soupsong.com

Almost 5 years since my last post on Halloween 2009. Five years!  A lot of soup under the bridge…many European, African, and Latin American adventures under my belt…relocating from Paris back to Washington, DC…and just now retiring from the day job (!) to what I hope will be a new era for soupsong. The plan?  Nothing less than ditching the old format of soupsong.com and a lot of its content to create Soupedia, a compendium of traditional soup recipes from all time periods and cultures that I hope will largely flow into the site from soup lovers around the world.  And fast, before the globalization of food and custom make us forget these storied traditions. It’s going to be a long haul, folks, as I figure out 21st century tools and laboriously reprogram the content.  But along the way I hope to tease and tempt you on this blog with stories and recipes I have collected during my long absence.  And what better way to start, now that I’m back in the poisonous politics of Washington, DC,  than with an 18th century American crab soup from the hand of our first First Lady Martha Washington? Appropriately, I adapted a recipe found in Washington insider Cokie Roberts’ Founding Mothers:  The Women Who Raised Our Nation, credited to Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks’ 1968 book of presidential recipes.  It is light and lemony but rich – and heady with a whiff of sherry to stimulate the appetite.  Need I say it?  PERFECT for these cool spring days.  Don’t you wish you had a cup right this minute? MARTHA WASHINGTON’S CRAB SOUP (6 servings)

• 3 eggs, hardboiled
• grated rind of one lemon
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 4 cups milk
• salt and white pepper to taste
• 1 cup crabmeat (ideally lump Chesapeake crab, but all crab is good in this)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• Garnish: strips of lemon rind and parsley

Mash the hardboiled eggs and grated lemon rind together and reserve.  Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat, whisk in the flour and blend for a minute or two.  Slowly whisk in the milk, turning up the heat to medium, and bring to a boil.  Whisk in the egg/rind and cook gently for 5 minute to thicken.  Season with salt and white pepper to taste.  Right before serving, stir in the heavy cream and crabmeat and bring just to a boil.  Remove from heat, add the sherry, and serve immediately.  Garnish each bowl with a curl of lemon rind and a parsley leaf.