get my groove on

Once again I have let my blogging fall to the way side but that is now going to change. First let me tell you that I have a calendar available and if you would be oh so kind as to purchase one I would be forever in your gratitude. Its less than 2o bucks but the joy and beauty that it brings is priceless - plus you get to have a little bit of me hanging around your house for a whole year! Buy a few and make wallpaper or use them to line the bird cage or whatever your hearts desire. I know it isnt a cookbook and believe me when I tell you that I have finally succumbed to the powers that be and I am working on one so if there is some special something that you would like to see included in this cooking tome please let me know - if I dont include things that people actually want to make then what good is it anyway?



Recently I was asked to make something that not only had I never had before I also had never even heard of and this almost sent me into a tail spin of glee and delight. Sopa de Gallina or Old Hen Soup is apparently popular in many cultures, I found out. Each culture prepares it a little different but the foundation is an old hen and the eggs that come with it, you heard that right, unlaid eggs. Rather than go to a chicken slaughter house and hope that they had what I wanted I decided to simply get the eggs separate and an old hen, or stew chicken as I have heard them called, and merge them in the pot.



I went for a Caribbean/Hispanic approach with yucca, yautia and batata rounding out the starch.



Celery, onions, garlic, carrots and red chile sauted with some collard greens, a bay leaf and the cut up hen until everything was golden and delicious - add water then this bad boy, or more correctly this old hen, simmered for about 4 hours. Tough old bird that she was, this chicken didnt fall apart that easily.



I readied a bowl to photograph and the rest was delivered to its owner. This soup had more flavor and oompf than any chicken soup I have ever had and the addition of the unlaid eggs made this one action packed bowlful.



I removed the outer membrane of the other half of these immature eggs, you can see it here.



With the membrane removed they were then salt cured because I read about something like this.



These eggs turned out great after a 24 hour salt cure, dense but ooey gooey creamy inside.




Equally good on and english muffin with butter as they are with melted cheese in a corn tortilla, I have a new friend and this friend is the unlaid egg. Anyone have any ideas on how to make these little gems into something spectacular?