Starting Somewhere (Pig Head Soup with Beet Greens, Pork Hearts, and Pork Tongue)

Let’s just start by talking about cooking. Last night, for instance, i finished making a pot of soup. The whole thing started in my crockpot (the kind with the removable ceramic bowl), with half a roasted pig’s head and a bunch of chicken bones from some baked drumsticks. The head and the bones had been hanging out in the freezer for a few weeks before i got around to doing something with them. In the crockpot, i covered them with cold water and let them simmer for about 18 hours.

I let the whole mess cool for a while and then pulled the small bits of meat from the head and set them aside. Then i strained the whole thing and put the juice back into the crockpot and let it chill in the fridge. Some fat congealed on the top and i carefully scraped it off. After all that cooking, the bones were so soft they went to the dogs.

Once i had the broth strained and degreased, i started looking in the cupboards, fridge and freezer to find things to add. First, i decided to use a combination of white beans and black-eyed peas, so i added them to the broth and cooked them on low (in the crockpot of course) until the beans were just tender.

I had some stems and tops from some beets and some leftover peanut sauce -- the kind that some Vietnamese or Thai restaurants use for dipping fresh spring rolls. Then i decided to add some kind of meat. Turned out that i had some cooked and cubed pork hearts and tongues in the freezer. After thawing, i chopped them into little bits and dumped them into the pot.

Then, all that was left to do was adjusting the seasoning. So i added some Johnny’s Seasoning Salt, a little vinegar, a few shakes of fish sauce, granulated garlic, black pepper, and some roasted chili paste (the kind that’s used for satay).

One thing i learned from my mom is that, in any kind of soup or stew, the flavors will mix together once the dish has been cooled and sits overnight. So if there is time, i try to always make a soup the day before it’s going to be eaten and then retaste the second day.

Here’s a tip: If you aren’t sure how a seasoning is going to affect the flavor, take just a little bit from the pot and season that. So if you get some wild idea to flavor a chicken stew with cinnamon (which works depending on the other spices you use), you can test it first on a small amount. Then, if it doesn’t work, you haven’t ruined your whole dish.

I’ve written down a lot of stuff (just for myself) about cooking, but i decided to start sharing with this simple soup because it illustrates some of the fundamental principles that make up my philosophy of food:

• Use whatever you have on hand, including things (like the beet greens) that at first you might think should just be thrown away.

• Try to reduce the amount of fat you use in cooking. Sure, it makes sense to saute vegetables in some kind of fat to start a quick soup, but i’ve found that when a dish is going to be cooking for a while, you don’t need to rely on fats for developing a rich flavor.

• If you eat animal proteins, and aren’t already eating all different parts of all kinds of animals, then try expanding your horizons. For instance, the pork hearts and tongues used in my soup are not only less expensive and lower in fat than a lot of other pork cuts, they’re really tasty!

• Don’t be afraid to experiment with flavors. I wasn’t sure if the peanut sauce would work on its own, but i figured that i could always add some coconut milk and Thai curry paste if the flavors needed to go in that direction.

• Finally, in my opinion, the most important lesson to learn from this dish is that generations of cooks have never had a chance to work with expensive ingredients. Southern Black cooking, for example, is rooted in the principal that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to make delicious food. Just learn how to make food that tastes good -- because that’s what it’s all about: taste, taste, taste. Like this soup made from a leftover roasted pig’s head and some vegetables that would otherwise have gone into the compost bin.

In the coming days, weeks, and months, i’ll be adding more posts about the foods i love, like beef hearts, oxtails, pork neckbones (smoked and fresh) and chitlins. Also greens, gumbo, and corncakes. And of course some of my favorite Filipino dishes, too.

Bottom line is . . . i just don’t believe that you should have to spend money you don’t have to eat well.