An Exaltation of Soups (43 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
R
IDDLE
M
E
T
HIS
Q
UESTION
: What am I? The thing I have is male and wrinkled, and the ladies love it.
Serves 6 to 8
E
XTREMELY THICK, TO
fill the Lenten belly, this soup is popular in the Orthodox part of Romania. It’s unusual—eaten cold, dressed with walnut oil, and many think the garlic should be chopped raw and sprinkled on top. Hope you don’t mind (I know your honey won’t), this recipe tames the garlic a bit. In the end, the soup is totally surprising in its sweet nuttiness and beauty: an orange and white mosaic in a tan broth. And the crunch of salt crystals in those tender beany-carrot spoonfuls is wonderfully decadent in today’s age of undersalting.
2 cups small dried white beans
8 cups (2 quarts) water or Vegetable Stock
6 carrots, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
4 garlic cloves, pressed
Walnut oil
Sprinkling of coarse sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper
O
P
REPARE
1. The night before, soak the beans in plenty of water.
2. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
1. Drain and rinse the beans, then put them in a large soup pot with the water and carrots, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer over a very low heat for 4 hours, until the beans are very soft. Add water as necessary.
2. Pour the soup into a large serving bowl, season with salt and pepper, and stir in the garlic. Let cool to room temperature. (You may refrigerate if you’d like the soup cold.)
O
S
ERVE
Stir the soup and reseason, heavy on the pepper, then pour walnut oil over the top, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and more black pepper, and take to the table with a large serving spoon for people to help themselves.
“M
OUNT OF
O
LIVES
”
Mount with heaven-pointed
peak,
Steady in blue dream.
Beaten by ancient hate
With chain whips
The flattened plain, hungry
for height,
Watches its chance to rise
above you,
Bring you the dust
Roused by flocks and clumps
of men.
Mount, censers of springs,
Altar of hawks, house of suns,
Denying the brief flower
Drunk with its fragrance—
You at the margin of great
mysteries
Are a sign of lasting power,
Irremedial life,
Most hemmed-in of stars!
Our soul, flimsy and poor,
Knows nothing of springs and
harvests.
Our hope wanders among us,
Leaves its faint track in the
mud,
A wheel with gold spokes.
—T
UDOR
A
RGHEZL
,
twentieth-
century Romanian poet
USSIA
ICED SOUR FRUIT AND VEGETABLE SOUP
OKROSHKA POSTNAYA
Serves 6 to 8
T
HIS GLORIOUS “LEFTOVER”
cold soup is startlingly good for Lenten fare, using mostly dried fruits and vegetables from winter storage and the brand-new shoots of spring—no meat, no sour cream, no eggs, of course, as in non-Lenten variations of
okroshka.
But it sure makes you plan ahead. If you’re going to make homemade
kvass
(see the sidebar recipe), you’re going to have to start about five days ahead. At the very least, you’ve got to start two days before to make the marinated mushrooms and start the beans, or the day before to make all the fruits and vegetables so they can chill overnight in separate plastic baggies. Or, you could get into the spirit of the thing: just use up your leftovers and use a substitute for the
kvass.
Your choice, but here’s an elegant version that has you preparing seemingly endless dishes all separately, then assembling at the last minute in the most textured soup you may ever eat: sweet and sour, spongy and crisp, all different colors, all different tastes, all different temperatures, all in a delicate, effervescent, tart, and rosy pink broth.
9 cups
kvass
(see sidebar recipe or substitute 6 cups wheat beer mixed with 3 cups dry white wine; I kitchen-tested Dundees Honey Brown lager and an inexpensive Pinot Grigio against my homemade brew and was amazed at how close they were)
1 cup dried red kidney beans
F
OR THE MUSHROOMS
1 pound fresh mushrooms (boletes, oysters, or any you can find
or buy), wiped, trimmed, and quartered ½ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup safflower oil
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, pressed
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
F
OR THE SOUP
2 red beets, peeled and diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
½ pound (about 1½ cups) assorted dried fruit (apples, prunes, peaches, apricots, cherries, or a package of “assorted” fruits)
2 large cucumbers, peeled and diced
“S
PRING
”
Ah, Spring, sweet Spring,
chief pride of Nature!
The air is foul, the ground is
sludge;
Men curse the mud when
they go walking,
And plunged in muck, a horse
can’t budge.
The cab breaks down, so does
the carriage;
Season of colds in chest and
nose,
To you, fair Spring, is reverence
tendered
By cartwrights and by
medicos.
—P
YOTR
V
YAZEMSKY
,
nineteenth-century Russian poet
F
OR THE THICKENER
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Russian (or Dijon) mustard
Salt and white pepper to taste
G
ARNISH
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup chopped green onions
O
P
REPARE
You should start this soup six days ahead if you plan to make your own
kvass
(see sidebar recipe), two days before if not.
1. Two days ahead, soak the beans for the soup in plenty of water.
2. The day before, prepare the mushrooms. In a plastic container, mix the mushrooms with the lemon juice, safflower oil, onion, garlic, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. Give them a shake every couple of hours at room temperature to mix well, then leave overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Also the day before, prepare all the remaining soup ingredients:
Drain and rinse the beans: put them in a pot with about 6
cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and cook for 1 to 2 hours, until they are very tender. Drain, discarding the water, and chill.Cook the beets in a little salted water until just tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Drain, discarding the broth, peel, dice, and chill in a plastic bag.
Cook the potatoes in a little salted water until just tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, discarding the broth, peel, dice, and chill in a plastic bag.
Stew the fruit in a little water until tender. Let cool, then store in a plastic bag and refrigerate.
Store the diced cucumber in a plastic bag and chill until ready to use.
O
S
ERVE
1. Drain the mushrooms, discarding the bay leaves, and place them in a large tureen with the beans, beets, potatoes, fruit, and cucumbers.
2. In a separate large bowl, whisk the olive oil, drop by drop, into the mustard, until it forms a thick sauce, then slowly whisk in the
kvass
(or your easy mixture of wheat beer and wine), and season with salt and white pepper. Pour over the fruit and vegetables in the tureen.
3. Top the soup with the chopped parsley, dill, and green onion and carry it, resplendent, to the table for ladling into individual bowls.
