An Exaltation of Soups (47 page)
Read An Exaltation of Soups Online
Authors: Patricia Solley
3. Prepare the dumplings: Mix the ricotta cheese with the egg, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir well. Refrigerate the dumplings until you are ready to cook them.
O
C
OOK
1. When the soup has cooked for 30 minutes, and you have added the shredded chicken, taste carefully for seasoning—this is the last time you will be able to stir in salt and pepper, as you’re about to make the soup very crowded with fragile meatballs and dumplings. Slide the meatballs into the soup and cook gently for 5 minutes without touching them.
2. Cover the pot and build up a head of steam in it over medium heat. Then, using a teaspoon, slide spoonfuls of the cheese dumpling mixture into the lightly bubbling broth. Be careful here. The dumplings are delicate and you don’t want them to break up in the broth. Don’t touch them or stir them around. Cook, covered, until the dumplings are set, 6 to 8 minutes. No peeking!
O
S
ERVE
Evenly distribute the meatballs and dumplings among the bowls, then ladle in the broth and garnish each portion with minced parsley.
D
EEPLY
R
EPENTANT
Deeply repentant of my sinful
ways
And of my trivial, manifold
desires,
Of squandering, alas, these
few brief days
Of fugitive life in tending
love’s vain fires,
To Thee, Lord, Who dost
move hard hearts again,
And render warmth unto the
frozen snow,
And lighten every bitter load
of pain
For those who with Thy
Sacred ardours glow,
To Thee I turn, O stretch
forth Thy right hand
And from this whirlpool
rescue me, for I
Without Thine aid could
never reach the land;
O willingly for us didst suffer
loss,
And to redeem mankind
hung on the Cross,
O gentle Saviour, leave me
not to die.
—G
ASPARA
S
TAMPA
,
sixteenth-
century Italian poet
OLAND
SOUR RYE AND SAUSAGE SOUP
BARSCZ
Serves 6 to 8
T
HIS AUTHENTIC POLISH
recipe was brought to the United States from Kraków in the early 1900s by Agnes Kravitz, who settled in northeastern Pennsylvania and passed the “little bit of this, little bit of that” recipe to her daughter Theodosia (Tess) Burke, who in turn passed the love of it on to her own daughter-in-law, Maria Burke. Maria sent it to me, for which I shall always be grateful. It’s a rich and unusual soup—thickly white from milk and dark rye flour, sour from fermenting the flour into traditional
barscz kwaszony zytni
(similar to the Russian
kvass
), tart from freshly grated horseradish, and highly textured from chopped egg, smoked kielbasa, and rye bread. As Maria says, “it’s something you have to acquire a taste for, but once you do, there’s no substitute for it.” As a convert, I agree.
Barcsz
is excellent for Easter morning, or for any time the mood strikes you.
F
OR THE
BARSCZ
¼ pound dark rye flour
4 cups warm water
F
OR THE CONDIMENTS
6 to 8 slices rye bread (1 slice per person), torn into bits
1 pound smoked kielbasa (Polish sausage), chopped
6 to 8 hard-boiled eggs (1 egg per person), chopped
Horseradish, freshly grated and mixed with a little vinegar
F
OR THE SOUP
8 cups (2 quarts) water
2 eggs
2 cups milk or buttermilk
Salt and pepper to taste
O
P
REPARE
1. Six days ahead, begin the
barscz:
Stir together the rye flour and warm water in an ample container (ceramic is good) and set it aside in a warm place, covered with a towel. (I made mine in a big plastic container, covered it with a potholder, and put it on the back of the stove. The kitchen counter is also fine.) Stir once a day. The fermentation and sour smell is a sign that it’s getting good. Measure out 2 cups of the
barscz.
You can save the
barscz
you don’t use, let it settle again, then decant the clear liquid, refrigerate, and use as a flavoring in other soups (for example, the Lenten
Okroshka postnaya
).
2. Prep the condiments as directed in the recipe list.
O
C
OOK
Bring the water to a simmer in a large soup pot on the stove. Beat together the eggs and milk, then slowly stir them into the simmering water. Turn up the heat a bit, let the broth thicken, then slowly pour in reserved
barscz.
Stir with a wooden spoon until the broth thickens to the consistency of watery oatmeal or runny pea soup. Season well with salt and pepper. It should smell sour.
O
S
ERVE
Place some of the bread bits, chopped sausage, and chopped egg into each bowl. Ladle the soup over each portion, then stir in horseradish to taste.
“A S
KULL
”
Before Mary Magdalen,
albescent in the dusk,
A skull. The candle flickers.
Which of her lovers
Is this dried-up bone, she
does not try to guess.
She remains like that, for an
age or two
In meditation, while sand in
the hourglass
Has fallen asleep—because
once she saw,
And felt on her shoulder the
touch of His hand,
Then, at daybreak, when she
exclaimed: “Rabboni!”
I gather dreams of the skull
for I am it,
Impetuous, enamored, suffering
in the gardens
Under a dark window, uncertain
whether it’s mine
And for no one else, the secret
of her pleasure.
Raptures, solemn oaths. She
does not quite remember.
And only that moment persists,
unrevoked,
When she was almost on the
other side.
—C
ZESLAW
M
ILOSZ
,
twentieth-
century Polish poet
KRAINE
BEET SOUP
BORSHCH
Serves 6 to 8
T
HIS RECIPE WAS
given to me by Andrei Radchenko of Miami, Florida, who grew up and spent most of his young adult life in Kiev. He cautions that it’s important to locate true “borshch beets,” which have whitish stripes inside when you cut them in half. Alas, there is no way to tell if you have the right ones before you get them home, so you might want to ask your grocer or shop at a farmer’s market and ask for a look. Andy says he’s generally lucky four out of five times, which isn’t bad. Also please note the spelling of the soup: Americans commonly see it spelled
borscht
, but that’s like pronouncing
whiskey
“viskey.”
As for the soup making, start early and plan to be home pretty much all day, while you keep feeding the pot. Serve this soup as a first course at Easter dinner, or at Christmas dinner, or as a meal in its own right, anytime of the year, with sourdough buns
(pampooshkee)
sauced with garlic oil and served with side dishes.
F
OR THE BROTH
½ cup dried red beans
2 to 3 pounds pork ribs
12 cups (3 quarts) cold water
1 medium onion
1 carrot, scrubbed and trimmed
1 celery stalk with leaves, cut in half
1 large or 2 medium beets, peeled and julienned
F
OR THE SOUP
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 celery stalk with leaves, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
2 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced, or 4 canned tomatoes, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into thick slices
Herbs and spices to taste, to include salt, bay leaf, black pepper, piece of dried red chile pepper, and thyme
½ small cabbage, thinly sliced
F
OR THE SOUP SEASONING
3 ounces salt pork fat or bacon, chopped
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
½ cup yogurt
⅓ to ½ cup tomato paste
Sour cream, fresh dill, and parsley, for garnish
“E
ASTER
S
UNDAY
”
In the Russian there is a special feeling for the feast of Easter Sunday. He feels this kinship more keenly if he happens to be in a foreign country…. It seems to him that in Russia people somehow celebrate this day better, and the people themselves are more joyful and better than on other days, and life itself is somehow different, not ordinary everyday. Suddenly it seems to him that this solemn midnight, this ubiquitous ringing of bells, which seems to fuse all the earth into one sound, all the cries, Christ has risen!
—N
IKOLAI
G
OGOL
,
nineteenth-century Ukrainian satirist, from L
ETTER
32
A S
HORT
H
ISTORY OF
B
ORSHCH
Borshch
, a Ukrainian specialty well loved by Russians, was originally named after a weed—the
borshchevik—a
universal ingredient in the earliest days of soup making. It was only later, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, that peasants starting adding beetroot to the soup, when it was imported from Europe into the Ukraine. It was love at first bite: the Ukraine soon became the main beet-growing region in Russia. In fact, the classic Russian
borshch
, as noted, is called
malorossisky borshch
, from the Old Russian name for Ukraine. While Ukrainians used their abundant beets for everyday soup, in the less fertile north,
borshch
was a special treat to be cooked only for festivals.
Yuri Olesha, Soviet writer, evokes the power and mythic sugestiveness
borshch
holds for Russians and Ukrainians in
No Day Without a Line:
“With what gusto I ate! How delicious it was. It was Greek, southern fare. Powerfully, like the body of a bull, a whole green pepper lay in the borshch, displaying its side like the bull that abducted Europa.”
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. Place the pork ribs in a large soup pot with the cold water. Bring to a boil slowly over medium-high heat and remove the scum as necessary. Add the onion, carrot, and celery, reduce to a simmer, partially cover the pot, and cook for about 2 hours. When done, strain the broth, cut the meat off the bones (reserving it), and discard the bones and vegetables.
