An Exaltation of Soups (16 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
RELAND
COTTAGE BROTH FOR THE WAKE
S
OUP AT THE
W
AKE
In Leon Uris’s
Trinity
, his novel about Ireland before the Easter Rising of 1916, “Grandfar” Kilty Larkin dies in the first page of the book and his proper wake begins in the next chapter, with the food, tobacco, whiskey, Banshee stories, and keening described in glorious and wide-eyed detail.
“Kilty Larkin looked ever so grand laid out in the best room…. They knelt, intoned a quick prayer and drifted to the fringes of the room. Brigid had filled dozens of small clay pipes with tobacco which had supernatural qualities at times like this, and offered them about with a plate of snuff to hasten Kilty’s journey and resurrection. Three lambs had been slaughtered and an immense stew boiled in the great pot and a dozen loaves of fadge, a potato bread, browned on the baking boards….”
Serves 6 to 8
S
O THICK WITH
vegetables and barley, and so rich with lamb shank meat and broth—it’s enough to bring the dead back to life, or at the very least sustain the mourners through their long evening of smoking, drinking, and telling stories.
F
OR THE BROTH
2 pounds lamb shanks
8 cups (2 quarts) cold water
1 medium onion, quartered
2 celery stalks with leaves, chopped into big pieces
2 carrots, scrubbed and chopped into big pieces
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons salt
F
OR THE SOUP
¼ cup barley
3 tablespoons butter
2 leeks, washed and sliced well into the green
1 medium onion, diced
3 carrots, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks with leaves, diced
2 medium turnips, peeled and diced
1 cup finely shredded cabbage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
O
P
REPARE
1. The day before, prepare the broth and meat. Roast the lamb shanks in a 400°F. oven until well browned, then place in a pot with the cold water, onion, celery, carrots, bay leaves, peppercorns, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 3 hours, until the meat is very tender.
2. Remove the meat from the broth. Strain the broth, discarding the solids; let cool, then refrigerate. Cut the fat and tissues away from the meat, then cut the meat into small pieces and reserve in the refrigerator until you are ready to make the soup.
3. Also the day before, put the barley in plenty of water to soak overnight.
4. The next day, prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
1. Heat the butter in a large soup pot over medium heat and stir in the leeks, onion, carrots, celery, and turnips. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, while the vegetables sweeten, about 5 minutes. Stir in the cabbage and cook for 5 more minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
2. Meanwhile, remove the fat from the soup stock and discard or save for another purpose. Pour the stock into the vegetables, adding enough water to make 8 cups. Drain the barley and stir into the soup. Add the reserved lamb and also the thyme, crumbling it between your palms. Stir well, bring the soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and let simmer for another hour, until the barley is tender. Season with salt and pepper.
O
S
ERVE
Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with hot potato bread, cheeses, tobacco, and lots of liquor … and get ready to talk of the Banshee.
“T
HE
B
ALLAD OF
F
ATHER
O’H
ART
”
| Good Father John O’Hart In penal days rode out To a shoneen who had free lands And his own snipe and trout. | But if when anyone died Came keeners hoarser than rooks, He bade them give over their keening; For he was a man of books. |
| In trust took he John’s lands; Sleiveens were all his race; And he gave them as dowers to his daughters, And they married beyond their place. | And these were the works of John, When, weeping score by score, People came into Colooney; For he’d died at ninety-four. |
| But Father John went up, And Father John went down; And he wore small holes in his shoes, And he wore large holes in his gown. | There was no human keening; The birds from Knocknarea And the world round Knocknashee Came keening in that day. |
| All loved him, only the shoneen, Whom the devils have by the hair, From the wives, and the cats, and the children, To the birds in the white of the air. | The young birds and old birds Came flying, heavy and sad; Keening in from Tiraragh, Keening from Ballinafad; |
| The birds, for he opened their cages As he went up and down; And he said with a smile, ‘Have peace now’; And he went his way with a frown. | Keening from Inishmurrah, Nor stayed for bite or sup; This way were all reproved Who dig old customs up. |
—W
ILLIAM
B
UTLER
Y
EATS
,
twentieth-century Irish poet
HILIPPINES
CRYSTAL NOODLE AND CHICKEN SOUP
SOANGHON
R
IDDLE
M
E
T
HIS
Q
UESTION
: What am I?
“The man who made it did not want it;
The man who bought it did not use it;
The man who used it did not know it.”
Serves 6 to 8
A
CCORDING TO
G
ILDA
C
ORDERO
-F
ERNANDO
, in
Philippine Food and Life
, after a death “the corpse was kept in the house for three days, and these were the days of feasting. The widow was supposed to cook her grief away in a river of
sotanghon
or
bami….”
And well she might. This is a dramatic and unusual soup—a bloodred broth stuffed with big chunks of chicken flesh and a mass of clear yellow noodles. Sound gory-looking? It is—along the lines of some Francis Bacon portraits I’ve seen that look like they’re missing their skin. But this soup is also fragrant, savory, tart, overstuffed, and just flat-out delicious—it will take your breath away. And did I tell you those long noodles are slippery? Serve with forks or chopsticks as well as spoons. Many thanks to dear friend Art Meyer for tracking down this tradition.
8 cups (2 quarts) cold water
Lard or chicken fat for frying
4 to 5 pounds chicken, cut up (with liver and gizzard)
1 cup chopped green onions, white and green parts
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons peanut oil
15 garlic cloves, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2 hot chile peppers (or to taste), seeded and finely diced
2 teaspoons annatto (achiote) powder (pulverize the seeds with hammer or pestle if you can’t find powder)
6 ounces (about 2 cups) cellophane noodles (bean threads)
1 tablespoon
patis
(or
nuoc mam/nam pla)
fish sauce, or more to taste
G
ARNISH
8 garlic cloves, sliced
Diagonal slices of green onion
1 calamansi (a very acidic hybrid of the mandarin orange and kumquat) or lime
O
P
REPARE
1. You might consider making the broth the day before (steps 1 to 3) and refrigerating it. It makes it so easy to finalize the soup—just minutes to remove the congealed fat from the broth, sauté the giblets and seasonings, cook the noodles, and toss together with the chicken pieces.
2. Prep the ingredients as directed in the recipe list to include the garnish: frying the garlic slices in a little peanut oil until crisp, then draining on paper towels; thinly slicing the green onion; and slicing wedges of calamansi or lime.
O
C
OOK
1. Pour the cold water into a large soup pot and keep handy.
2. Melt the fat in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken parts in the fat and add them to the cold water in the soup pot. Begin heating the soup over medium heat, then toss in the green onions, salt, and pepper, and bring to a slow boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone. Depending on the age and toughness of the chicken, this could take as long as 2 hours.
