Mawela Carmen’s Sofrito is her family’s treasure

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Growing up in New York, the holiday season holds a special place in my heart. I always think of Christmas music on Arthur Avenue, fantastical window displays on Fifth Avenue and some other particular memories.

Like the time my old high school crush Matt, a fellow Riverdalian, took me to see “A Christmas Story” and later to ice skate at the Rockefeller Center.  That night, a man got down on his knee in the center of the rink and proposed. With the overjoyed yes, hundreds of onlookers on the rink and at street level burst into applause, shouts and whistles.

Or the years of picking up my grandmother on Independence Avenue and driving to my aunt’s home in Armonk. In their beautiful wood and glass home set amidst the woods, a perfect giant fur tree stood in an A-frame glass window, reflecting rainbows of light with ornate white and delicate crystal trim.

When I think about the holidays, it is not the presents that come to mind, but the people and the way families interact. On Christmas eve, my friends the Kealys — a gorgeous Irish family, who have since moved from their Yonkers home — would gather around the piano. The whole family sang while I sunk tone def into the corner in awe.

This holiday season, I had the pleasure of receiving the ultimate gift. That is a person sharing of herself, her life and her cherished family recipe. This week, I welcomed Nancy Ortiz to my home.  A Lower East Side native of Puerto Rican descent, Nancy participated in my project Breaking Bread, where she shared her family recipe for sofrito. 

Nancy’s grandmother Carmen, a 4-foot-7 woman with hair down to her legs, raised Nancy and her siblings and first cousins in a small one-bedroom apartment. With strict discipline, Mawela, as they called her — a combination of mother and grandmother in Spanish — stood Nancy and her female siblings, one-by-one, on a milk crate, to watch and observe her cooking at the stove. Time and again, she watched her grandmother until she was able to repeat the cooking herself.

“True Puerto Rican home cooking is dying,” Nancy explains. “Nowadays, people take too many short cuts using prepackaged products with MSG and artifical flavoring.”  

Towing a bottle of homemade coquito (Puerto Rican egg nog made with coconuts and spices), recao and ajices dulces, Nancy decided that before I learned any traditional Puerto Rican dish, the foundation of all — sofrito, a mixture of onions, peppers and herbs — would be my first lesson.

That day, this recipe was not the only gift I received. It was Nancy and her stories about growing up on the Lower East Side. Her 23 years as a captain and corrections officer on Riker’s Island.  Her stories about Mawela Carmen and now, her children and grandchildren and the values of discipline, good will, education and integrity she seeks to instill in them.  Enjoy her passed-down sofrito recipe. From my kitchen to yours!

Mawela Carmen’s Sofrito

1 large white onion cut into chunks

2 medium yellow/Spanish onions, cut into chunks

2 ¼ cups or 20 ajices dulces (small sweet green peppers), stemmed and seeded

5 red bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into large chunks

2 green bell peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into large chunks

4  hungarian or sweet banana peppers, stemmed, seeded and cut into large chunks

2 cups cleaned garlic cloves

4 small bunches or packagesof fresh recao, rinsed, ends trimmed, reserving most of the stem and leaf

2 whole bunches cilantro, rinsed, trimmed, and cut into 2 inch lengths

Start with a handful of onions, a handful of garlic, a handful of ajices and a handful of peppers in the bottom of a food processor. Pulse a few times to create some liquid and add some recao and cilantro. Pulse a few more times and run the machine until the mixture liquefies. Add another batch to the liquid and spin again until liquified.  The mixture will still have some texture but will be fully pureed. 

Repeat in batches and stir together in a large bowl. Portion into small containers and freeze for up to four months. Defrost as needed and use as cooking base for soups, stews and array of other dishes like chili, meat, seafood, pork and poultry dishes.

Cook’s note: Beware of the cilantro stems. They wrap around the blade of the processor, so be sure to add the ingredients in the order listed to create a liquid that will prevent this from occurring.

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