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!