An Exaltation of Soups (54 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
At sunset in Casablanca, people avidly wait for the evening siren to sweep the city, announcing the end of the fast and signaling that it’s okay to dip their ladles into a pot of very special soup—fragrant, bubbling
harira
, the spicy-lemony lamb and vegetable soup that traditionally breaks the fast in Morocco.
Why soup? For a lot of very good reasons.
First, it is recorded in the Traditions that Mohammed ended his own daily prescribed fast with soup—specifically with dates, water, and often a barley broth called
talbina
or
tirbiyali.
Second, it’s hugely refreshing and nutritious—a powerful shot of thirst-slaking liquid with hunger-relieving solid nutrition that prepares the body and soul for the prayers that follow, before the proper evening meal is taken.
Then, too, soup is no quick, solitary nibble out in the kitchen. It is necessarily formal, communal, and profound. You’ve got to put it in a bowl, sit down with it, and eat it with a spoon. Night after night, for some thirty straight days, family members—all hungry, thirsty, and excited—sit down together, lift their spoons together, smile at one another, and shovel in that first mouthful of sustaining soup.
Since those years in Morocco,
harira
has been one of my alltime favorite soups. One taste and I am unfailingly transported back to that home away from home—its brilliant souks and earthy smells; the haunting sunsets over Fez and bad-tempered camels in Marrakech; Massa’oud and Medea, Farida and Mustapha; back to spices and leather and carpets and Ramadan.
R
UMI ON
R
AMADAN
, P
ART I
The month of fasting has come, the emperor’s banner has arrived; withhold your hand from food, the spirit’s table has arrived.
The soul has escaped from separation and bound nature’s hands; the heart of error is defeated, the army of faith has arrived.
Fasting is our sacrifice, it is the life of our soul; let us sacrifice all our body, since the soul has arrived as guest.
—J
ALAL AL
-D
IN
R
UMI
,
thirteenth-century Sufi poet
LGERIA
TANGY WHEAT AND HERB SOUP
JARY
Serves 6 to 8
T
HICK, LEMONY, AND
bristling with green herbs and mint, this wheat soup traditionally breaks the fast in Algeria during the month of Ramadan and is a vegetarian delight year-round.
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup tomato puree
8 cups (2 quarts) Vegetable Stock
½ cup bulgur (cracked wheat)
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
½ cup chopped fresh mint
1 cup cooked chickpeas (canned are fine, drained and rinsed)
Salt and pepper to taste
G
ARNISH
2 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice
Finely minced fresh parsley, cilantro, and mint
Lemon wedges (optional)
O
P
REPARE
Prep the ingredients as directed in the recipe list, including the garnish.
O
C
OOK
1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions until tender, about 5 minutes, then stir in the garlic, paprika, and cayenne. Cook, stirring, for a minute or two, then stir in the tomato puree and stock.
2. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then stir in the bulgur. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bulgur is tender.
3. Puree the soup, solids first, then add the parsley, cilantro, and mint, and puree until the soup is almost smooth. Return the soup to the pot. Stir in the chickpeas and heat through. Season with salt and pepper.
O
S
ERVE
Ladle the soup into bowls and stir a few spoonfuls of lemon juice into each one. Sprinkle each portion with the minced herbs and serve immediately. You may serve extra lemon wedges on the side.
Claire Denis’s 1999 film
Beau Travail
studies anachronistic, self-absorbed French Legionnaire society in Djibouti. Christian officers enthusiastically set out a great feast, oblivious of three Muslim legionnaires sitting outside the inner circle during Ramadan, enduring their fast and expressionlessly watching their comrades chow down.
NDONESIA
SOUP PORRIDGE WITH VEGETABLE SPICE
BABURANYANG
Serves 6 to 8
“The man who is not hungry says the coconut has a hard shell.”
L
ET THERE BE
no doubt that this soup will still the most urgent hunger pangs after a day of fasting. It’s filling and soothing—like a very thick potato soup—but at the same time bristling with flavor, color, and texture. Then—oh, those toppings! Imagine spooning fresh bean sprouts, chopped herbs, crispy fried shallots, coconut, and hot pepper sauce onto the surface of this thick soup. You’re an artist; the soup, your creation.
F
OR THE SOUP
1 cup long-grain rice (preferably jasmine)
½ pound boneless beef, cut into small pieces
10 cups (2½ quarts) cold water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup peeled and diced carrots
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
F
OR THE SPICE PASTE
3 shallots
2 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon peeled and chopped fresh ginger
6 raw almonds
2 hot chile peppers, or to taste, seeded
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons peanut oil
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ cup hot water
A
NYANG TOPPINGS
1 cup bean sprouts
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup chopped green onion
¼ cup sliced shallots fried in hot peanut oil until crispy and drained on paper towels
(goreng bawang)
¼ cup dried unsweetened coconut
Hot chile peppers finely chopped with shallots, garlic, lemon juice, peanut oil, and soy sauce
(sambal kecap)
O
P
REPARE
Soak the rice overnight in plenty of water.
Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
Prepare the spice paste.
Prepare the toppings.
S
ULTAN
M
AKMOUD
A
R
-R
ASYID
C
REATES A
R
AMADAN
S
OUP
T
RADITION
Soup porridge—a traditional Indonesian breakfast dish—was adapted for Ramadan by the Great Mosque in Medan and passed on as a tradition by Sultan Makmoud Ar-Rasyid, the ninth sultan of Deli in Medan, northern Sumatra, in 1906. Today, hundreds of the faithful camp outside the Mosque in tents, waiting for the big drum to be struck, signaling the end of the fast and the beginning of prayers. The Mosque chefs, proud of the tradition, have not changed the menu for nearly a thousand years. In a large cauldron, they start the meat boiling in water early in the afternoon. After about an hour, they toss in the rice, to cook for 30 minutes into a thick porridge. Then they add vegetables and the spice paste. Before afternoon prayers, some seventy “take-out” bags are distributed, for those who want to go home and break the fast with their families, but these faithful take only the soup, without any toppings. Another 200 portions are served when the sunset drum is beaten—these with all the marvelous condiments.
Interesting to me is that this soup porridge is remarkably similar to
hareesa
, the ancient Arabic wheat or barley porridge that Mohammed called “the Lord of dishes.” Rice is substituted for wheat, beef for mutton, but the preparation is the same and both are garnished with spicy toppings. To this day,
hareesa
(or variants like
al-harees, jary, haleem, haleeme gusht, and keshkek)
break the Ramadan fast throughout the Islamic world, and there’s even an Indian variation that features chicken smothered in dal that’s at least a second cousin twice removed.
O
C
OOK
1. Place the meat in a large soup pot with the cold water and 1 teaspoon salt, and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 1 hour.
2. Drain the rice, rinse it well, and scrape it into the soup pot. Let it simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until the rice is just tender.
3. Stir in the spice paste, then the carrots and potatoes. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, partially cover the pot, and let simmer for another 30 minutes, or until the potatoes and carrots are tender.
4. Put the toppings into separate bowls.
O
S
ERVE
Taste the soup and season with salt and pepper. Whisk it hard for a minute or two, then ladle it into bowls and serve immediately, with the toppings on the side for your family and guests to help themselves.
EBANON
CLASSIC RED LENTIL SOUP
SHORABIT ADAS