One of the best things about having a kitchen in the
apartment is shopping in the local markets and bringing Mexican flavor to my
own cooking. I decided on a simple dish that could adapt to seasonal variety:
sopa de todo (an "everything" stone soup). With the sketch of a
recipe in mind, I headed off to the local market.
Step 1: Gather vegetables, eggs, and other ingredients. This
was my excuse to visit as many of the small produce stands as possible and
informally learn cooking techniques from the vendors. What is this vegetable
called? How do you cook it? My mom taught me this trick from her weekly visits
to the farmers’ market. It took me two trips back and forth to the market to
purchase all the ingredients, and the last trip involved very gently carrying a
bag of raw eggs.
Step 2: Wash ingredients, and cook everything in a big pot.
Having learned from my Mexican host mom a couple years ago, I was careful to
rinse all the vegetables in sanitized water. Then I attempted to stuff my
ambitiously large vegetable purchase of carrots, onion, spinach, chayote, tiny
red potatoes, Swiss chard, zucchini, and cilantro into a large pot. Separately,
I cooked lentil soup with tomatillos and onion.
Step 3: Let simmer and slowly enjoy.
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