Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/3323/-1/126/
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Recipes: Soup Spoons by Chef Daniel Orr
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Daniel Orr is Executive Chef at Kitchen Stadium, Santorini Restaurant, Famiglia and the Tapas Lounge and Rum Bar at CuisinArt Resort and Spa and is working on A Chef’s Diet Cookbook and Paradise Kitchen. Visit his website at www.chef-daniel-orr.com
Soup Spoons
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Chef Daniel Orr
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Soup just sounds smooth and reassuring, doesn’t it? Even the way it rolls off our tongue sounds as comforting as the gentle rounded vessel we sip it from. No aggressive knife or pointed forks needed. Our modern lives often make us think that making homemade soup is just for weekends or even worse, only for holiday entertaining. Soup is actually easy to make, can be made ahead, enjoyed for more than one meal, and often freezes well for future use.
There was a time when soup was a staple in America. In the Caribbean and many other places in the world, it still is. In cultures where ingredients are scarce and people are hungry, adding water to a few gathered ingredients can feed the family. In hot weather, hot soups can actually make you feel cooler.
Too often we forget the old tale of the hungry traveler who makes “stone soup” for his more fortunate mistress and her husband and gets a meal of his own in the making. Soup has its seductive tricks.
Caribbean soups are plentiful. Though they are now part of culinary pop culture, they have their roots in the necessity of a hungry belly. Today, pepper pots, callaloo soup, gumbos and chowders are festive dishes, but their history speaks of survival. Soup in paradise, as in many other places, has its stock in the common man. A food for all.
While at New York’s La Grenouille we often served soups to the rich and famous and “the ladies who lunch.” The owner, Madame Masson, insisted that we do so because soups are “easy to talk through.” Forks full of lettuce and crunchy toasts of pate are wonderful, but if you are in an important business deal, soup will keep you ready and able to jump in with a “bon mot” or with facts and figures that can seal the deal.
Buy a good heavy-duty stainless steel pot and brush up on your soup recipes. Call it potage, bisque, velouté, or just plain old soup, it is “good food” and will keep you feeling great during times of feast or famine. In Anguilla, there is a saying when someone shows up unexpectedly around dinnertime – a good Old Wife will “add some water to the pot.” We had a very similar saying back in Indiana. The more things are different the more they are the same.
West Indian Pumpkin and Banana Bisque
This soup is wonderful with any hard squash like butternut, acorn or sweet dumpling. Up north we think of pumpkin as a winter thing, but it is used all year long throughout the Caribbean and in Brazil.
Yield: approximately 2 quarts
¼ cup olive oil
2 Spanish onions, (roughly chopped)
4 shallots, (minced)
4 cloves garlic, (minced)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
2 butternut squash (or similar amount of other hard squash or pumpkin)
1 ripe banana
1 green apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1 hot cherry pepper (available in Caribbean markets)
4 cups water (or light vegetable or chicken stock)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon Anguillian Jerk Spice Rub (available at CuisinArt Resort gift shop)
juice of one lime
salt and pepper to taste
Heat a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan over medium high heat. Drizzle in the olive oil and follow with the onions, shallots, garlic and ginger. Reduce heat and sweat (cooking until tender but without coloring.) Peel the squash and discard the seeds and peels in the compost. Add the squash and the remaining ingredients except the lime and salt and pepper. Return heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring often. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until squash is tender.
Remove cherry pepper (unless you like it spicier) and purée in a Cuisinart blender until very smooth. Season to taste with the lime, salt and pepper.
I’d love to hear from you. I am collecting recipes and stories for future articles and books and would love to include your favorite family recipes and food memories from the kitchen, the garden or the sea. You can reach me at
kitchdorr@aol.comor stop me on the road if you see the CuisinArt Chef Mobile.