Turtle soup for the Cuban soul

This post is directed at the Cubans currently on the island and that are protein deficient. More specifically, it is for those Cubans that live in Western Cuba, near the Guanahacabibes Peninsula in Pinar del Rio. EC offers the following recipe, selected because it seems simple, the ingredients are easy to get, and it is an authentic Cuban recipe. Therefore, instead of just going out into the streets blindly “para resolver,” just go directly to where an abundant supply of food is available, and I don’t mean the hotels for tourists, you wouldn’t be allowed to enter them anyway.

This recipe is the same recipe that appeared in the book “Delicias de la Mesa – Manual de Cocina y Repostería” by Marí Antonieta Reyes Gavilán y Moenck, edited in Havana, Cuba in 1925, and since Cuba is actually going back in time this recipe is just as good today.

First make a good turtle broth from the turtle meat, once the meat is very tender put it through a grinder and add to the broth. Add one cup of white wine (Chilean), which can be purchased at the diplotienda, in foreign currency. Add salt, minced clove of garlic, minced onions, pepper and give it a little color with roasted saffron. Instead of saffron, which I am sure will cost you a couple of month’s wages, use the Bijol sent by your cousin in Miami. Let it boil for a while, place in a soup to urine, I mean soup tourine, slices of hard-boiled eggs; I think that we should refresh your memory right here. The egg, well you probably would not recognize it, so lets just skip the egg, and use some soybean substitute. To the tourine add fried bread and cover with the soup brooth and turtle meat. It may take you a couple of months to gather the ingredients, but tremenda sopa, and it will keep you busy. Busy people don’t have time for counterrevolution.

Well, I’ll take it back. This simple recipe is not as easy as I thought. After all this is Cuba, we are talking about. Y las cosas no son tan fácil. At least the main ingredient you can get now. Right [here].