Red & Pink Beans Soup

In 2014, I began inventing my own recipes.  It was the beginning of a new journey for me on this island and I couldn't call my mother to take the boat or the plane to come make me breakfast, lunch or dinner - I had to do it on my own.

In the beginning, I was so scared to cook in a dorm full of ladies.  Coming from a different culture (1) and (2) not being accustomed to cooking all on my own, I used to always be concerned that my food would be laughed at or I would be made a laughing stock because of my difference.

I remember the very first time I decided to stew chicken.  Unlike some Trinidadians, we do not buy browning in the supermarket; Grenadian make their browning to stew chicken by burning sugar.  Imagine, this little Grenadian young woman having a craving for stew chicken at around 10pm and going to burn sugar to stew chicken.  I woke up the ENTIRE dorm and everyone ran downstairs to the kitchen thinking the dorm was on fire, only to realize the new student called Amy decided that now was the best time to burn sugar to stew chicken.

It took me months before I was comfortable again to cook and when I actually found myself in the kitchen, it was very late at nights.  For that, I have always been conscious about cooking around other people.  I consider myself to be an average cook - my boyfriend seems to disagree and he says my cooking is the best (bet he can't say that around his mother 😂) Oh well.

But when it comes to experimenting with meals, homegirl here is a pro.  I think it's a learnt behavior as a student, more so a foreign one - there always comes a time when you experiment with food because you're simply trying to survive, so you start mixing all sort of things together to get a meal.

I heard stories about egg and rice, ramen and boiled eggs, tuna, sardines and rice, and the list can go on and on until thy kingdom come.  So when it comes to experiments, I believe I have been in the race a while now.  Today's menu however, is a meal I have had home countless times but mine is with a twist: Red & Pink Beans Soup with Chicken.

Ingredients:
"Cut up chicken" (it's just a local way of saying chicken pieces)
Pink beans
red beans
1 pkt coconut milk
sugar to taste
salt to taste
onions 1 onion
black pepper to taste
white vinegar or limes
spices
powdered seasonings
ohhh and the most important ingredient ------ water (duh) 😅

Preparation:
1. Soak pink and red beans overnight in a large container filled with warm water.  I learnt from

someone on dorm (can't seem to remember which one of the girls showed me this) but you can put baking powder and a small amount of baking soda in hot water then put the beans. This reaction will speed up the process if you don't have the time to wait an entire night for your beans to be properly soaked. (Trust me, it works! It took me about 15-20 mins to get the beans the texture I wanted them before cooking).

2. Next you're going to clean all excess fat and skin off your chicken cut ups and soak them for 2-5 mins in white vinegar or lime and salt.

3. Cut half of your onion and chop it up fine fine fine 😂😂😂😂 (Side note: if you haven't heard of Lord Zenn, now is the perfect time to check him out).

4. After your chicken has been washed with the vinegar (or lime), rinse thoroughly and add a small portion of salt again.  You are going to place your chopped onions along with your black pepper, spices and powdered seasonings into the container with the chicken and allow that to marinate until you're ready for it.

 NB: if you are going to leave your beans to soak overnight, DO NOT put onions into seasoning mixture for your chicken. Onions tend to ferment and spoil your meat when left overnight.  They are not meant to be left overnight in seasoning if you do not have a freezer.  I had a bad experience with this once. Yuck

5. Okay so if you used the baking powder method you're going to be doing this soup now, if not, and you're doing the old time way of leaving your beans to soak overnight, you're going to be using your chicken the next day (absolutely no onions; you can put these in when you take them down to taw out in the morning).  You will need to put that into some ziplock bags and place it into the freezer.

6. After your beans are soaked to your desire (baking soda method or overnight), throw out the water and give your beans a nice wash.  What I like to do is do that a few time then fill the container half way and put some salt into that water.  Mix them around for a few seconds and head over to the stove.

7. Fill your pot halfway with water and pour your beans (along with the water) into the pot.  This is going to continue to boil until they are at your delight.  It's difficult to tell exactly when to end the boil because everyone likes their beans a different texture.

8. In the mean time, you're going to take your coconut milk packet and mix it in a cup of warm water.

9. Right before the beans are boiled to your delight, put your well marinated chicken into the pot and stir so that the beans do not burn at the bottom of the pot.  Allow your chicken about 25 mins to boil until it is almost cooked.  You're going to pour half the milk into the pot and stir.

10. About 15 minutes after, you're going to put the other set of milk and stir again.  After you taste your pot and you say, "hey! this tastes real good!" you're going to turn the stove off and wah-lah! Red and pink beans soup!!





I had this today and I can assure you, if my directions were not too complicated and you followed it well, yours is going to taste good too.
My apologies to the cooks who follow directions to the T sometimes I do, MOST times I don't ! Good luck and all the best with your meal.  Send pictures!