An Exaltation of Soups (45 page)

Serves 6 to 8

T
HIS IS AN
extraordinary soup, and boy is it ever
green.
It’s pronounced “gumbo zarb,” a corruption of the French
gumbo aux herbes
, and is served both on Good Friday and on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, often made by the kettleful. Some say it started out as a variation of bouillabaisse, from early French Acadian cooks making do with local ingredients, but those Acadians were generally from the North of France, not Marseilles where bouillabaisse originated. In any event, at Easter, those greens conjure up the bitter herbs of a traditional Passover “Last Supper” on the Mount of Olives, while at New Year’s, they’re said to conjure a steady flow of “greenback” dollars in the coming year. Not only that, natives in New Orleans swear that for each different green you use in the soup, you’ll make a new friend. Me? I like to make life easy and pick up fresh mesclun greens at the grocery, assuring many friends in my future. The soup is hugely tasty, especially with the sassafras tang of the filé powder and with the universe of textures, oysters and okra slices swimming through that Sargasso sea of green.

1. Wash the greens thoroughly, remove their stems and hard centers, stack, and chop fine. Set aside.

2. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.

1. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy pot (preferably iron), then sprinkle the flour on it, whisking like crazy as it cooks to a dark milk-chocolate color. (for tips on making excellent, and easy, roux.)

2. As the roux approaches the proper color, reduce the heat to medium and start adding the vegetables—the onions, chile peppers, celery, turnips, and garlic—stirring hard with a wooden spoon. Then add all the chopped greens.

3. Let cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the greens have wilted, then pour in the water. Bring
to a boil over high heat, then season with the bay leaves, thyme, and allspice, and stir until the roux is dissolved. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and let simmer for about 45 minutes.

4. Stir in the okra, filé powder (if using), and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. Let cook for 10 more minutes, until the okra is tender.

5. Remove the bay leaves and add the oysters with their liquor. Cook briefly, just until their edges curl, then remove from heat immediately.

Ladle the soup into big bowls and serve immediately.

Alleluia! This culmination of the Easter season, when Christ rose from the dead, is full of joy and is celebrated at a table now cleared of Lenten austerities. No surprise, then, that Easter soup is positively bristling with all the forbidden foods—and often serves to break the Lenten fast while preparations are under way for the really extravagant Easter feast that follows, with its platefuls of meat roasts, egg and cheese dishes, creamy concoctions, sweet buns, and fabulous cakes.

In Greece, Albania, and Cyprus,
mayeritsa
traditionally breaks the Lenten fast—made with rice, egg yolks, milk, and the innards of a lamb that has been slaughtered for the approaching feast.

In Romania,
bors de miel
is eaten, a sour soup made with lamb’s head and enriched with eggs and sour cream, and in Poland
barscz
is served first thing on Easter morning, a sour milky soup thick with sausages and chopped eggs.

Egyptian Copts break the Lenten fast with
fatta
, a soup of lamb, bread, and rice in a meat broth enriched with butter and soured with vinegar and garlic, and Russians celebrate with a thick, red borshch—beets, beef, ham, and hard-boiled eggs thickened with sour cream.

Italians gorge on
benedetta
(“blessed”), with its meatballs, eggs, cheese, and holy water that was blessed in church the day before, or on
brodetta pasquale
, made with beef and lamb broth, eggs, lemon, and cheese. Bulgarians, by contrast, start the Easter meal with
tarator
, a cold, tangy yogurt soup that piques and prepares the appetite for the feast to come.

A
LBANIA
, G
REECE, AND
C
YPRUS
LAMB AND RICE SOUP
M
AYERITSA

Serves 6 to 8

T
HIS SOUP IS
traditional and ritualistic: while a freshly slaughtered spring lamb will be roasted for the main course of the Easter feast, a soup is supposed to be made from the remaining parts—the lungs, liver, heart, and intestines, all cooked in a broth made from the lamb’s head. Well, this recipe just isn’t that pure. On the other hand, it really is lovely—like a savory rice pudding with little bits of lamb and parsley and a lemony tang. Just ignore the fact that you’re using cornstarch to approximate the thickening you would have gotten from the entrails. This is a soup that is all about the joy of redemption, the richness of Christian living in Mediterranean communities, and just plain good eating. It’s also wonderful reheated, so long as you reheat carefully and don’t curdle it.

Cut the lamb off the bone and chop it coarsely, then prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.

1. Place the meat, bones, onions, and celery into a large soup pot and cover with the water. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, then reduce to a simmer. Skim any foam, discarding it. Cover the pot and cook for about 1 hour.

2. Stir in the rice and parsley, cover, and cook for about 25 more minutes, until the rice is very tender. Remove the lamb bones and discard them.

3. When you are ready to finalize the soup, whisk the egg yolks, cornstarch, and milk together until smooth, then whisk them slowly into the broth. Let the soup cook over low heat, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in the lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper.

Whether you are serving it after the midnight service or not, ladle the soup into bowls and serve immediately with feta cheese and hard-boiled eggs.

B
ULGARIA
ICED CUCUMBER SOUP
T
ARATOR