An Exaltation of Soups (52 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
OLAND
SPICED PLUM SOUP
ZUPA ŚLIWKOWA
Serves 6 to 8
T
HIS IS A
strongly flavored, sweet-tart appetizer soup to a vegetarian meal, redolent of fragrant harvests and autumn weather. The sour cream stirred in at the end creates a wonderful contrast of color and flavor. Of course, if you plan to serve meat in the main course, you should omit the sour cream and garnish the soup with toasted croutons. This soup is excellent piping hot—and also chilled.
2 pounds ripe purple plums, washed, cut in half, and pitted
6 cups water
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water
1 6-inch thin strip of orange zest (scrape away any bitter white pith)
1½ cups orange juice, or more as needed
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup honey
½ cup plain sour cream, whipped (optional)
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
Sour cream or croutons, for garnish
O
P
REPARE
Prep the ingredients as directed in the recipe list, to include toasting the croutons if you plan to garnish the soup with them.
O
C
OOK
1. Mix the plums, water, cornstarch, orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon, cloves, and honey in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes, until the fruit is very soft.
2. Puree the mixture in a blender, skins and all. Optionally, stir in the sour cream. If you plan to serve the soup cold, chill it in the refrigerator for several hours.
O
S
ERVE
Whether you are serving the soup hot or cold, add more orange juice, if you like, to get the consistency the way you like it. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, then ladle the soup into small bowls. Swirl a spoonful of sour cream into each portion as a garnish or top with toasted croutons.
P
LUM
C
RAZY
Plums have been cultivated since the dawn of mankind, their stones showing up even in the detritus of prehistoric Swiss Lake sites. Babylonians grew them in orchards; Assyrian herbalists recommended eating them with honey and butter; and Egyptians doted on them. Alexander the Great himself was said to have introduced them into Greece from Syria or Persia. Plums really came into their own in Renaissance Europe, though, with botanists cultivating exquisite varietals like the Greengage and Mirabelle. But purple
Prunus domestica
, likely a hybrid of
Prunus cerasifera
(the cherry plum) and
Prunus spinosa
(the sloe), was always and continues to be the rage in Poland and all of central Europe, eaten and cooked with pleasure, dried into prunes and pastes, and distilled into the lethal
śliwowica
brandy.
ASSOVER
Passover, or Pesach, commemorates the Jewish exodus from Egypt, when the Hebrews left so suddenly that they only had time to bake and take unleavened bread into the wilderness.
In honor of this “unleavened bread of affliction,” as required in the Torah’s injunction (“Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your house”), no leavening is used or kept in any house during the eight-day festival. That means no yeast, no baking powder or soda, not even flours that could conceivably get wet and ferment. So how does the unleavened flour of matzo pass muster? It is “guarded”—that is, specially harvested and stored wheat is milled between new, bone-dry millstones to become “Passover flour,” mixed with water and immediately cooked—guaranteed never to have gotten damp. Matzo first showed up in Franco-German chicken soups at the seder table to replace forbidden dumplings. Thus were matzo balls born—and in popular folklore their shape is said to represent the round stone thrown by Moses to smash the walls that bound the Jews within Egypt.
Other Passover soups also became traditional in different climes. In Alsatian France, a delicate beef bouillon with delicately spiced matzo balls is favored. In Spain, Jews eat leek soup, or
sopa de prasso.
In Morocco, fava bean soup,
bessara
, is enjoyed to commemorate the fava beans eaten by the Hebrew slaves. In Italy, Jews prepare chicken soup with cinnamon, eggs, and matzo bits cooked to disintegration. In Yemen, Passover is celebrated with chicken soup flavored with the famous
chuwayil
spice, made of black pepper, cardamom, turmeric, saffron, and caraway. In Georgia, there’s
khengali
, a chicken soup with walnut balls. Then there’s
russel borshch
, an astonishing sour beet soup with brisket and potatoes from Russia.
“P
ESACH
E
VE IN
O
UR
L
ITTLE
S
HTETL
”
Pesach preparations would begin immediately after Purim when we were finished with the tasty hamantashen…. Everyone, who was able, immediately bought wheat meal. Avrum Shebach, the miller, already was concerned that the meal ground in his mill should not become “chometzdick” (impure for Passover use)….
When the matzoh ritual concluded, koshering of the home began…. I also remember the job of beet [preparation]. After the beets were left standing [in water] for three weeks, the water became scummy. The scum was removed; and a good borshch remained for Pesach to have with matzoh.
Wine was made from raisins and water. Honey was cooked with water; hops were added. This was allowed to sit. As dear Pesach arrived, there were resources to treat one’s guest. When Seder night arrived, the home was not recognizable. Every house apppeared so pure and holy.
The father of the family donned his kittel [a white linen robe worn on solemn occasions and used as a shroud after death] and sat upon his regal leisure chair like a real king. His wife was the queen, and around them were their children. Wine was poured for everyone at the Seder without forgetting a cup for Elyohu-Hanovi [Elijah the Prophet].
The youngest child asked the Four Questions, and the father had to answer. The door was opened for Elyohu-Hanovi to enter. The mother could hardly sit through the first Seder, so tired was she from the preparations.
On Khalemoyed (the intermediate week-days of the holiday), girls and young men traveled as guests to other shtetls to get together with family and, in the meantime, to take advantage of the time to see about a match. Thus, the Jews lived for centuries, worried about livelihoods and were happy with their spiritual life without [the bounties of] wider civilization, without radio and television, without electrical devices—until the coming of Hitler, may his name be blotted out, killed everyone.
The Jews who emigrated to other lands and continents have acclimated themselves to their environments. But, from time to time, they remember and yearn for those times.
—H
INDE
B
INKOVITZ
-W
IENER
,
an oral history as part of the Yizkor Book Project
USSIA
TART BEET SOUP
RUSSEL BORSHCH
“B
ORSCHT
B
ELT
” H
UMOR
Q
UESTION
: What’s a Catskill Manhattan cocktail?
Serves 6 to 8
T
O GET THIS
right, you must mark the calendar and start making the
russel
, or sour beet juice, a month before
Pesach.
It’s worth it, though—this soup is a tasty and filling meal during Passover, with the tender brisket of beef and delicate potatoes perfectly set off by the eggy sweet/tart broth.
F
OR THE SOUR BEET JUICE
(
RUSSEL
)
8 medium red beets, peeled and cut into eighths
8 or more cups warm water
F
OR THE SOUP
2-pound piece of beef brisket
2 medium onions, chopped
2 bay leaves
4 cups cold water
Salt, pepper, and sugar to taste
1 egg, beaten
G
ARNISH
6 to 8 boiled waxy potatoes (1 per person)
Chopped hard-boiled eggs
Chopped cucumber
Chopped fresh parsley
O
P
REPARE
1. One month ahead, put the beets in a large glass or ceramic bowl, cover with warm water, then cover loosely with plastic wrap, leaving space for air to get through, and top with a clean cloth. Let stand in a warm spot to ferment for about a week. Remove the white scum that has formed on the top, stir, then re-cover. At the
end of the month, strain the juice through moistened cheesecloth, reserving the beets and the juice separately.
2. Prep the remaining ingredients as directed in the recipe list.
3. Prepare the garnishes. Boil the potatoes until tender, then drain, peel, and keep them warm; hard-boil the eggs, cool, peel, and chop; peel and chop the cucumbers; and chop the parsley.
O
C
OOK
1. Place the brisket, reserved beets, onions, bay leaves, and cold water in a large soup pot and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and let cook for 2 to 3 hours, until the brisket is tender.
2. Remove the brisket to the side and discard the bay leaves. Pour 4 cups of the reserved
russel
into the soup and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and season with salt, pepper, and sugar. This is a matter of individual taste, but you want to achieve a sweet-tart effect. Let the soup simmer for 15 minutes and taste again.
O
S
ERVE
1. When the soup is seasoned to your liking, stir in the beaten egg and keep stirring as it thickens a bit.
2. Cut the brisket into six or eight serving pieces, one piece per guest. Ladle the soup into bowls, then place a piece of meat and a potato in each and garnish with the egg, cucumber, and parsley.
