Puchero: the Colombian Everything Soup

Luca's plate. He was our seven year old guest who told me this soup needed raw tomatoes. I think he was right.

I made a horrible, lean, watery cabbage soup that I had to feed to the chickens because it was so bad. I had trusted the cookbook author and followed the recipe exactly. Big mistake, but here is the antidote. Chicken, beef, AND pork! It's rich and satisfying. It won't leave you wondering if times are really so desperate after all, and it serves 12. So make it for a big group, or make it once and freeze the rest for future dinners when you need something instant. You need an ENORMOUS pot. 

This recipe calls for yuca, or cassava. You can usually find it in a Latin grocery store, and sometimes already peeled in the frozen section. It has a nice gummy texture; I believe tapioca is made from yuca. The preparation is simple. Peel it, cut it into manageable 2" sections, and remove the tough cord that grows down the center since it's impossible to chew. It wasn't until later that I read somewhere that it's poisonous before you cook it. It would have been nice to know earlier, but I was never tempted to pop the woody tuber in my mouth anyway. Here is a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to prepare yuca for cooking if you feel like you need it. 

The tomato sauce that seasons the whole dish is so good I will at least double it next time. It would be so good over eggs or spooned onto just about anything. This recipe is from Saveur, and they based it on a recipe from Secrets of Colombian Cooking by Patricia McCausland-Gallo. 

Yuca. It's probably imported from Costa Rica, so you can hardly call it local. Try it once anyway.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large tomato
3/4 cup chopped scallions
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon saffron
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons minced cilantro

1 whole chicken
1-1/2 pounds pork spareribs, separated
1 pound beef brisket or stew meat
3 scallions
a few springs of cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
4 cloves garlic

2 pounds cassava, peeled and cut into 2" pieces
2 pounds of potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

3 avocados sliced for serving
white rice to serve along with the soup

Directions:
1. Begin with the tomato sauce. Heat up olive oil in a skillet, and sauté the tomato, scallions, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin and saffron until it's soft. Add the cilantro, turn the heat down, and cook until it's all very soft. Put it in a small bowl and set it aside. 

2. Put the spareribs, chicken, beef, salt, garlic, whole scallions, and cilantro springs into a huge pot and cover it all with water by 1". Bring it to a boil, skim the scum, and lower the heat to medium-low. Simmer it until the chicken is cooked through, a little over an hour. 

3. Remove the chicken from the pot. When it is cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the skin and bones. Set the chicken meat aside. Add the yuca and potatoes to the pot and cook for about 10 minutes. Add in the cabbage, cover the pot loosely, and simmer it until the vegetables are tender, another 20-30 minutes. When the potatoes and yuca feel tender, add the chicken meat back to the pot and stir in the reserved tomato sauce. Season it with salt and pepper and allow it to simmer for a few more minutes to blend the flavors. Serve the soup in large bowls with avocado and rice on the side. 

So yes, the avocado and rice are supposed to be on the side, but it was good in the soup too.

The pot on the left is the one I use to make this. The one on the right is my normal stock pot.