Saint Basil Soup, Monastery Soups
For Christmas this year I received a copy of Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Victor-Antoine d’Avila-Latourrette. In general, I read recipe books like books rather than follow recipes verbatim, but as an experiment on in trying my own sanity, I have embarked on actually attempting to make a number of these soups.
To the book itself, there are pros and cons to the recipes contained therein. Sometimes there is enough direction that it still leaves a bit of improvisation to the cook, other times there are simply not specific enough directions to guess the intent of the recipe author. The author relies on bouillon cubes a fair amount which I have thus far mostly avoided in favor of freshly made stock. Bouillon cubes tend to be filled with high levels of salts which make it both unhealthy as well as difficult to judge proper seasoning. He is non-specific about some of the temperatures at various stages of cooking and often relies on only time when doing things like a saute, leaving out the visual and aroma indicators of when the food is cooked to the proper stage.
The very first soup in the book, and my first target, is Saint Basil Soup; a misleading title to the layman which may lead him to believe that it has H’s favorite herb somewhere in it. Alas, no, it is named after Saint Basil (go figure). Indeed, the recipe has some of the issues mentioned above, but I only deviated when there was room, even going so far as to make a special trip to the store for vegetable bouillon, which, as it turns out, was tomato with chipotle. Obviously a variation from the middle-eastern origins of the soup, but it was the only vegetable bouillon that was vegetarian.
So thinly sliced some carrots, a bit of mushroom, onion, the usual saute for the latter, then water, a few bullion cubes and the vegetables. Cover and let it go for half an hour. Add some parsley in and in 10 minutes, we had hot, filling and really pretty good soup. I’d definitely make it again as it’s quick, easy, flavorful and filling. I will probably try a riff on this soup to avoid the bullion at some point and maybe try to increase its depths a bit.
And no, I didn’t degrease the soup. I should have as it made for a much more unappetizing picture, but… we were hungry.
As for the book, if you can make a soup and occasionally swap out an ingredient or two, this book will give you lots of ideas. It’s missing some of the fundamentals about how long you saute things, what temperature to cook them at, etc.