The word soup can have so many different connotations, noneconnected to another in any way and most not referring to anything edible. Tobe in a soup is to be in a dilemma, to soup up is to enhance performance,alphabet soup refers to acronyms used by administrations, soup legs refers tofatigued and tired athletes, and the list goes on. The soup we are all familiarwith though is a warm hearty soul food in liquid form, with countlesscombinations depending on the place of origin.
Soups are like stews, but with a greater amount of liquidand evidence of its existence were found as far back as 6000BC when boiling wasnot yet a cooking technique, but its origin as we know it today is in France,the birthplace of modern cookery. The word comes from the French word ‘Soupe’meaning broth which comes from the word ‘Suppa’ which means bread soaked inbroth. In the sixteenth century French street vendors sold inexpensive soupsmeant to alleviate exhaustion called ‘restaurant ‘,and when an entrepreneuropened a shop selling such soups, the word Restaurant as we know it today, wasborn.
The traditional classification of soups is clear soups andthick soups which are further classified into consommés and bouillons, and thethickening agents determine the classification of thick soups. purées arevegetable soups thickened with starch, normally potatoes; bisques are made frompuréed shellfish or vegetables thickened with cream; cream soups may bethickened with béchamel sauce; and veloutés are thickened with eggs, butter,and cream. From canned soup to Korean noodle soup to soup powders, it’s allavailable, hot water is the only requirement.
Soups are great for cold weather, some are great for warmweather, they are great substitutes for whole meals, they make for deliciousmidnight snacks and they are healthy and wholesome. The Chinese eat everythingin soup form and even their dumplings sometimes have soup in them. They warmour bodies and spirits and inspired the creation of the very famous bookseries, chicken soup for the soul. Some are super easy to make and there areothers that require a lot of technique and practice to get right. My favouriteis to just toss carrots, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peppers, chicken, beef,cabbage, fresh basil, oregano, salt and cracked pepper and just boil or evenpressure cook.
The best creamy soups I have had are the seafood chowdermade with seafood stock, celery mixed seafood, cream and potato cooked andmashed in the soup itself to thicken it. Any soup that has any sausage in is ahit because that smoked flavour gets infused into the soup adding an extralayer to the flavour. Bread, either fresh or croutons is a very common additionto soups, for a change in texture. I love to add broken bits of cream crackersor even cheeselings just to liven things up. It has got to be the mostimportant food, think about it, weeks after being born the first food we haveafter breast milk is soup, we have it when we are cold, when we are sick, andit is definitely the few foods that stay with us till the very end.
