Soup: Around the World in a Bowl
No dish or type of dish appears across the world like soup. Developed independently, each soup reflects the area of the world that it comes from and stems from what was available to their first soup makers. There are soups made from stocks and broths, like beef, chicken, vegetable, and fish. Some are cream based while others are made with purees (bisques). From there just about anything can be added. Some have local animals like snakes or things a bit more odd like bird nests (in Bird’s Nest Soup the nest is just quickly soaked in boiling broth to release the sparrow salvia that binds it). Some are served hot while others at room temperature or even chilled. Some are alcoholic and consumed as a beverage and some just in bowls.
As it turns out while soups are made from almost anything, but items we consider fruits are rather rare. Oddly enough, one traditional fruit soup is served warm is in a land not know for fruit or really any of the ingredients. It’s called Fruktsuppe and it is from Norway.
Fruktsuppe
6 cups of cold water
½ cup sabo (sabo is a thickening agent imported from New Guinea)
¾ cup of sugar
2 lemons, thinly sliced
1 cup raisins
1 ½ cups of pitted prunes
2 cups of grape juice
Mix all ingredients except grape juice and let stand overnight (or at least 5 hours). Cook on low heat for about 2 hours, add grape juice and keep cooking till thickened, stirring occasionally.
Some soups are always made the same way once they have been named. An example of that is the Billy B. It is a cream of mussel soup that was made a Maxim’s in Paris. An American tycoon, William B Leeds, loved the soup and the chef named it after him. Some soups are made the same way out of tradition with little variation, like French Onion Soup. On the other end of the extreme are regional soups. They always have much in common with each other but are each made differently, sometimes changing with what is on hand. In the Bayou, Gumbo, thickened with a roux, is like that.
Other soups are newer to the table and reflect today’s preferences. Cucumber soup is a newer, unique soup. It is basically a health conscience bisque serve hot or cold, though being made with cucumbers and yogurt cold might be more appropriate.
Creamy Cucumber Bisque
1 tablespoon EVOO
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup diced onion
Squeeze of lemon
4 cups peeled, seeded and sliced cucumbers, divided
1 1/2 chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper (white if possible)
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 avocado, diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Sauté garlic and onion until onions clarify. Squeeze in lemon juice and cook for about a minute. Add almost all of the cucumber, reserving a bit for garnish. Add the rest of the ingredients (except yogurt and parsley) and simmer 6 to 8 minutes.
Carefully add to blender with avocado and almost all of the parsley. Puree then add to a large bowl. Mix in yogurt and chill. Ladle into bowls and garnish with remaining cucumber and parsley
