WARM EMBRACE: FAY VICTOR’S ISLAND WELCOME IN A BOWL

Caribbean Pumpkin Spicy Coconut Soup // Fay Victor

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 20 people):

• Pumpkin / Kabocha squash — 8 lb

• Coconut milk — 10 cans (13.5 oz)

• Onion — 2 lb

• Garlic — 6 cloves

• Ginger — 6 oz

• Vegetable broth — 2 qt

• Olive oil — ½ cup

• Turmeric — 2 tsp

• Salt

• Black pepper

• Lime — 2

• Aji dulce

This might have been the most loved dish of the residency. It seemed to gently wrap around all the musicians-the sweetness of pumpkin and the richness of coconut milk coming together, thick and velvety, softly loosening the body and the mind.

First, heat a large pot over medium heat and add coconut oil. Add the pumpkin, stir well, then cover and let it steam gently.By cooking it slowly, the pumpkin begins to release its natural sweetness. Next, add onion, garlic, and ají dulce. Let them cook quietly until the aroma rises and the onions turn translucent. Then comes brown sugar and cumin. This moment is important—the sugar melts, and a soft caramel fragrance begins to emerge.

This is where it stops being just a soup, and becomes Faye’s soup. Add coconut milk and broth, lower the heat slightly, and let it simmer uncovered. Cook until the pumpkin becomes so soft it almost collapses on its own. Then blend until smooth. Return it to the heat and season with salt and black pepper. Finish with a little chopped cilantro. The gentleness of coconut and the depth of spice slowly sink into the body.

Coconut milk is not just gentle - it feels like the blood of the Caribbean, a lineage carried through Faye’s mother and father, and through generations before them. That same inheritance flows through the bodies of the diaspora gathered from all over the world —so you find yourself going back for another bowl, and then another.

Nassy sisters // Fay Victor’s Mom and Dad

And in the end, you feel a strength returning.

That kind of soup.

-Yurie Ito

Setting up the soup at the Loghaven residency.

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