W EL SANCOCHO

I had a title on my old blog post like this:

http://gigliocooking.blogspot.com/2013/02/w-el-sancocho.html

I “copy” the recipe here, in case the old blog is obscured, since it is no longer “fed” by other posts.

When at Giglio there was the sinking of the Costa Concordia, one of the things you saw and “felt” most was resignation. You could see it in the way people walked: head down, almost dragging their legs, often with the hands behind . There was a nightmare going on, that the people didn’t want to believe.

I noticed that same way of walking in the inhabitants of Puerto Rico.

I went to Portorico about one year after the “Concordia”: Caribbeans, tourism, beaches, sun.

But the atmosphere wasn’t really happy.

People were walking as though resigned.

The streets often without sidewalks are crossed by iguanas of many races and many “ages”: those with “fins” on their backs and striped in black and white are called “grandmothers”, because they are old. They are one of the the signs of the “little” authenticity left.

Colonial log houses and American style houses.

Yes, Puerto Ricans say, “they” call themselves “Americans”. But even here it is America. Up to Patagonia is America. Why are only “they” Americans? We are too and not because we are a US protectorate-nearly-state

If there are no scattered houses, and between one house and another, there is the tropical forest: broad banana leaves, hanging lianas and intrigue of foliage and branches.

Sometimes the intrigue of the forest is broken by American “installations”: Mc Donald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger’s king.

A screech at the sight that almost makes noise.

In supermarkets, also in American style, it is like being in the supermarket of any other American city: the same psycho-sociological disposition of the products, the same products.

But what are the typical foods of this place?

And where are they?

Incidentally: also in the Haway, I hoped to buy fish from fishermen; the fish we found was the one packed in plastic in supermarkets.

Do you know what my terror is? that Italy too gets to this point. The point where we won’t recognize our food.

This has been happening in Puerto Rico for decades.

The once slender and smiling inhabitants now walk with their heads down and their hands behind their backs, dragging an often fat and deformed body on their legs. You see them sitting on the stuffed chairs holding a sandwich, a colorful bag of jank food and a paper glass with a fluorescent soda drink.

My friend Vanessa took me to the last place to find the real products of the island: the market of San Sebastian: a city of 45.00 inhabitants which is about an hour by highway from where she lives and where she goes every Friday , market day.

Therefore, on an island as large as Corsica there is only one weekly market of local products left.

The most typical vegetables are plantans – a kind of non-sweet banana – and tuberculos

There are many varieties of both.

There are also tree fruits.

..legumes…..

All of this was photographed in one place. Because it is in one place.

How many can move from one city to another just to go shopping? To go to the capital San Juan, from here, it takes 3 hours on the highway.

Anyway, if you ever want to go there and buy the necessary ingredients, here you are the recpe of the famous Sanchoco.i

Ingredients:

a pot of homemade meat broth to prepare the day before
mixed meat cubes, usually beef and chicken
fresh corn, cut into pieces
plantains, peeled and cut into pieces
1 potato
1 or 2 tomatoes
green bananas (for making banana balls)
carrots
mixed tubercles, peeled and diced
chopped green pepper, onion and a little cilantro and garlic for the Caribbean mirepoix
wheat balls (see explanation below)
olive oil or coconut oil

For the meat broth:
Celery, carrot, onion, tomato, potato
½ hen
500 gr (1,1 libbre) beef meat
4 lt (1 gallon) water

For the broth: put the water and all the ingredients in a large pot (the ratio between the weight of the food and that of the water is 1 to 4). Bring to a quick boil, then lower the heat, add salt and simmer for at least 2 1/2 hours.

Caribbean Mirepoix :
1 sweet green pepper
1 onion
1 bunch of coriander – cilantro
1 minced garlic clove

cubes of beef and chicken ( about 100 gr for each person)
olive oil or cocnut oil
salt

Chop the vegetables together.
Heat the oil in a large pan. Brown the meat.
Add the chopped vegetables, season with salt and cook for a few minutes.

Wheat balls:
wheat flour
a few drops of olive oil
salt, for seasoning
enough hot water to obtain a soft and smooth paste
Make balls about the size of a walnut and set them aside.

Banana balls:
Peel the green bananas. Grease your hands with a few drops of oil. Make little balls with the grated pulp. Keep aside.

Plantains and tuberculos:
Preparation of the Sancocho:
Tubercles, plantains, corn, carrots, once peeled and cut, are cooked in the filtered meat broth. Halfway through cooking add the meat with its cooking juices; about twenty minutes before the end of cooking, add the green banana balls and the wheat balls. Season with salt.
The cooking of the Sacocho takes about two hours (plus all the previous preparation you see above).

Marcella Ansaldo