So today, I headed out to run to a few shops that I love in Downtown Melbourne and to go over to my StepMom’s house to visit her mother Peppy. Peppy is a Puerto Rican woman who is in her sixties, and I was honored (and I must admit begged) for her to make her rice for me. I have been in love with her rice since we were introduced six years or so ago.
There was no recipe card, nor did I write any of it down. It was a show and tell, with me asking questions here and there and sniffing her special ingredients (which I later found out to be sofrito). Sofrito has this tang smell that is fantastic, I could not stop smelling it and I knew that this was one of the keys to her rice. Something that if I had not watched her, I would have never known and would not know how to create this wonderful dish.
I also had another kitchen lesson in how to make fried plantains . The first time I tried to make them, I did not let the plantains get ripe enough. They seriously need to look like you would throw them away before you cook them. I can’t wait to try and replicate these!
I did what I love to do when I don’t know someone and they interest me. I asked about her life, I learned that she became married at 14! and was married for sixty years. That her husband Leo (a wonderful man) was her first and last. She moved to NYC in her later teens to live with her husband’s family while they started their own.
This was something that I was hoping would happen but didn’t think would because I am only a stepchild and not her full blooded children. I was so honored for her to share her heart, her kitchen and pieces of her life with me. It meant a lot to me and I let her know.
willow 