Calalloo

Ingredients

1 medium white onion, chopped

1 to 2 tablespoons garlic, to taste

1 share I’itoi onions (or a handful of scallions) – green tops only

1 sweet red pepper and/or 1 carrot (optional, for color)

1 jalepeño (cut to taste)

1 share okra, tips removed, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

About 2 cups pumpkin, cushaw or butternut squash, seeds removed, chunked

Two large handfuls of taro leaves (traditional) or baby spinach or chard leaves, chopped

1 13.5oz tin coconut milk + 1 tin water

1 hot pepper (ghost/habañero/serrano/scorpion), whole!

Pepper/salt to taste

Glug of olive oil plus 1 tablespoon salted butter

Directions

Heat oil to medium hot and saute onion and onion greens, garlic, as much of the jalepeño as you like and red pepper/carrot (if using) for a few minutes. Add okra, squash, taro, coconut milk and water. Cook on medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the stew comes to a boil, then simmer on low heat. When the taro leaves have softened, add the hot pepper – whole! Do not burst the pepper!’  The stew will cook through in about 45-50 minutes. Add butter. Remove the hot pepper and use a swizzle stick (traditional), stick blender or transfer stew to blender to puree. The calallo is properly swizzled when the taro is in bits and you can see the okra seeds. If you like, you can add whole crab (traditional), shrimp or salted meat (ox tail is traditional) 10-15 minutes before the calallo is ready. The meat must be removed (with the hot pepper!) for swizzling, then placed back in the soup before serving. Using sweet red pepper, carrots, cushaw or butternut makes a sweeter calallo. 

Submitted by Dana Rosenstein, Tucson CSA