Soup Joumou: some recipies

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: LOUIS5@aol.com

Dear Guy:

In my book, I have two recipes of Soup Joumou.

I just made an easy one for a museum in Florida and here it is:

YELLOW SQUASH SOUP (HAITIAN SOUP JOUMOU)
BY LILIANE NERETTE LOUIS
Haitian Storyteller, President of Just the Way it Was, Inc.
Author of When Night Falls, Kric! Krac!

The Haitian people are proud of their glory.  Being the first black 
independent country in the Western Hemisphere, the people of Haiti had to 
come up with an exclusive dish that can measure to the festivities of this 
special Independence Day, January 1st 1804.  Therefore for almost 200 years, 
January first is the day the Haitian Yellow Squash Soup must be the best.  On 
that day, the soup must be brightly yellow with lot of meat.  Yellow being 
the color that will make money flow into the household, no Haitian will miss 
their Yellow Squash Soup, no matter where they have migrated.  As the Haitian 
people are getting ready to celebrate the next millennium, no doubt, they are 
preparing to make the very best Yellow Squash Soup

Note:  The squash is called also pumpkin or (calabaza).


This is a recipe of Yellow Squash Soup made easy for young people who have a 
passion for exotic cooking.  

Use a large stockpot and a wooden spoon to turn the soup from time to time 
while being cooked.

3 pounds of beef meat, containing some bone with the marrow.  Cut the meat in 
pieces and add ½ tablespoon of salt, 3 cloves, thyme to taste, the juice of a 
lime, 2 cloves of garlic crushed and one tablespoon of parsley finely 
chopped. Cook the meat covered in two cups of boiling water over medium heat, 
adding boiling water from time to time until the meat becomes very tender.  

When the meat is tender, add all the following ingredients that have been 
clean, wash, peeled as needed and cut small or in cubes and enough boiling 
water to cover all the ingredients to a depth of one inch over: 

3 pounds yellow squash peeled (remove strings, seed and cut in few pieces) 2 
carrots, 1 large onion, 1 medium turnip, one stalk of celery, 1 or 2 small to 
medium taro (malanga), 2 medium potatoes, 4 leaves of sorrel if they can be 
found and one tablespoon of salt.  (Cover.)


Remove the yellow squash when cook and smash it until it becomes a puree.  
Add 2 cups of hot water to the mashed squash and pour it back to the soup.  

Add at last ½ cup of macaroni or spaghetti or vermicella, (angel hair).  When 
all is tender add 2 tablespoons of parsley finely chopped, 2 cloves of 
crushed garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of butter or 
margarine, the juice of one fresh lime and a whole green hot pepper, no cut, 
just for smell and a pinch of pepper.  Taste the soup and add salt if needed. 
 

Now reduce heat from medium to low and let cook uncovered, turning from time 
to time with the wooden spoon an additional 10 minutes before serving.