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Soups from Edna Lewis's
"In
Pursuit of Flavor"
Kitchen Category
"There is nothing like soup... To
feel safe and warm on a cold,
wet night,
all you really need is soup."
~ Laurie Colwin
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Audit, Lisa
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Charleston View
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Benecke, William
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Recipe Source:
In Pursuit of Flavor
by Edna Lewis with Mary Goodbody,
University of Virginia Press,
December 1999
(paperback)
 
Beef Barley Stew
Serves 4
"When I was a child we
would often have beef barley stew in the late fall after
a
steer had been butchered. It
was always hung in the hide so that meat could
be carved from it when needed. The stew was
a nice dark brown with lots of
pieces
of beef and barley in it. Barley, a dried grain, is
sold in health-food
stores as well
as supermarkets. I also like to add sautéed wild
mushrooms
to plain beef broth for
a flavorful and simple garnish.
"I find that today beef has to be treated a little
specially to bring out its flavor,
and, even so. It does not have as much taste as it once
did. Roasting the meat
and bones
in the oven seems to be the best way to get good taste,
and I cook
the
entire stew in the oven. Since chuck bones seem to have the best flavor, I
ask
the butcher to save them for me until he has a few pounds and then I freeze
them to
use as I need. I
think it is a good idea to look for carefully raised beef.
Some butchers
and specialty shops and even farmers’ markets carry organically
raised beef as well
as pork and chicken in limited quantities. It is more worth-
while to seek out such meats
than to spend a lot of time preparing a dish that
will taste disappointing."
4 pound chuck bones
2 pounds lean beef cubes
1 medium onion, sliced
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf, broken into pieces
3 quarts cold water
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup uncooked whole-grain barley
Wash the bones and meat and pat dry with cloth. Heat a heavy skillet and
brown the meat on all sides. Set the browned meat aside. Put the bone
in
a large shallow
roasting pan with the onion, thyme and bay leaf. Add 1
quart of water and set in a
preheated 350-degree F. oven for 1 1/2 hours
to brown, turning occasionally.
Heat the remaining 2 quarts of water until just hot. Add with the
parsley,
cubed beef, and pepper to the roasting pan, stir well, return the pan to the
oven, and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F. Cook for about 2 hours, until
the meat is tender.
Remove the pan from the oven and strain the broth, discarding the bones and onion but
saving the meat. Add the barley to
the broth and continue to cook in the 300-degree F. oven for
an hour,
until the barley is tender. Season with salt and pepper, if needed, and
add the
pieces of meat to the soup a few minutes before taking the
pan from the oven.
Beef Soup with Wild
Mushrooms
Serves 4
After straining the
broth, remove the meat. Slice 7 to 8 wild mushrooms,
such as shiitakes or morels,
and lightly sauté them in about 1 tablespoon
of butter. Stir 1
tablespoon of Sherry into the beef broth as you reheat it. Garnish each soup bowl
with 6 to 8 slices of sautéed mushrooms and a tablespoon or so of peeled, seeded,
and cubed tomato. You may add
the meat to the soup or not, as you desire.
Thirteen-Bean Soup
Serves 4
"It seems that there are often thirteen different kinds
of beans in a
packaged
mixture of dried beans. I add a cup of black beans, which
may bring
the number
of beans used up to fourteen, but it really does
not matter. You could make
this
same soup with six kinds of beans,
or three kinds, or eight. I think it is the
pork
that makes the soup so
flavorful.
Further south than Virginia, which is my
home, pork is
cured in salt
and
nitrites and then dried. In Virginia and
Kentucky, where it gets
colder, the
pork is smoked. The pork we use has a
streak of lean too,
while in the Deep
South it
generally does not. For this
recipe, you can
use smoked bacon or
another kind of smoked
pork, or, if
necessary,
streak- of-lean in brine. I would
not use fatback;
it has no
lean."
1/2 cup black beans 2 cups mixed beans
1 pound smoked pork shoulder or streak-of-lean
1 medium onion
3 quarts cold water
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1 cup peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup good Sherry
Wash the beans and pick them over, casting out any stones or bad beans.
Put the pork, onion and beans in a large pot. Add the cold water, thyme,
bay leaf and
pepper. Set the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a
lively simmer. Turn down the heat
and keep the soup at a low simmer
for
for
2 1/2 hours. Remove the beans from the heat when done
and let
them
cool. Reserve the liquid. When the beans are lukewarm, season
them with
salt
and more pepper, if needed. Add the tomatoes and olive
oil, and blend
the mixture briefly
in a blender until just smooth, but not
liquefied. Add the
liquid to the puréed beans,
and taste for seasoning.
You may not need all
the liquid. Stir in the Sherry and reheat
until hot.
She-Crab Soup, Charleston Style>
Serves 8
"She-crab soup is supposed to be made with female crabs
only, which often
are tastier than male crabs. The crab roe is added for flavor. This
delicate
soup is prepared similarly to the way crab soup is cooked in Charleston,
where it
is
famous. If crab roe is not available, hard-boil 4 chicken eggs
and crumble
half an egg
yolk
in each bowl before ladling in the soup."
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 cups milk
4 cups (1 quart) heavy cream
1 pound crabmeat, picked free of
all shell and cartilage
2 tablespoons Sherry
2 teaspoons salt
Cayenne
2 cups crab roe, if available
Finely chopped parsley, for garnish
Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. When the butter is
melted, slowly stir in the milk so that it is well mixed. Leave the milk on
a
low burner
and cook for 15 minutes. Stir the milk every now and then
to
keep it from burning on the
bottom – don’t let it come near a boil.
Pour tPour the cream into a wide frying pan. Cook briskly for about 10
minutes,
until the cream is thick. Pour the cream into the butter-and-milk mixture
and
stir well. Add the crabmeat and pour the soup into the top of a double boiler set over
simmering water. Cook for about 30 minutes to let the
flavor develop. Season the soup with the Sherry, salt and a good sprinkling of cayenne.
Add the crab roe if you have it and check the seasoning; if you don’t have
it, use
hard-boiled eggs as suggested in the recipe introduction. Garnish
with parsley and serve
hot.
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