Cubans have long been suffering from desperate food shortages, with people forced to wait for up to five hours a day to collect their rations of meat, poultry, eggs, rice, beans and other staples. The USA’s blockade has catalysed the nation’s most recent crisis, in which we met Juana-Maria, who struggles daily to get by. Cuba’s communist government regularly runs out of money to pay for food, two-thirds of which is imported. Hence the inflated costs at which we had to purchase the few ingredients that make up this warming - but humble - plantain soup.
Juana Maria lives in a teeny flat on the outskirts of Havana. We took a 40 minute taxi - an ancient 1950s Chevrolet - through streets pocked with pot-holes, past rainbow coloured shanty houses and effervescent locals blasting Salsa from their boomboxes in the street to get to her.
After whipping this up in her kitchen, which could barely squeeze two of us in, we sat down in the living room, crammed with bric-a-brac and religious icons, and tucked into our soup. Somehow, Juana Maria had managed to turn just three ingredients – a plantain, chicken stock and an onion (she adds gouda when she can find it) – into a delicious, hearty meal. We were even more surprised to hear the role her husband had, had in La Revolucion and sat like children at story time, handling her ratio book and listening to her recount the first days of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro’s Revolution in La Habana.
Juana Maria uses a variation of the following ingredients, depending on what she can get her hands on in Havana. If she’s without garlic, she will use more onion, or vice versa. The core ingredients are onion, plantain and chicken broth. The fried plantain can be substituted with baked plantain chips for a healthier, speedier alternative.
Feeds 6
Takes 50 minutes
Ingredients
1 chicken carcass (fresh from the butcher or left over from a roast)
1.5l water
1 onion, peeled and quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled and bashed
3 unripe green plantains, peeled and sliced into 2–3mm rounds
600ml vegetable oil, for deep frying (or follow the option to bake)
200g Gouda, grated
handful fresh coriander, chopped
Method
In a large pot, put the chicken carcass, water, onion and garlic. Bring to the boil and then simmer on a low heat for about 40 minutes.
While your broth is simmering, tend to your plantains. You want to make sure your plantains are nice and green; this means they won’t be too sweet and will be super-starchy inside – perfect for thickening the soup. Your slices should be thin (don’t be tempted to slice fatter than 3mm), as the aim is to deep-fry or bake them so they are really crispy, then blend them into a powder.
To deep- fry: heat the oil in a pan suitable for deep-frying and then fry the plantain rounds in batches, ensuring your oil is sizzling hot before the plantain goes in. Take care not to overcrowd the pan or let the pieces touch each other. After about 6 minutes, or when the plantain is deep golden brown all over, remove with a slotted spoon and place on a kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil. Repeat until all the plantain is done. Allow the slices to cool – they should be nice and crisp.
To bake: preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6, and lay the rounds out on a couple of lined baking trays. Pop them in the oven for around 15–20 minutes or until they’ve lifted from the sheet at the edges and turned pale with touches of light brown. Remove from the oven and allow to crisp up as they cool.
Reserve a few for decoration and then crush the plantain slices to a powder using a spice grinder or blender, or if you’re feeling strong like Juana Maria, in a pestle and mortar. You may have to do it in a couple of batches. Pulse and scrape down the sides until it reaches a sandy texture.
Once your broth is ready, discard the onion, garlic , pepper and chicken. Add your crushed plantain to the broth and stir until the soup thickens. Season to taste, and if you like your soup a bit thinner, add a little more water.
As a final touch, you can add grated Gouda cheese and top with a sprinkling of fresh coriander and the crispy plantain you set aside earlier.