Caldo Gallego, South Florida Style is a recipe in the Nancie McDermott cookbook, “Southern Soups & Stews.” I bought this book at one of the Friends of the Cumberland County Library book sales for a dollar or maybe two. At some point, I put this book in the basket in my bathroom as reading material, and then forgot about it as it was pushed back behind several old issues of “Our State” Magazine. Today, I was pulling out the Our State Magazines and found that I had an old Bible beneath them. As I pulled out the Bible, I realized that I also had another book, and then I saw it was a cookbook.
I looked through the cookbook again and on many pages the name of the person who provided the soup recipe was also listed in the recipe’s title. So, when I came to the page with the heading, “Caldo Gallego, South Florida Style,” I mistakenly thought that the recipe’s author was a man named Caldo Gallego. It was only after making my version of this soup that I noted the title didn’t actually mention what kind of soup this was, so I googled for “Caldo Gallego,” and to my surprise Caldo Gallego isn’t a person, but a well known Galician stew and that “Caldo Gallego” actually means “Galician broth.”
The recipe in the book does allow for substitutions such as Andouille or Smokey Kielbasa for Chorizo, and even Spanish Chorizo for the Mexican version (they don’t mention that the regular Chorizo wasn’t from Mexico). I like the Spanish Chorizo with it’s dark reddish color caused by the massive amount of Smoked Paprika in it. The Spanish Chorizo that I have tried comes in a hard link form. The Mexican Chorizo is a fresh sausage and I don’t think it includes any Paprika, smoked or otherwise. I usually have some of the Hillshire Farms Beef Polska Kielbasa in my refrigerator (for my Zucchini/Shrimp/Kielbasa dish) so that is what I used for this soup. I also used cheap bacon.
I also substituted Cannellini beans for the listed Navy beans, more of a case of those beans being easier to find in my larder. Using the word “larder” is an inside joke just to me, because not too long ago I was watching an episode of “The Kitchen” and one of the chefs, Geoffrey Zakarian, used the word “larder” and then had to explain what it was to the rest of the chefs. I think there was some mention that the name larder probably came from the place being where you stored your “lard.”
As I often do, this reminds me of something else, the old smoke house that was located behind the house I grew up in. The house was located on the corner of Highway 24 and Queens Creek Road, and diagonally across from the old Swansboro High School (or at least the old high school that I attended and graduated from in 1972).
The old house, a two story was moved a short distance down Queens Creek Road, when Highway 24 was widened (1970s?). The current Swansboro Burger King is located on that corner now, and when I sit in a booth beside the drive thru, I am sitting about where the old smoke house was located.
The smoke house was small and tall, about the size of a large outhouse. The outside walls were covered with a sandy grained asphalt “tar paper,” and the inside was wood that had been seasoned with the smoke that had seasoned many country hams. It had a good smell, and the wood was dark, even though it might have been originally a light pine. The floor instead of dirt was covered by salt, which I guess had also covered the outside of those hams.
I never attended “a hog killing,” but there was a large black cast iron pot (a cauldron) that was probably used to cook down the fat or meat. It was beside the smokehouse, near it’s door. Actually, I don’t know what was put in the pot.
My version of Caldo Gallego turned out really well. I would definitely make it again. I waited until the soup was almost done before adding the large chunks of Russet potatoes. I don’t like my potatoes mushy and if you add them too soon that is what they become.
3 Bean Salad from Wegman’s.
I wanted to remind myself that I would like to bring a 3 bean (+) salad for Christmas to Mary Ann’s. I am supposing that I will go there at some point for Christmas dinner. Now that I know she likes the Peppadew peppers (red ones from Farm Fresh) and I think she mentioned the roasted garlic also, I have another idea. I might add a Black bean to this mix along with the peppadews and the Red Biquinho peppers. *As an aside, I didn’t connect the fresh Biquinho peppers I bought at the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh two years ago with the little pickled peppers that I get at the olive/pickle bar at Farm Fresh.
I’m not sure why I’ve included Fava beans in my list. I think I may have thought they were equivalent to the Edamame (young green soy bean) beans that go in the Quinoa salad that I originally got at Publix. The Fayetteville Publix no longer has their deli salad bar. Recall I also liked their Wakami salad (seaweed) but have since found the basic seaweed salad at Hex in Cary, and am able to “doctor it up” to make it just like Publix offered.
I just noticed at how much the two photos (fava beans, marcona almonds) look alike. They are not and would not be use to replace each other in ANY recipe… unless you go nuts.
Oh, I do eventually want to take a strong run at replicating the Dolce K Olive & Fruit Mix which is found on the Olive/Pickle Bar at Whole Foods. This has the blanched Marcona almonds which look a lot like peeled garlic, but are slightly crunchy and taste nothing like garlic. The olives take on the sweet vinegary flavor but I think it is the orange and lemon zest that flavors them interestingly.
There are cranberries, mustard seeds, orange & lemon zest, marcona almonds and olives (not sure which kind??) in a sweet vinegary liquid. The almonds are slightly crunchy, so they aren’t roasted beforehand.
Later Note: I have since made this Mediterranean Olive Mix (Dolce “K” Olive Mix) at home successfully. The white raisins I used rehydrated to almost their original size and some were almost the size of the olives I had used.
I zested my own orange rind successfully. Here is the zester I bought to try to make the zesting process faster.
Bill Gibson, II 