I make a lot of soup. It’s not just a cold-weather dish for me. There are so many options and so many seasonal vegetables to use in different soups from one month to the next. And I love having leftover soup for lunch to reheat all week long, unless it’s chilled soup, of course. So I thought I knew chicken soup. It turns out I had no idea how many strains there really are from all corners of the world. I got a great education on the subject The Chicken Soup Manifesto: Recipes from Around the World
by Jenn Louis, who gave me a review copy. Louis approached the subject as “a culinary connection shared around the world.” Each version of the humble chicken soup offers unique additions of flavors, starches, thickeners or not, and accompaniments. The recipes are presented by country, and the first chapters are soups from African countries. I was immediately drawn to the spices and the use of chickpeas in several of these soups such as chorba bayda from Algeria. Senegalese Chicken Mafe is a thick, rich soup with eggplant, squash, sweet potatoes, okra, chili peppers and peanut butter. I would like this with or without the main ingredient chicken. From America there is the Sopa Azteca or tortilla soup I know and Pozole Rojo and Verde. But I’ve never made the lighter, beautiful, and soupy sopa de lima with fresh tomatoes and peppers. From the US I had never heard of Bott Boi from Southeastern Pennsylvania or Chicken and Slicks from the Carolina Appalachian region, both of which are chicken and dumplings. There are delicious Asian options and side dishes are always a selling point for me. Laksa from Indonesia and Keihan from Japan are two prime examples. I learned that Thai Khao Swe, Malaysia’s Laksa and India’s Kho Suey were all adopted from Burmese Ohn-No Kao Swe. The latter is a coconut milk and broth-based soup thickened with chickpea flour. There are chicken soups with cream from Belgium, Finland and Ireland; chicken and tomato soup from Albania; and Avgolemono and Stracciatella from Greece and Italy. I want to try them all. But I let my products guide me. I had both local cabbage and celery and was intrigued by the Suriname Saoto recipe, which was completely unknown to me.
In the 19th century, Javanese indentured laborers brought this soup to Surnime, and it’s sometimes called Blauwgrond after the neighborhood where it’s eaten as a late-night snack or meal. I’ve been able to find galangal in grocery stores in the past, but not this time. I used ginger instead. Ginger along with garlic, onion, lemongrass, bay leaf, allspice and black pepper were simmered in broth with chicken pieces until the chicken was cooked through. Added a habanero chili. When the chicken was cool enough to handle, the meat was torn into shreds and added back to the soup. Meanwhile, a sambal was made by combining a finely chopped habanero, minced garlic and soy sauce, and cellophane noodles were fried briefly to crisp them into nests. Garnishes such as hard-boiled egg, bean sprouts, shredded cabbage, and thinly sliced celery were prepared.
Did I mention that I love soups with side dishes? Ah, I have. That might have been another reason why I chose this recipe in the first place. Hard-boiled eggs, crispy pasta, crispy fresh vegetables, and a drizzle of tangy sauce were all I expected here. I learned last year that frying a few pastas to top just about anything is one of the funnest things to do in the kitchen. They crisp up in seconds adding so much texture. Learning while eating is also a lot of fun, and I plan to continue my chicken soup education.
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