When all the truffles are chopped and all the foie gras sauteed, the French still will be savoring what may be their greatest culinary triumph, soup. The French soup repertoire is without end. Made from vegetables, fish or fowl, it can bring simple comfort to young and old or set an elaborate and elegant tone for a dinner party menu.
Lydie Marshall knows this, because she is French, cooks with her heart as well as her head and has taught others to cook. Her new book, “Soup of the Day” (HarperCollins, $25.95), is an opportunity for those among us who have been described as “deskilled” in the kitchen. Think of Marshall as the aunt or grandmother you probably don’t have who plans thoroughly and cooks effortlessly so that, despite time constraints, there is freshly cooked food on her table almost nightly.
What could be more economical and practical than “leftover mashed vegetable soup,” a byproduct of preparing vegetable broth; or more soothing than “day after” soup, a 20-minute wonder laced with greens that wards off colds and restores a body temporarily disabled by overindulgence?
Marshall presents her recipes in a clear, compact format juxtaposed to chatty, personal head notes. She includes chapters on broth, four categories of soup and, to fill out a menu, chapters on salads, breads and desserts. While the core of her repertory is French, she also presents soups of Asian, Iberian, Italian, Caribbean and American inspiration.
Especially appealing are the vegetable soups, including a pair of gazpachos, a white bean soup with tomatoes and tarragon, and fresh corn with basil and garlic.
Meat and poultry winners include a blend of sausage, chickpeas and pork, and a potato and escarole soup with meatballs.
As for the other chapters, the salads tend to be light and refreshing (with some delightful exceptions such as salad greens with fried potatoes and onions and another featuring chestnuts and mushrooms). The breads are rustic and well suited to being turned into sandwiches or croutons. Most of her desserts are fruit flavored.
In the Tribune test kitchen, the two recipes we prepared were straightforward and worked as written; we have supplied preparation time and nutrition information.
The odds are high that “Soup of the Day” will become one of the most worn titles on a good many kitchen bookshelves, its dog-eared pages marred by splashes collected in the heat of battle.
Jamaican kale and Scotch bonnet pepper soup
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
“In the original Jamaican recipe, the broth is made with a pig’s tail and with salt beef,” Lydie Marshall writes in “Soup of the Day.” “In the States, I boil down beef broth to substitute for the pig’s tail and salt beef. The combination of rich broth and coconut milk is delicious.”
6 cups beef broth
1 cup canned coconut milk
4 cups chopped raw kale leaves (1/2 pound)
1 Scotch bonnet chili
1 scallion, trimmed and sliced
1 sweet potato (1/3 pound), diced
Salt
1. In a 4-quart heavy-bottomed pot, boil down the broth to 4 cups to concentrate its flavor. Add the coconut milk, kale, chili, scallion and sweet potato. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and cook at a gentle boil, partially covered, for 1 hour.
2. Discard the chili, then taste and correct seasoning with salt if necessary.
Tribune test kitchen notes: Expect the boiling-down of the broth to take about 20 minutes; because of the concentration, you should start with low-sodium or homemade beef broth and adjust salt at the end. Tasters found this very spicy; tamer palates may want to use just half of a chili pepper.
Nutrition information per serving (calculated by the Tribune):
170 calories, 62% calories from fat, 13 g fat, 11 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1,760 mg sodium, 14 g carbohydrate, 4 g protein, 2.9 g fiber
Sausage, chickpea and potato soup
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Soaking time: At least 8 hours
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 servings
“The essence of this soup is Italian, and it’s very tasty,” Lydie Marshall writes in “Soup of the Day.” “Dried chickpeas must be soaked overnight before cooking: 1 cup dried chickpeas makes 21/2 cups soaked.” She sometimes pours this over slices of toasted, garlic-rubbed bread. Tasters found the result salty but liked its flavors and texture.
1 cup dried chickpeas or 1 pound cooked chickpeas
Salt
1/2 pound fresh Italian sausage
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, minced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more for dribbling
1 small onion, peeled and sliced (1/2 cup)
1/3 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (14-ounce) can crushed Italian plum tomatoes
3/4 pound russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 cups chicken broth
1. If you are using dried chickpeas, bring water to a boil in a 4-quart pot and pour it over the chickpeas and 1 tablespoon salt (the salt is very important, helping the peas to soften). Soak overnight. Drain and pour boiling water over them. Cover and cook for 45 minutes or until tender.
2. Remove the casing of the sausage and crumble the sausage with the rosemary and 1 garlic clove. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a 6-quart heavy-bottomed pot and add the crumbled sausage with the garlic clove. Saute for a few minutes, stirring all the while. Transfer the sausage to a plate and discard the garlic.
3. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil in the pot. Add the onion and the last two crushed garlic cloves and the red pepper flakes; stir for 5 minutes occasionally. When the onion turns a rich tawny color, stir in the tomatoes. Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring once in a while. Add the chickpeas, potatoes and the reserved sausage; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons salt. Pour the broth in the pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat, and cook at a gentle boil 40 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender.
Variation: If desired, smash several potato cubes in the soup to thicken the soup. Taste and correct the seasoning before serving. Place a toast rubbed with garlic in each soup plate; pour the soup over the bread and dribble olive oil on top of the soup.
Nutrition information per serving (calculated by Tribune, based on 6):
275 calories, 42% calories from fat, 13 g fat, 2.7 g saturated fat, 11 mg cholesterol, 785 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, 13 g protein, 6 g fiber
