Receta Garlic Soup
Prompted by @sarahcarter on twitter, I made Richard Olney’s Garlic Soup recipe found on 101 Cookbooks.
12+ chopped garlic
handful of dried bay leaves
- couple of shakes of the dried sage (yeah… real scientific here)
- 3-4 sprigs of thyme
- teaspoon of sea salt to start
- 1 whole egg + 2 yolks
- 1/4 cup grated pecorino romano (I didn’t have parmesan)
- some crumbled havarti cheese (and also some to nibble on)
- freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
I had most of the ingredients and felt like something creamy and warm. And I always love garlic. The crazy thing is, this recipe calls for around 12 cloves of garlic. I just used the left over garlic we had + a whole head of garlic. Around 12 cloves, if not more. I didn’t have sage leaves on hand, so I put in some dried sage powder I had. Otherwise, I had dried up bay leaves, thyme that I threw in, and was set. (I had no bread on hand, which sucked)
Boil 4 cups of water in pot, then bay leaf, sage, thyme, garlic, and salt and let simmer for 40 minutes. While this is happening the whole apartment will smell like garlic and thyme, and it will be heaven. Also, when I tasted this broth, I thought it was kind of subtle and delicious on its own. I definitely incorporated this into the Japanese curry dish later on this week. (I usually like to add a bit of chicken stock to my roux for Japanese curry, but instead I used this broth in a vegetarian version I made for Ryan’s sister)
Whisk egg and additional yolk in a bowl, adding the grated cheese in. Keep whisking until creamy. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Then, ladle a spoonful of the garlic broth into this mixture and whisk. Put the broth in small increments since you don’t want to “cook” the eggs. This step is mainly to acclimate the egg mixture to the high temperature without separating.
I put couple of ladle-fuls into the egg mixture to just be safe. The recipe itself just calls for one. You be the judge. Then, pour the egg mixture into the broth and whisk it continuously over low heat until the mixture thickens. What I experienced and Sarah told me later, it takes quite a while for the soup to thicken. I was whisking for a good 10+ minutes until I just took it off the heat and served. It did thicken at that point, but I wanted it to be thicker. Also, at this point, I added the additional crumbled havarti cheese.
I imagine that you could add more cheese if you’d like after the fact, but the mixtures can vary slightly. I think as long as you have the ratio of the yolk/egg to the water. I also cheated and added some milk in the last minute, just a splash to make it a little creamy and milder. I also added a shit ton of salt, because I’m an ass. I failed. Still, it was pretty delicious.
This hit the spot, because it’s been FREEZING here. I think the night that I made this, Ryan was working late on his document or lecture recital or something. I was cranky and needed some way to get my mind off work. You know, nothing happened, but at the end of the work day, you just need to grab a can of beer and exert your energy into something creative or productive. Cooking is great, because you feel creative, you are doing some manual, and in the end you have something you can eat. Always a plus in my book. I think later this evening Ryan came home, then Kevin came over, and then we topped off the night with some Tacos from the bodega.
The soup was a nice starter.