Check it out.)

Kale and Jagacida = 4 servings
Kale, 2 bunches = $3.99
Lima Beans, approximately 150 g = $1.33
Parsley, 8 sprigs, stalks and all = $0.25
Onion = $0.50
Rice, approximately 2 cups = $1.80
Lemon, 1 = $0.50
Garlic, 4 cloves = $0.15
TOTAL = $8.52 (CAD)

The hazelnut gremolata is a "fancy-ifying" touch, but us plebeians can do without it. Although without the hazelnuts, the gremolata would not cost anything extra, because we can use about a couple of sprigs of parsley, plus the garlic, plus the zest of the lemon to make the gremolata.

Bear in mind, the above total is in Canadian dollars, so with the current exchange rate (CAD1.0000 = USD0.7980), it works out to $6.80 (USD).

Let's call it a grand total of 7 US dollars and we'll throw in a couple dollar's worth of hazelnuts to keep it under 10 bucks for 4 people.


Costing for the entire meal: Pork, Kale, Jag
[js]
I just realized that the picture of the plated dish includes the wine-marinated pork stew we did as the main.

Now, if we were going to include the pork into the mix, I would say that the pork, jagacida, and kale would serve 6 people very, very well.

There was 2.5 pounds worth of pork at $3.88 per pound, totalling $9.70. We had a bottle of wine, I'm guessing it's about 10 dollars a bottle, and used up a cup of it for the marinade, or $2.50. The subtotal for the pork stew dish comes to $12.20.

Vinho d'Alhos (Pork) = 6 servings
pork butt, 2.5 pounds = $9.70
white wine = $2.50
Pork Total = $12.20 (CAD)
Kale + Jag Total = $8.52 (CAD)

GRAND TOTAL = $20.72 (CAD)

Converted, this is USD16.53, or $2.76 per serving.

Not bad at all. Unfortunately, this whole spread (meat, starch, vegetable) is just a little bit over the alloted total of $13 for 6 people per Hobo Mondays rule. Even if we got less generous and stretched out the dinner offering to 8 people, it would still be over the alloted $16 -- by just 53 cents -- for 8 people.

Dang it. I'm almost afraid I'm going to be smacked and told to make these numbers work. ;)


[eatingclub] vancouver Portuguese meal
Vinho d'Alhos (Portuguese Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)
Sautéed Kale
Jag (Jagacida, Cape Verdean Beans and Rice)
Hazelnut Gremolata

Other Portuguese dishes
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

Jag recipe from PortugueseCooking.com
http://www.portuguesecooking.com/recipes/main_dishes/jag_jagacita
(note: We tried searching for "jagacita", but found no sites! We later discovered that most sites spelled it with a "d".)

Wikipedia: Cape Verde

Vinho d'Alhos (Portuguese Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)

[js]
With all the wintry weather for the past two months, unusual for Vancouver -- a "hint" of snow witnessed just this morning! -- we thought it was time for a trip. So, we hitched a ride on FOODalogue's Culinary Tour.

We're going to Portugal!

We're no experts in Portuguese cuisine, but what we know and have tasted of the cuisine is so delicious that we knew we had to explore more of it. (Making peri-peri chicken is always a joy, as is caldo verde.)

[ts]
We discovered PortugueseCooking.com, a site by Ana Patuleia Ortins, and found recipes for Wine and Garlic Marinated dishes. I consolidated two of those recipes and began making our dish.

To start, the marinade, of course.



[ts]
In a bowl, I combined white wine, red wine vinegar, some cinnamon, cumin, allspice, bay leaves, salt, black pepper, and red chili flakes. I added the pork butt that I've cut into cubes and let them marinate overnight.


left: pork cubes marinating
right: out of the marinade

[ts]
The next day, JS removed the pork from the marinade and dried the cubes.



[ts]
The pork was browned, then the marinade went in. The mixture was brought to a boil, then simmered until the pork was tender.

Easy, eh?



[ts]
We served it with "jag" (short for "jagacida", a Cape Verdean lima beans and rice dish) and some sautéed kale. The whole thing was brightened with a sprinkling of some hazelnut gremolata that I made for another dish.

[js]
My favourite part of the meal was the jagacida, mixed in with the kale. So my comments on that taste would have to wait until then.

To be honest, the pork stew was somewhat "unfamiliar" to me -- or rather, it smelled "unfamiliar." The consensus around our dinner table was that the aroma was almost a tad too overwhelming, too wine-y and too vinegar-y. Or maybe it's something else altogether. Unfortunately, it deterred some members of the family.

When one bites into the pork, though, the flavours of the marinade did not really penetrate through to the meat; they were more muted. The marinade-turned-sauce just provided an acidic counterpoint to the brown porkiness of the meat. The acidic highpoints and the background of smoky savouriness from the spices complemented the creamy, butteriness of the jagacida.

If anything, I would have liked this pork stew more if it was not too wine-y and vinegar-y. And, I can take more garlic. I love the combination of allspice, cinnamon, and cumin and would not be averse to playing with it more.

Not quite the knockout dish I was hoping for, but it did make for a good comforting meal.

[eatingclub] vancouver Portuguese meal
Vinho d'Alhos (Portuguese Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)
Sautéed Kale
Jag (Jagacida, Cape Verdean Beans and Rice)
Hazelnut Gremolata

Other Portuguese dishes
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

Recipes from PortugueseCooking.com
http://www.portuguesecooking.com/recipes/main_dishes/vinha_dalhos
http://www.portuguesecooking.com/recipes/main_dishes/_wine_and_garlic_marinated_pork_vinho_dalhos

Recipe
Vinho d'Alhos
(Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)
adapted from recipes by Ana Patuleia Ortins (http://www.portuguesecooking.com/)

2 1/2 pounds pork butt, cut into cubes

Marinade
1/2 cup white wine
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
4 kernels allspice
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
pinch red chili flakes (to taste)

Combine marinade ingredients together. Add pork. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator, or for 3 to 4 days.

When ready to cook, remove pork from the marinade. Pat dry. Set marinade aside.

Heat a pot and add oil. Brown pork cubes; you may need to work in batches. Once all the pork cubes are browned, place them and the marinade in the pot. Let boil, then turn the heat to low and let simmer until pork is tender, about 1 hour or so.


We're submitting this to The Culinary Tour Around the World, created by our virtual tour guide, Joan of Foodalogue.