Soup Season
Autumn has truly arrived here on Canada's West Coast. Days are shorter, nights are cooler, the perfume of autumn - her own crisp cool fragrance permeates the air, and the warm sensual colours she wears are in fashion for all creation. Autumn leaves and soup season go hand in hand.
In the kitchen soup is on the stove often with root vegetables more plentiful in the produce department. Soup - that wonderful dish that has come to the table after hours of it's simmering flavours permeating the house. My large heavy orange coloured dutch oven sits on the stove and holds the flavours and stories of many years of soup making.
There is a certain sympatico between autumn and stock-making. Perhaps it is the pervasive aroma that fogs the kitchen windows as the broth simmers and thickens, imbuing a home with a sense of well-being.
Molly O'Neill
20th-century American writer
A Saturday evening dinner began with soup - rich steaming vibrant orange in colour. Its creation began with chopped carrots, celery and onions sweating in a touch of oil and a hint of bacon fat. Yes that bacon fat can add just the right hint of flavour to this soup. The clang of the stainless steel spoon again the pan as I stirred the vegetables mixed with the sizzle of their cooking. Sweating the vegetables releases much of the flavour required for a good hearty broth to result. Next goes in the finely chopped fresh ginger and a new fragrance is carried into the air. Stir that for a few minutes and then chop in some apples for a fruity hint....hmmmmm one must lean over the pot and inhale the aroma. Almost as if leaning over for a facial!! A few more ingredients are required before the lid goes on and the slow simmering can really begin. I love the blend of exotic so along with the ginger and apples I added a healthy spoonful of curry paste and then a hint of nutmeg, as well as taking the sea salt in my fingers to feel the right amount to add. Lastly add the chicken broth, bring it to a boil and then on goes the lid and down goes the heat. It will do it's own thing for a while and allowed me to get on with other tasks. In the end, after it was blended to a fine smooth thick texture it could be refrigerated overnight for the flavours to continue to blend. Soups are almost always better after hibernating overnight in the fridge. There they wait for just the right moment to be heated and served in all their steaming glory to those who come to the table.
Soup - the starter for a great autumn meal or the warming bowl that gives a hearty lunch, or perhaps just comfort food on a rainy autumn day to warm you up. Soup that has you leaning closer to the table, bending your body forward to bring that spoonful of flavour to your lips and taste buds.
How ever you like it, soup season is beginning again so enjoy every bowl of it!