Backyard Caldo

Several weeks ago, my housecleaner, Francisca, stopped me as I was clearing out of the house. It was 7:45 a.m., and my Spanish isn’t what it used to be, but I tried hard to concentrate, listening for words I recognized such as “sábanas (sheets),” “vacuum,” or “Comet.” I heard none of these, but I did catch the phrase “sopa de pollo.” Chicken soup?

Francisca led me into the backyard, to my sugar pea plot. Fingering the delicate, new shoots, my Guatemala-born housecleaner explained that the leaves make a tasty chicken soup. I’ve had pea shoots stir-fried, but for the first time I sampled the young pea shoots raw. They’re tender and sweet, tasting mildly of sugar peas. It’s no surprise that birds will eat the plants down to their stems if I don’t cover them. As the plant matures, the older leaves grow tough and bitter, and I no longer have to worry about protecting them.

I hesitated to take Francisca’s suggestion, as I so love sugar peas, I was loath to steal any shoots and curb the plants’ production. But now the peas are nearly spent, so there was no harm last night in plucking leaves from the few remaining shoots of new growth.

I made a classic caldo—a popular Central American soup of chunks of vegetables and meat in a simple broth—and tossed the pea leaves in at the last minute. Barely cooked, they remained sweet, fragrant, and pleasantly chewy. We improved the broth with Meyer lemons, as that’s what’s in the backyard, and Iguana golden habañero pepper sauce, which has been sitting in the pantry since it appeared in a stocking Christmas morning. Both were great additions.

Caldo de Francisca

1-1/2 quarts chicken stock
6 chicken thighs
1 chopped onion
6 small potatoes, cut in half
1 zucchini, cut into large chunks
1 large carrot, peel and sliced into large coins
2 ears corn, broken into sections
a handful of young sugar pea leaves

Bring the stock to a boil and add chicken thighs. Simmer 10 minutes, skimming off any foam. Add vegetables and simmer another 10 minutes. Add pea leaves and simmer another minute. Serve in large bowls with warmed tortillas, lime or lemon wedges, and hot sauce.