Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Caldo Verde... delicious

The Portuguese stew Caldo Verde plus cornbread, from Cook's Illustrated Soups & Stews magazine, was a big win for our side*.

The stew was mostly kale and chorizo, with chicken broth thickened by potatoes (mashed up) and starting from onions and garlic. The local grocery had Niman Ranch Chorizo without nitrates, everyone was low sodium, and the strong flavors from the kale, chorizo and potatoes came together in a savory wonderland.

Alongside I made cornbread, which turned out to be very simple and came out with a golden brown crust and strong corn flavor and more bread-like consistency. It wasn't the small crumb, un-browned, somewhat bland brownie size cornbread that shows up in restaurants.

The entire meal was very easy to make and mostly was collecting + combining style cooking. The mini prep again made for fast onion chopping and garlic mincing, while a blender did the combination work for the cornbread.

All together it made 4 large meals with a bonus plate stacked with spare cornbread, which I confess I ate 3 pieces late one night as a snack. Everything was so good!



* The good guys of course!