An Exaltation of Soups (32 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
UERTO
R
ICO
TROPICAL TRIPE SOUP
MONDONGO
Serves 6 to 8
D
ON’T BE
put off by the tripe! This is a beautiful soup, a feast for the eyes and stomach. It’s bright and chunky, multitextured, and all cut into a fine bite-size dice. If you can’t find the taro and cassava, you may substitute white and sweet potatoes. This soup goes down easy and has you feeling better in no time—even if, like the poet Matos, you’re only drunk on the ecstasy of night visions.
S
PECIAL
P
UERTO
R
ICAN
S
EASONINGS
Annatto oil
, for 1 tablespoon: sauté 1 teaspoon annatto seeds in 4 teaspoons corn oil over low heat for 3 minutes, then strain.Alcaparrado
, for ½ cup: mix ¼ cup small green olives
(manzanillos)
, 2 tablespoons whole capers with juice, and 2 tablespoons chopped pimiento.Recaíto
, for ½ cup: in a blender, puree ¼ diced onion, 1 garlic clove, ½ small green bell pepper, 2
recao
leaves (or substitute 1 tablespoon fresh parsley), and 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro.
F
OR THE TRIPE
6 cups cold water
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound honeycomb tripe, washed and cut into a small dice (these pieces can be soaked in lemon or orange water for 30 minutes to flavor and bleach, if you like)
F
OR THE SOUP
1 tablespoon annatto oil (see sidebar)
¼ cup diced smoked ham
¼ cup
recaíto
(see sidebar)
¼ cup tomato paste
½ cup
alcaparrado
(see sidebar)
2 cups peeled and diced taro root
2 cups peeled and diced cassava
2 cups peeled and diced pumpkin or butternut squash
½ green plantain, peeled and diced
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
O
P
REPARE
1. Three hours ahead, bring the water to a boil in a large soup pot, salt it, then add tripe pieces, lower the heat, cover, and cook for 2 to 3 hours, until tender. Drain and rinse, discarding the water.
2. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
1. Heat the annatto oil in a large soup pot over medium heat, then stir in the ham pieces,
recaíto
, tomato paste, and
alcaparrado.
Cook for 5 minutes, stirring.
2. Add the tripe, taro, cassava, squash, plantain, bay leaves, and water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove the bay leaves. Add salt and pepper.
O
S
ERVE
Ladle the soup into large bowls. This colorful soup needs no garnish.
“C
LAIR DE
L
UNE
”
In the moonlight, in this
night
Of clear and glossy moonlight,
My heart like a dark frog
Leaps upon the grass.
How gay is my heart now!
With what delight this fearful
Tragic frog uplifts its head
Beneath the pensive brightness of the moon!
High up, among the trees,
The soft birds dream,
And higher still, above the
clouds,
The stars gleam newly
washed.
Ah let morning never come!
Lengthen out this slow
And blessed hour when
things
Take on a supreme unreality
,
And when my heart like a
frog
Emerges from its swamps
And sets out in the brightness
of the moon
Upon its sidereal flight
among the stars!
—L
UIS
P
ALES
M
ATOS
,
twentieth-century Puerto Rican Afro-Antillean poet
USSIA
KIDNEY-PICKLE SOUP
RASSOL’NIK
Serves 6 to 8
A
NDREI
R
ADCHENKO FROM
Miami, Florida—mechanical engineer, computer professional, and native of Kiev—has been kind enough to share this extraordinary recipe for
rassol’nik
with me. It’s complicated to make and must be prepared in stages, but is well worth the trouble. Please feel free to use prepared beef stock to eliminate the first step altogether.
P
OKHLEBKIN
S
PEAKS
Viliam Vasilievich Pokhlebkin, eccentric encyclopedic food historian and nationalistic Marxist, describes
rassol’nik
in his authoritative dictionary of cuisine as stuffed with pickles, pickle juice, meats, dill, and sour cream, and he extols its curative properties. He also notes that
zurek
, or white
borshch
, is a rye-based soup that’s traditionally served at the end of the wedding to sober up the guests. Alas, this great scholar was slain as a very old man in the year 2000 by thieves who broke into his home outside Moscow to steal his valuable book collection.
F
OR THE BEEF BROTH
10 cups (2½ quarts) cold water
2 pounds meaty beef bones
2 celery stalks with leaves
1 carrot, scrubbed and trimmed
1 medium onion, quartered
F
OR THE KIDNEYS AND KIDNEY BROTH
1 beef or 2 veal kidneys (some recipes use 2 pounds of chicken gizzards)
F
OR THE SOUP
1 cup barley
1 tablespoon butter or oil
1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 parsley root, peeled and diced (or substitute parsnip)
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 large dill pickles, peeled and diced
Fresh herbs and spices to taste (thyme, parsley, coriander, etc.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream and chopped fresh dill, for garnish
O
P
REPARE
1. Two hours ahead, place the cold water and bones for the broth in a large soup pot. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat, skimming as long as necessary, then add the celery, carrot, and onion. Reduce the heat to low, partially cover, and let simmer for at least 1 hour. Strain, discarding the vegetables and bones.
2. Also 2 hours ahead, cut all the fat from the kidneys and place in a large saucepan. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil over medium heat, partially covered, and let boil for 10 to 15 minutes. Strain, discarding the broth with its impurities, and wash the kidneys well. Return to the saucepan with fresh water to cover, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Reserve both the kidneys and the broth. Remove the kidneys from the broth, let cool, then cut away any last scraps of fat, and cut into bite-size pieces.
3. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
1. Put the beef stock, kidney broth, kidney pieces, and the barley in a large soup pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat the butter or oil in a skillet over low heat. Toss in the onion, carrot, and parsley root and sweat, covered, until the onion is soft and yellow. Scrape into the simmering soup.
3. Add the potato, bay leaf, and pepper to the soup and simmer until the potato is soft, 15 to 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, sweat the pickles, covered, over low heat in the skillet you used for the vegetables and add them to the soup when the potatoes are soft. Add the herbs and spices; simmer for another 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and taste for seasoning—the broth should have a strong sour note but not be flagrantly sour. If you like, add some pickle juice to get the right flavor.
“G
AY
F
EAST
”
I love the festive board
Where joy’s the one presiding,
And freedom, my adored,
The banquet’s course is
guiding.
When “Drink!” half-drowns
the song
That only morning throttles,
When wide-flung is the
throng,
And close the jostling bottles.
—A
LEXANDER
P
USHKIN
,
nineteenth-century Russian poet
O
S
ERVE
Ladle the soup into bowls and top each portion with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of chopped dill. Wonderful!
ENEGAL
CHICKEN STEW
YASSA
Serves 8
O
KAY, STRICTLY SPEAKING
, this is not a soup, but it’s close and so extraordinary, not to mention fiery, that I have to include it for your own good. Imagine buttery chicken and thick sweet brown onions in a lemon-chile pepper broth, all poured over rice so your mouth doesn’t go up in flames. Traditionally it is eaten communally, with your fingers, straight from the dish.
W
OLOF
P
ROVERB
“Much soup is better than much broth.”