dining

Call them pivas, pibas, palm peaches, pixbae or whatever...

Eric's piva soup

Ingredients

• 1 stem (about 2 or 3 dozen fruit) of pivas

• 1 pound of boneless smoked pork chops, diced

• sufficient water

• 1 Spanish onion, peeled and diced

• 1 potato, peeled and diced

• 1 carrot, peeled and diced

• 2 packages of sour cream (about two cups)

• 1 cup cooking sherry

• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

• Take the piva nuts from the stems, put in a pressure cooker with sufficient water to steam them

• Steam for about 45 minutes, allow to cool

• Remove the seeds, scoop the pulp out of the skins, discarding seeds and skin

• Mash the piva pulp

• Combine piva pulp, pork, onion, potato, carrot and plenty of water in a large kettle, set to simmer

• Add black pepper to taste, remembering that this is a cumulative spice that releases its oils slowly as it cooks and thus gets stronger and hotter

• Simmer for an hour or more, reducing the liquid, stirring frequently

• Allow soup to cool

• In little batches, put soup mixture through a blender and thoroughly liquefy

• Combine back in the kettle with the sour cream, heat through on low, stirring

• Add sherry, stirring well, just before taking the soup off the heat

• Add salt to taste

The result should be a thick, creamy, light orange-colored soup with a slightly smoky flavor