Passport & Plate - Sopas: Day Before Christmas
Ingredients
2 Teaspoon Butter
3 Tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup cabbage, shredded
Half cup carrots, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, diced
1 small can evaporated Milk
250 grams elbow Macaroni
1 cup Chicken Stock
1/2 cup shredded Chicken
Fish sauce and pepper to taste
Boiled Eggs (optional)
How to prepare this recipeFirst part:
1. Boil the chicken until half cook, set aside the water where the chicken was cooked, this will be use as the chicken stock.
2. Shred the chicken thinly, set aside.
Second part:
1. Heat a pan and put in the olive oil
2. Sautee garlic, onion and carrots until medium soft, add a little bit of fish sauce
3. Add in the shredded chicken breast and cook for some minutes
Note: While doing the second part simultaneously boil the macaroni pasta using the chicken stock
Final part:
1. When the macaroni turns al dente, put in the pot the previously sauteed onion/garlic/carrots/shredded chicken, bring to a boil
2. Pour in one small can of evaporated milk
3. Add the shredded cabbage
4. Put in the butter
5. Put fish sauce to taste
6. Let it simmer for five to ten minutes or until shredded cabbage is cooked.
7. Garnish with boiled eggs (optional)
8. Smile and serve with a happy heart.
The story behind this recipeI wish I can tell you that this recipe came from my great grandmother's kitchen, a carefully guarded culinary secret passed on from generation to generation, but, it didn't. This recipe simply reminds me of those nights before Christmas, where my father, with his excellent culinary skill would whip out this soup, in anticipation of the big feast that is about to come.
Sopas, a popular hearty and creamy soup has been served not just only during Christmas but consumed most popularly during snack time or merienda as we call it back home. And yet, whenever I make this dish, I just could not relate it to any ordinary day, it has to be that day before Christmas, where four of us children would excitedly sit on our little wooden dining table, waiting for Dad to hand us over little bowls full of piping hot milky goodness. As always, we cannot wait to dig in. Burnt tongue be damned and Daddy's warning echoing, "Careful! its hot!".
The first time I made it on my own, I was 24 and in a foreign shore and badly missing the taste of home. A bit hesitant whether I can re-create it on my own, I mentally noted that I have all the ingredients, a consolation that if it does not turn out well, atleast, all the ingredients are there. Then I bravely turned on the stove, laying each ingredients carefully, crossing my fingers they will turn out well. Sautee, simmer, transfer from one pot to the other, wait to a boil, turn off the stove. Then, judgment time. I close my eyes, spoon to my mouth, and boy, was it glorious. Tasted just like dad's.
I kid you not, I cried. All of those memories of the night before Christmas, in my family home, came rushing back. Suddenly I was 4 or 5 or 6, sitting in anticipation for this warm soup, where my father would carefully lay a brimming piping hot bowl before me, with a careful warning to wait just a little bit in order not to burn my tongue. Suddenly, in a foreign land, on a seemingly ordinary day, it felt like day before Christmas again.
