The last ten days have been crazy. I hadn't been feeling entirely well and it all came to a halt on Saturday morning when I was admitted to hospital with a suspected appendicitis. Alan had to cancel classes, organise deliveries and my niece Daili had to cover for us in the shop,  which in turn, messed up our friends, Margaret and Alfie's, travel plans too. Three days later and a ton of tests done, I was none the wiser and still in pain and fasting for more than I had ever done in my life. Fasting is not something I do well. When hungry, I truly become the anti Christ!! As much as I dislike the persona portrait by Jeremy Clarkson, I could (in a tiny corner of my mind) understand how he would punch somebody over not having any food!

As an enthusiastic and adventurous eater, my stomach has always been there for me. I had never had serious issues with it; sure like most of us, I've had the odd upset tummy here and there (that food poisoning gift while in Portugal a few years back was no joke), but nothing that had caused more than a couple of days of discomfort, so when appendicitis was ruled out, I knew this was a more serious issue. I came out of hospital, bruised, tired, hungry and with a ton of antibiotics to take. My stomach in bits and I had to live on jelly and bananas for a couple of days. After that, I could introduce gentle soups, nothing spicy, nothing fried, nothing greasy, nothing dairy, no bread or pastas, no wheat and no acidic fruits. I wanted to kill myself! When I finally felt well enough for soup yesterday, I immediately went for this recipe. It fills all the criteria and it's delicious and nourishing, plus it feels like a big Mexican mama bear hug.

The writing of this post caused a lot of controversy here in Ireland and in Mexico; you see, I have always known the dish as Picadillo, my mother calls it that. I never questioned it... and yet I know many versions of Picadillo and it is normally a dry dish made with mince meat, never served as a soup. I skyped mother and with my dad shouting on the background -it's called Caldillo- we engaged in a long discussion over the actual name of the dish. According to mam, Picadillo (which translates as chopped or choppings) was originally prepared with a chunk of beef that was cooked and then chopped finely, then used to stuff chiles (like in chiles rellenos) or to eat with rice and beans. She said people got lazy and decided to start making it with mince meat instead and this was just a variation of the original dish. She said 'Caldillo' (which translates as 'little broth') was always made with dried meat, never with fresh.

Now all that made sense to me, but I had still no explaination for the transition from a dry dish to a broth, so naturally, I took to my Larousse de la Gastronomia Mexicana and after a bit of reading, I was able to sort of confirm my mother's explanation... however, she was not entirely right; to my amazement, my dad, who has never cooked a day in his life, was right! The actual name of the dish is 'Caldillo' and in most states in Mexico is made with dry meat, but in La Huasteca Tamaulipeca, where my mother learned to do most of her cooking as a newly wed, they use fresh meat! The meat was cooked, chopped and then used to make Picadillo to stuff Chiles Rellenos, and the broth made into a soup in which chiles rellenos were served in. Caldillo is also a term used to describe the broth in which meats are cooked with aromatic herbs, vegetables and spices.

So there you have it, this is my family's recipe for Caldillo with a few tweaks to suit availability of ingredients in Ireland! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Note: this soup is served with thinly slices of onion and slices of banana. The banana gives a wonderful sweet element to this savoury dish. Use slightly under-ripe bananas if possible, as they will hold texture better in the hot soup. In some parts of Mexico, they use plantain instead of banana.