Quimbombó

I love the idea of quimbombó, especially the name.  Not okra but Kee-Bom-Bo.  A quick Google search brings up as many music sites as recipes.  If Cuban food were music, quimbombó would be the chorus.  Brought to Cuba by African slaves in the seventeenth century, it’s stewed with chorizo or pork then blended with mashed plantains and served over rice.  Still recovering from the holidays, I found a recipe using chicken instead that I wanted to try.  I marinated and browned the chicken, sauteed green peppers and onions then added the okra, tomatoes, broth and wine.  While it simmered, I boiled and mashed the plantains and formed them into small balls to add at the end.  Forty-five minutes later, I had soup not stew.  I let it cook for a few more minutes hoping it would thicken slightly but it couldn’t simmer forever.  The plantains looked like matzoh balls so I took out the large chicken pieces to remove the skin and bones and return it to the pot with plantains.  I was cold and it was hot, so I let myself be comforted with soup not stew.