latin flavor meets italian papa al pomodoro soup

we were at st john, in the us virgin islands, last week and had a hodge-podge of meals. i was inspired by a restaurant that was a first for us on this most recent visit. sweet plantains is located in the tiny east end corner of st john, coral bay. http://www.sweetplantains-stjohn.com/ i enjoyed an erotic martini (see their menu) and dan a frosty presidente. the evening we chose to dine featured latin foods. caribbean foods have many inspirations latin being one. to celebrate the trip and fabulous food here is a humble version of a latin soup but incorporating some organic, whole wheat sourdough bread and thus the papa al pomodoro!

i started the chicken in the crock pot and let it cook all day.

3 boneless, skinless chicken breast

5 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 cups chicken broth

1 can of tomato paste

1 can of V8 ('cause i had it on hand)

1/4 cup celery (though I've heard latin dishes do not traditionally use celery. i had it. it needed to be used up!)

3 T dried cilantro

1 tsp white pepper

1/4 cup white wine (i had semi sweet on hand)

1T chili powder

2 T anchiote pepper powder/paste i picked up in mexico

soup papa al pomodpro...

saute in a soup pot with a dash of olive oil until tender, about 8 minutes...

2 carrots, chopped

1 medium sweet onion, chopped

add the broth from the crock pot reserving the breast to shred with a fork.

1 cup corn kernels (frozen from a local harvest if you saved some when in season)

1 cup black beans

shredded chicken

2 cups diced stale bread and

juice from 1 lime (do half at a time to taste, the lime i used was tiny)

top with fresh chopped cilantro and diced red onion or avocado

tada!

crazy busy in the kitchen

3 before photos

...but not cooking too much! Although my second kitchen is certified by the pa dept of ag to bake we are working on getting things updated to have it commercially certified. This will allow me to cook and sell without looking over my shoulder. The inspection is set for June 9th! So many things to finish up until then. We need to put the back splash up and the floor down.

Here is what the kitchen looked like before. The faux brick on the wall and floor was ... well, faux. We refaced the cabinets; the custom scallops on the underside of the cabinets are charming. The orange sponge painted walls was very busy. Dan and his father have been very busy and I have been painting like a pro!