Back in 2011, I got an unexpected call. ITV was on the other line inviting me to be on a new cooking show that would centre home cooks, preparing traditional family recipes to be judged by restaurant patrons. This recipe immediately sprang to mind.
Now I’d had experience with culinary TV before. In 2009, I participated in ‘Taste the Nation’; a competition show, in which I was working as part of a team, serving a starter, main course and dessert to impress the judges. My responsibility was always the starters and I won every round. Judge Henrietta Green was particularly impressed by my Thrice Cooked Duck Egg (but that’s for a different recipe blog). In fact I remember her taking it off camera for her lunch!
Today I want to share with you the story and ingredients in my Great (Great) Granny Annie’s Saturday Soup Recipe. The Recipe that got me my winning title on ITV’s Season 1 of ‘There’s No Taste Like Home’ with Gino B’Acampo.
Let me just start with saying that being on TV is not as glamorous as it sounds. There’s a lot of waiting around, a lot of retakes and it’s very tiring. Cameras zoom in on your hands and your face and by the time you watch it back, a lot of the footage has been taken out anyway! (Thank goodness for editing).
As nerve racking as it was, I am a focused person, and as a person of the Christian faith, you best believe I was praying the whole time in my head! But even without a camera in my face, whoever I am cooking for, whatever the occasion, I am praying blessings over the food, over the people who will be eating it and over the event or meal that it’s for.
After filming the episode, Gino confessed to me that when he first saw my submission to the show he said (and you can imagine him saying this in his Italian accent),”Oh no, not soup again, so boring!”
But when he actually tasted this soup he became so excited.
He exclaimed, “I can taste the Caribbean in this! I can taste family! I can taste the history and the depth of the soup”.
He also said, “Don’t touch it – it’s mine!”
I guess you know you make good food when the judges and hosts of the cooking shows you’re on, keep running off with it!
Now looking back at those experiences on ITV, I can see how helpful they were in giving me the confidence to start something like Moore Taste. It showed me that people of all backgrounds love Caribbean food, and that professional chefs and judges loved MY food. It planted the desire in me to share my cooking on a wider scale, not just to friends and family, although that is still one of my greatest joys.
Okay – back to the soup.
Saturday Soup is a multigenerational collaboration and a rich melting pot of West Indian culture. With each generation, there have been twists on the flavours and adaptations with different ingredients but the soup still works the same in bringing people together. In my household growing up, my family would gather every Saturday at around 4pm to eat soup and watch the football or wrestling. This recipe has been passed down through the generations before me. It’s my childhood. It’s my heritage and it is part of a tradition that I want to keep alive.
Though a good chef never gives all her secrets away, there are plenty of Saturday Soup recipes online and their ingredients are usually very interchangeable. I’m confident that using even some combination of these ingredients listed below, in whatever recipe used, would make something extra delicious!
Neck of Lamb Saturday Soup – Great Great Grannie Annie’s Ingredients
Start with freshwater (optional: add West Indian packet soups, I personally prefer either pumpkin, vegetable or cock soup, which is more spicy than regular chicken soup).
Black pepper
Scotch bonnet (try not to burst if you don’t like the spice)
Lamb neck (with the bones for depth of flavour)
Pumpkin chunks
Grated Pumpkin
Onions
Grated carrot
Chopped carrots
Scallion
Fresh thyme
Yam
Irish potatoes
Cornmeal dumplings (you’re not going to make Caribbean soup without dumplings!)
Sweet potato
Cho cho
So there you have it; the story and ingredients in Granny Annie’s Winning Neck of Lamb Saturday soup. If you choose to make a Caribbean Saturday Soup, I hope this dish brings you and your loved ones closer together.
If you are interested in learning more about Caribbean cuisine (or just tasting more Caribbean food), please visit Moore Taste website and see our ‘Taste Experience’ packages for more information.
