The Coupon Clipper scours the specials for the best deals in New York's big grocery stores.
Sometimes the deals fall neatly in our lap, and a trip to the corner store is all that is needed, but this week we had to look a little harder. And that brought us to Fort Greene, and to a little grocery store called Bravo.
When we walked in we were confronted by a wall of dozens upon dozens of smiling Polaroids of what seemed like the happiest customers in the city. Upon closer inspection, however, those happy customers turned out to be camera-hungry thieves, immortalized on the walls for a little scrutiny and shame after they’d been caught in the act. Most were stealing meat. Just below that was the circular, which contained this little gem of savings: jumbo yams, 3 pounds for $1. That’s a lot of yams, and for us, that turned into a lot of soup.
What’s the difference between yams and sweet potatoes? That all depends on who you consult, but for the most part true yams can be found in Africa, and have only a passing relation to the sweet potato. Somewhere along the lines of American history, people started calling sweet potatoes yams, and the name has persisted, casually, and apparently still at Bravo.
Baking these suckers for an hour and slathering brown sugar atop them isn’t a bad route to take, but we were in the mood for soup. So we cut them into 1-inch cubes, baked them with olive oil, rosemary, and sage for an hour. Then we tossed them in the blender with enough chicken stock to get a soupy consistency. Mix in a few tablespoons of cream, and you have yourself some very passable yam soup. We decided to take things a little further and added the juice of a lime, a teaspoon or two of brown sugar, and a pinch of grated nutmeg. It can handle just about anything. Even a dash of hot sauce isn’t a horrible idea.
