Dec. 17, 2008 — At the recent Christmas Festival "Soup Du Cure" fundraiser for Juan F. Luis Hospital, Ive and Carlos Lisse showcased sopón navideño, or Puerto Rican Christmas soup, a flavorful, brothy chicken soup with rice, green bananas, chilies, pigeon peas, cilantro, garlic and more.
They offered a wealth of information about the traditional soup and its recipe, which we now provide to you.
Puerto Ricans are known for their unforgettable parrandas, according to the Lisses. A parranda is when a small group of friends gather together to surprise another friend. It's the Puerto Rican version of Christmas caroling. Most parranderos play some sort of instrument, either "guitarras, taboriles, guiro maracas or palitos." And they all sing. A parranda tends to be more secular than religious.
However, many of the traditional aquinaldos, or Puerto Rican Christmas songs, retain the holiday spirit. The parranderos arrive at the destination and very quietly gather by the front door. At a signal all start playing their instruments and singing. The parrandas usually begin after 10 p.m. to surprise and wake the sleeping friend. The parranderos are invited in and refreshments, music and dance follow. The party goes on for an hour or two, then everyone — including the owners of the house — leave to parrandear some more. The group grows as they offer their parranda at several houses during that night. At the last house, probably around 3 or 4 in the morning, the homeowner offers the traditional sopón navideño, also known as asopao.
Sopón Navideño, or Puerto Rican Christmas Soup
(serves six)
— 1 and 1/2 cups short-grained rice
— 3 garlic cloves, pressed
— 2 peppercorns
— 2 medium onions, peeled
— 2 sweet chili or banana peppers
— 4-6 culantro (Caribbean cilantro) leaves or 6-8 sprigs of cilantro
— 2 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
— 3 tablespoons plus one teaspoon olive oil
— 1 and 1/2 cup diced cooking ham
— whole chicken, cut up
— pinch of oregano
— 1/2 cup tomato sauce
— 8 cups water or chicken stock
— a 4-ounce can of whole, roasted pimento peppers, sliced
— 2 cans gandules (pigeon peas)
Bolitas de guinea (green banana dumplings for the soup)
— 5 large green bananas, peeled and shredded in a food processor
— pinch of crushed garlic, dash of salt
Form dumplings from 1/2 tablespoonfuls of shredded banana, garlic and salt. Set aside.
Cook the rice and set aside.
Rub the chicken with salt, pepper and oregano and one teaspoon olive oil and salt and set aside for 30 minutes. In the blender, purée the garlic, onions, peppercorns, chili peppers, cilantro and sweet peppers and the rest of the olive oil. This liquid is sofrito.
In a large caldero or Dutch oven, add the gandules to the stock or water and bring to a boil. While the stock and gandules boil, sauté the ham for a few minutes, then add the sofrito to the ham and cook about four more minutes.
Brown the chicken pieces to seal in their flavor. Add the stock with the gandules, sofrito, ham and tomato sauce to the chicken and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Rinse the rice under cool running water until it runs clear. Drain the rice and stir into the soup pot. Raise the heat and bring it to a boil once more. Reduce the heat to medium and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the bollitas de guinea. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Or cook the bollitas de guinea in stock, drain, dry and use them to garnish each bowl of asopao.
If you have any traditional Crucian, Caribbean or other holiday recipes you would like to share with our readers, please email Bill Kossler.
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