JAMAICAN HOME-MADE PIGEON PEAS SOUP
Ingredients:
One pint of freshly shelled pigeon peas, preferably reaped on the same day.
350g of corned silverside or corned pork, some hock or ham bone.
sweet potatoes, taro or yams
coconut milk (freshly made), creamed coconut, or coconut cream.
onions or spring onions.
herbs: sweet basil, thyme, pimento leaves, bird peppers or chilli-peppers.
Method:
Precook meat. When it is fairly tender, add peas. After about 10 minutes, add dumplings, thinly sliced taro, and a few bits of sweet potatoes as a yam substitute. As soon as these are cooked, add the coconut milk and seasoning. Stir and simmer for five minutes. Serve hot.
NOTE: Green pigeon peas soup is summer fare and is consumed in every Jamaican hamlet, as a main course meal, when pigeon peas are in season. The green and tender peas are the most important component of the soup. Other ingredients are: salted beef or pork, dumplings, yams, taros, coconut milk, onions and fresh herbs.
DATE: January 1987
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