soupsong.com

Back in 2009, you saw my friend Catherine over a bowl of  Gratinee lyonnaise in the beautiful city of Lyon.  What I didn’t tell you is that she was the creator in 1989 (then the 10-year director) of the Taste Of Tasmania food festival in Australia; chef manager for the Baron Diego von Buch in the UK; Régisseur principal for Her Royal Highness, the Grand Duke and the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg; and currently the owner and chef of an 11-room “Logis de France” hotel. L’Echalier, in Fussy, France.  Among other things! “Let’s,” I said when I was visiting this month, “make a marvelous soup in your kitchen to broadcast over soupsong.”  Catherine, a devotee of organic food and healthy living, said, “oh yes.  let’s make a very green tonic soup from the tops of my radishes, beets, and carrots and add some fresh-picked spinach.”  Isn’t she marvelous?  Doesn’t she put Nigella to shame?

Here Catherine is over the stove, mixing into the greens some water, chopped onions (two) and floury potatoes (two); blending; seasoning with salt, pepper, and a dash of nutmeg and tasting to get it exactly right.

And here I am in L’Echalier’s restaurant, so happy to be the taster.  Note the crusty bread from the boulangerie a few doors down.  Note the swirl of cream in the fresh soup.  (When she served this to customers, she splashed walnut oil and a toasted walnut on top.)  Note the glass of 2009 Vaucoupin Chablis, Premier Cru, Domaine Louis Robin.  Please note my assessment:  Deeply flavored, but light.  Tangy, earthy, bright, smooth.  And my recommendation:  Quick, run out and make this before spring is over! And, needless to say, I also recommend you consider a trip to this marvelous section of France, on the Cher river…close to the Loire valley…and popping with everything interesting from medieval towns, abbeys, priories, and gardens to one of the world’s largest radio telescopes, searching the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life.  L’Echalier is in the middle of everything, on La Route de Paris–great location…great hotel… great food…and Catherine! See rave reviews on TripAdvisor.com; contact information as follows:

• Mme. Catherine Brys’ L’Echalier
• 30 Route de Paris
• 18110 Fussy
• +33 (0)2 48 69 31 72 (hotel)
• +33 (0)6 37 51 78 57

Bon voyage et bon appetite!

 

Who knew that Salman Rushie took a break from writing The Satanic Verses and traveled to Nicaragua in the summer of 1986 for three weeks?  He’d been invited by the Sandinista Association of Cultural Workers, which called itself “the umbrella organisation that brought writers, artists, musicians, craftspeople, dancers and so on, together under the same roof,” on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of the Sandinista rise to power.

His account of his travels is, of course, extremely interesting–and particularly so to me when in July, he visited the Enrique Acuña co-operative and lunched with five resettled campesinos.  “With the generosity of the poor,” he says, “they treated me to a delicacy at lunch.  I was given an egg and bean soup, the point being that these eggs were the best-tasting because they had been fertilized.  Such eggs were known as ‘the eggs of love.’  When people had so little, a fertilized hen’s egg became a treat.”

I could not wait to discover this recipe.

I looked through my Latin American cookbooks.  I scanned the library catalogs of DC’s Martin Luther King library and my local Falls Church library.  Almost as an afterthought I googled key words.  And there it was, on my very own website:

SOPA DE FRIJOLES (serve hot as a meal to 4 people)

This traditional soup of Nicaraguans–who generally prefer red beans to black–is both unusual and delicious.  The red bean puree is light and smooth, contrasting with the crisp onion, chunky red pepper, and bursts of intense pork from the chicharrones (pork rinds).  The poached egg on top enriches the soup–especially if it’s fertilized!–a yellow sun on a clay earth terrain.

• 2 cups dried red beans, soaked overnight in water to cover
• 8 cups water
• 10 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 Tablespoons corn oil
• 1 and 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup chicarrones (pork rinds)
• 1 cup sweet red pepper, chopped
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• salt to taste

Garnish: 4 eggs, fertilized if you can find them

Discard the soaking water and put the beans and garlic into a Dutch oven with the 8 cups of water. (You don’t want a narrow pot, because you’re going to poach 4 eggs in it at the end.)  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until soft, about an hour.  Purée and return to the pot.

Sauté the onions in the corn oil over medium heat until lightly crisp. Add the pork rinds, red pepper, and black pepper, and stir for a few minutes.  Scrape everything into the soup pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes.  Season with salt.

When ready to serve, raise the heat to medium.  Carefully break the 4 eggs into different spots of the pot, where you see bubbles forming, then cover, and let poach for several minutes.  Carefully ladle into bowls and serve immediately.

Sopa de Frijoles is terrific–and just one of a vast repertoire of traditional Nicaraguan soups.  Stay tuned, for example, for August 27′s post on Nicaragua’s  famous Corn Island Crab Soup, celebrating the abolition of slavery in 1841 by order of England’s Queen Victoria and Mosquitia’s King Robert Charles Frederick.