Salted pig tail Soup

By dedmund

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs of salted pig tails (ask your butcher to cut into 2 inch pieces)
• 2 medium potatoes (peeled and diced)
• 3 eddoes (peeled and diced)
• 1 1/2 lbs yam (not the sweet stuff – ask for Caribbean yam)
• 1 cup split peas
• 8 cups of water
• 1 can coconut milk (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 carrot (peeled and diced)
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tablespoon of green seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 hot pepper (optional)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 lime (juice)
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Feel free to add other ground provisions like cassava and green bananas as well as simple flour dumplins.

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from caribbeanpot.com

Preparation

Step 1

Let’s get started by washing the pieces of pig tails with the juice of the lime and water. After which place the pieces of meat into a deep sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 20 minutes. We’re trying to get rid of some of the brine/salt that the pig tails were cured in. After which you drain the water out and get ready for the next step in cooking (below).

While this is cooking, let’s dice the garlic and onion. Add the oil to a very deep saucepan (keep in mind how much ingredients we have to fit in there) and heat, then add the diced onion and garlic. When the onion is soft (translucent), add the pieces of pig tails that you boiled for 20 minutes before.

After about 3 minutes we can start adding some of the other ingredients like… black pepper, thyme, coconut milk, green seasoning and the hot pepper. Wash the split peas and also add this to the pot. The split peas and pig tails will take a long time to cook and get tender. Almost forgot… add the 8 cups of water, bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a gentle simmer. This will now have to cook for about 1 hr.

While this is simmering away (pot covered) let’s peel and dice the vegetables we’ll be adding.

You can prepare this step before-hand, but remember to place the vegetable in a large bowl and cover with cold water to prevent them from going discolored. The next step is to now add the vegetables to the pot, bring back to a boil, then reduce back to a simmer. Allow this to continue cooking for about 20 minutes. I like my yams and potatoes well cooked, to the point where it’s melting away.

Let’s recap the cooking time so you’re clear.

- boil pig tails for 20 minutes then drain

- add vegetable and cook for a further 20 minutes.

NOTE: You’ll notice that I didn’t add any salt in the cooking process. This is because the pig tails should add enough salt to the entire dish, even though we already boiled it before. Feel free to taste at the end and add any additional salt if required. If there’s ever the chance that I need to add salt, I usually add about a teaspoon of “golden ray” margarine (salted butter).