A Borscht of a Meal

There is no such thing as a light borscht. Once that dollop of sour cream goes on, all pretensions of a simple soup supper are totally undermined. So, lets go with it - the chunky hearty kind of borscht that's not only a meal in itself, but an inspiration to embellish: I am thinking now about another Eastern European delicacy - the pierogi, or little noodle dumplings, usually served as a meal or appetizer on their own.
So I thought about a nice chunky borscht with wedges of the rubiest little fresh beets, baby new potatoes and carrots, and crinkly ribbons of young savoy cabbage, cooked til just tender in a sweet-sour tomatoey broth - almost perfect. But wait, little pierogis filled with a cinnamon spiced meat filling served on the side or to mix in would be a wonderful texture surprise - a perfect contrast to the vegetables - think of the soft noodle and warm richness of the filling. The pierogis were a great idea, and, as it turned out, very easy to make - with a little help from some ready made wonton wrappers and on-hand leftovers! Just before serving, I sauteed the dumplings in a little bubbling butter to lightly brown them - an extra touch well worth the extra pan!

A grandmother's flavors re-dressed! - The Borscht with Little (wanton) Pierogi Pockets

Let's get started, none too early - the beets need a little pre-cooking, so its best to prepare for this borscht bash well ahead: from a bunch of 4 beets, take three and remove the root tail. Set in a steamer and steam 15 - 20 minutes until just tender.
Cooking the beets ahead is a great way to avoid the unwelcome flat taste of overcooked beets in traditional deli borscht.

Soup Ingredients
1 bunch of 4 medium or 6 small beets, steamed (leave one medium or 2 small beets to grate into the soup near the end - peel first!)
1 large soup carrot, peeled and cut lengthwise, then diagonally into chunks
4 - 5 small new potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 a small savoy cabbage, cut into 1/4-inch ribbons
1 medium onion, diced
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes with juice
2-3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (best, but white wine vinegar is okay too)
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 bayleaf
pinch of marjoram or savory
salt and fresh ground pepper
4 - 5 cups good vegetable broth
handful of fresh dill
sour cream for garnish

For the Dumplings:
1 generous cup minced leftover hamburger, brisket or pot roast
1 medium onion, finely diced
chicken fat or vegetable oil to saute onions
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
salt and pepper
16 wonton wrappers (available in most supermarkets)
2 tablespoons butter

Note on timing: The soup needs about 35 to 40 minutes to cook, and with vegetable prep, soup can be ready in just well under an hour. To have the pierogis ready to serve as well, be sure to start dumpling prep just as soon as the soup goes up.

The Method:
Have all vegetables prepped including pre-cooked beets, all except beet(s) reserved for grating.
For the pre-cooked beets, which should now be cool, slip off the skins, half lenghtwise and cut in quarter or third crescents. Put potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage and bay leaf in a soup pot, add broth and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer 15 minutes; potatoes will be almost tender. Add beets, and grate the reserved beet fresh into the soup (not good to let the grated beet sit around!). Season to taste with salt and pepper, and optionally, the marjoram and/or savory. Continue to simmer another 10 minutes. Then add in vinegar and sugar, 2 tablespoons to one. Taste, then correct by adding more vinegar or sugar. Let the soup continue to cook 5 to 10 minutes to absorb and fully integrate the sweet-sour. Serve each plate with a sprinkling of chopped dill and the proverbial dollop of sour cream.

And voila! Here's how pretty it will look:

For the Dumplings, start sauteeing the onion as soon as the vegetables are in the soup pot. My favorite onion method is borrowed from Elizabeth Ehrlich's poignant food and family memoir, In Miriam's Kitchen: heat up a heavy saute pan, sprinkle in fresh ground pepper and shake to heat up, then put in the onions and stir til they sizzle and begin to turn to a golden translucent - they'll start to release some of their liquid. Then add the oil or rendered chicken fat, lower heat, and continue to saute until soft and more golden.
While onions simmer to softness, mince the meat, warm the meat in the microwave so its not refrigerator cold, and top with the spices. Remove the wontons from the package and lay them out on a lightly dusted large cookie sheet or marble. Put up a large pot of salted water to boil.

When the onions are soft, add in the pressed garlic and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the onions into meat mixture and press together to combine into a loose paste. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, measure a small amount into the center of each wonton. Fold over diagonally and press the edges edges together, using a moistened finger or fork to make a tight seal all the way around. Seal tightly around all the filling - any extra loose edges can be trimmed - not a good idea to leave the filling with any empty space. Drop the dumplings into rapidly boiling water, 6 at a time, and cook 2 to 3 minutes, max. Drain on a piece of parchment and finish the remaining batches in same way. Once ready to serve, heat a saute pan, then drop in the butter to sizzle (just like for an omelet). Quickly lift in the dumplings in two batches - don't crowd. Turn to coat and lightly brown on both sides and remove to serving plate.

Serve immediately with a garnish of parsley, with 16 dumplings, there even might be seconds!

If soup is the broth of life, soup proverbs are the words to live by!

I came upon a proverb the other day, particularly apt: "too many recipes spoil the soup."

And it reminded me of another, "too many cooks spoil the broth." And then another came to mind; you know, the one that says "the more chefs, the better the soup."

I started digging and I found pages of words to live by from every corner of the world. Nothing is more basic nourishment than soup, and nothing nourishes the expression of basic truths like soup metaphors, so it seems! In the following proverbs, soup becomes a vehicle to drive home, often with emotional intensity, at other times with wry detachment, lessons learned from collective experience. These are some of my favorites:

Drink a glass of wine after your soup and you steal a ruble from the doctor. (Russian)
Of soup and love, the first is best. (English, Spanish, Portuguese, etc...)
Between the hand and mouth, the soup is spilt. (Italian and others)
Beauty does not season soup. (Polish and Russian)
You can't sup soup with a fork. (German, Irish, etc.)

Often you'll find the same sentiment, but the expression is culturally specific:
Troubles are easier to take with soup than without. (Yiddish)
Headaches need soup. (Sicilian)

And then you come across the proverbs so arch you can't but smile, even if the sayings come from the bitterest of places:

The less soup, the more spoons. (Malawian)
In your neighbors soup, there's always one fatty morsel. (Persian)
Soup must be hot, insults cold. (Spanish)
If it were ever to rain soup, the poor would only have forks. (Brazilian)
One who has been burned by the soup learns to blow on the yoghurt. (Arab)
Better no soup than no spoon. (German)

A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom. (Welsh)
One bee makes no honey, one grain makes no rice soup. (Chinese)
He's not an honest man who burns his mouth on soup and doesn't tell his guest. (Italian)

Last but not least, a few from Nigeria, a land whose Igbo people have proverbs and idioms for everything. Their language, with over a million proverbs and sayings, is one of the richest for linguistic color. Here are a very few, all refer to soup:

• The chicken always blames the soup pot for his tragic circumstances, not the one who slit his throat.
• When the soup is unpalatable, and the yam paste that goes in it is not smooth, then its time to know a man who likes pounded yam.
• If a man makes soup of tears, ask him not for the broth.
• He who eats the egg forgoes the future chicken soup.
• Chickens don't praise their own soup.
• If the soup is sweet, it is money that cooks it.

And with this soul nourishment, Souperlatif is back, after many months of no posting, bemoaning the fact that my food photos just didn't sparkle. I am full of admiration for all the bloggers who take such beautiful photos of their best efforts - I've been working on it, and have been building up a little stock of soups to share. More to come.

Velvety Lentil Soup with Cherry Tomato Couli

Yet again, another lentil soup from Souperlatif.

This soup is rich and smooth, and quite different from either the lemony middle eastern lentil soups (eg, Spicy Red Lentil Soup), or the more European vegetable lentil soups with meat (eg, Winter Lentil Soup). There are just four ingredients to the soup - water, lentils, garlic and olive oil - a perfect meal idea when there's literally almost nothing in the pantry!

The soup couldn't be simpler, but simple doesn't mean quick - the lentils will need some soaking time, so do plan ahead. I loved this soup with the French Puy lentils, a petite dark green variety popular in France, which you can read about in my recent post about all kinds of lentils. For the garlic, I have tried using both smashed cloves of fresh garlic as well as a head's worth of slow roasted garlic cloves. The softened garlic sounds like it would be very yummy, but I found it a bit too overwhelming. I'd love feedback - the roasted garlic paste does have the advantage of making the finished texture of the soup more creamy, but the flavor, for my taste, was almost too much. I garnish the velvety broth with a a toasted half slice of country bread slathered with a quick tomato couli. For the couli, I use cherry tomatoes for greater intensity, a little white wine and fresh basil and thyme. Just a delicious way to start off a dinner evening of soup, salad, crusty bread and cheese.

The Soup
1-1/4 cups Puy lentils
1 head of garlic, cloves smashed and skins removed
or
1 head of garlic, slow roasted with olive oil in foil
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
6 cups water, brought to a boil
1 imported bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

A couple of hours ahead, soak the lentils in plenty of cold water. Drain and rinse.
If you elect to use roasted garlic, preheat oven to 300˚. Separate all cloves in a head of garlic, toss cloves well in 1 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Using a rectangle of foil, seal the cloves and as much oil as reasonably works into foil by folding together all edges, like a pocket. Roast 1 hour, or until cloves are as soft as thick cream. Once done, open the foil carefully and allow cloves to cool slightly. Squeeze the soft garlic and any oil into a dish and set aside for the soup. When adding the softened garlic to the lentils and water, reduce the amount of olive oil by half.

To start the soup, put lentils in a medium soup pot (cast iron, earthenware or stainless steel). Cover generously with water, and bring to a rapid boil. Remove from heat, and drain/rinse the lentils again. The removal of the soak and precook liquids helps to reduce the gas producing chemicals in the lentils! Meanwhile, prepare the garlic cloves by cutting the root end and smashing the clove with the side of a wide knife blade to remove the skins. Put all the olive oil, the smashed garlic cloves and bay leaf into the soup pot. Add the lentils and 6 cups of boiling water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and allow to simmer partially covered for 45 minutes. Season to taste with salt - don't over do, otherwise the lentils will absorb too much. If using fresh garlic, test the garlic - if they are not soft enough to puree, continue to simmer another 15 or 20 minutes and test again. If using roasted garlic puree, test the lentils for softness after 45 minutes - add a little more simmer time if needed to reach the right consistency. Remove bay leaf!

Using a food mill, blender or immersion blender stick, puree the lentil mixture until creamy and smooth. Return to very low heat to keep warm until serving.

The Garnish

For the Couli
1 small basket cherry tomatoes
2 or 3 fresh basil leaves, cut in thin strips
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
kosher salt
2 to 3 T. olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine

Heat olive oil in a saute pan. Add tomatoes, coating them well with the oil. Salt the tomatoes and simmer, covered until the skins burst - about 10 minutes. Raise the heat to medium high and mash down the tomatoes to release as much juice, seeds and pulp as possible. Add the wine, allow the alcohol to dissipate, then reduce the heat. Add basil and thyme, simmer uncovered at least another 15 to 20 minutes - oil should begin to separate from the wine and the pulp should be a rich red. Using a food mill or medium fine strainer, force through the tomato mixture, discarding tough skins and seeds. Set aside on a corner of the stove to keep warm for serving.

Toast thick slices of country bread, preferably not sourdough. Rub with a cut clove of garlic, then drizzle some olive oil on each slice.

To serve, place a half slice of bread in each bowl. Ladle soup over the bread, and top each slice with a generous drizzle or spoonful of the tomato couli. Serve immediately, passing around the pepper mill.