Kitchen Supper: Aunt Chubby's Sancocho

Do-able meals, recipes + strategies for inviting people into our lives.

This is the meal that I was served at Aunt Chubby’s Luncheonette in Hopewell, New Jersey. And it reminded me how a simple plate of food can transform strangers into friends.

Aunt Chubby’s is close to Princeton, where I recently gave a talk. They cater to paid diners and also folks who can’t pay. You can walk into this beautiful luncheonette and eat for free if you need it. They also keep a working pantry outside for anyone to pick up food and they deliver fresh home-cooked meals to elderly, families and folks who have trouble getting around.

I got to go out with founder, soul sister, and director Lyn Farruglia, to visit some of the people she supports: an artist whose house is so cluttered we have to sit on the steps of the front porch to talk. She makes beautiful crocheted pieces that are for sale at Aunt Chubby’s. There was also the veteran with Parkinson’s. We sat with him at his dining room table, while he ate this soup and told us stories of traveling the world and his passion for progressive politics.

Those interactions were mostly about the time Lyn gave people - sitting down and staying for a bit, knowing them, what they like and don’t, and listening to their daily experiences. The comfort she gives to people is wrapped up in her constant presence. They know she’ll be by. They leave their doors unlocked for her. She lets herself in.

How comforting must that be?

The food is a conceit. To create a connection. It’s never about the food. As I like to say on book tour, Lunch is the way in.

So today I’m celebrating what a simple lunch can do for folks inside a community with Aunt Chubby’s chef, Ethan Unick. Chef Ethan created this beautiful soup, a fresh apple salad and tacos with refried beans, onions, cotija cheese and avocado for us to eat. He made the meal from ingredients he found in the @ChubbysProject pantry.

Chef Ethan made his version with a bottle of red enchilada sauce he found. It worked! But if you want to make this soup from total scratch, I will incorporate that into the recipe, but feel free to use a bottled sauce, anyone you invite to lunch will not know or care.

The point is coming together.

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Sancocho is a stew-like soup that is often made and served in the Caribbean and Latin America, although I am most familiar with Puerto Rican and Dominican sancochos.

The name refers to a hodgepodge of meat and veg taking up room together in a bowl of luscious meaty stock. Sancocho is one of the most warming and filling soups, a total meal in a bowl. If you are looking for something “authentic” from a particular culture or country, the variations can be immense and recipes abound on the internet, but know that the very thing that makes this soup special is that you can use what you have on hand.

That's what Chef Ethan did. It was lovely. I am presenting an adapted version of his recipe here, which he made by feel and intuition, which is always the best way to cook. Thank you, Chef Ethan for the lunch and the inspiration!

Aunt Chubby’s Sancocho

For the stock

(Feel free to use what you have on hand or in the freezer or use store-bought, all fine)

• ham hocks

• turkey wings + legs

• water, a couple quarts

  Simmer for a couple of hours. Remove bones from the stock and strain out any debris or foam. Pick meat off the bones and dispose of bones. Set aside meat, if you are using it in the soup.

Red Enchilada Sauce (or the bottle):

• Guajillo chiles, about 4

• Garlic, peeled, about 6 cloves

• Diced tomatoes, 1 (28-ounce) can

• Cumin, a big pinch

• Black pepper, a pinch

• Sugar, a pinch

• Stock, 2 cups

• Salt, to taste

  Place guajillo chiles on a baking sheet and heat in oven under the broiler for about 5 minutes. Turn the over, blister the other side. You can also do this over a stove flame. They will puff up a bit and blister. Take them out and let them cool. Remove the stem, the seeds and chop into medium-sized pieces.

  Place chiles, garlic, tomatoes, cumin, and black pepper, sugar and salt in jar of a blender with some stock. Purée until smooth. Set aside.

Then add to the stock:

• Red enchilada sauce (bottled or above)

• Carrot, large dice

• Celery, large dice.

• Onion, cut into slim strips

• Potatoes, large dice (If you are using pre-cooked, add in towards the end)

• Any leftover meat you have on hand

• Apple cider vinegar, a splash (any vinegar works)

• Cilantro, a handful, chopped

• Salt until happy

  Stir the stock and enchilada sauce together until combined. Then the rest of your ingredients. Let the soup heat up and simmer on the stove. Remember everything is based on what you have, so experiment! And don’t forget to taste as you go. The flavors will develop as it simmers and comes together.

  Serve hot with warm tortillas and a salad.

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END NOTES:

Lyn is the kind of person who takes care of her community’s needs first and then figures to how to paste it all together to make it work.

She talked to me about what is required to be eligible for government support of the non-profit arm of her business. She would have to subject the people she cares for to all kinds check ins, limits on how much food they can have, useless bureaucratic tracking of people, the copious amounts of shitty corporate food that gets passed off onto food pantries that she won’t serve her people. She refuses to put her neighbors through these limits and liabilities, so she doesn’t get federal or state food aid.

Instead, she calls what she does intentional neighboring.

If you are near Hopewell, go on over and have some lunch, your money supports so much more than a restaurant business.

If you would like to support an effort that is one lady and her team making sure people in her community are fed, your donation will not go to marketing, brochure-making, or high paid administators. It will go to the people who need it. I saw that first hand.

You can make a huge difference for Aunt Chubby’s to keep doing the work they are doing by going to their page and donating via Pay Pal or Venmo. Follow them on IG @chubbysproject. And if you do support them with a donation, thank you and as always, thank you for reading. Kim xo