Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Soupe Aux Choux – Garbure. The question of the day is this (and an easy question it is, too, for anyone who knows word one of French): What does “choux” mean?  I recognize it from other places, for instance “maque choux”, which they serve all over the place in Louisiana, including at the Commander’s Palace, be still my heart, and which is nothing like what I made Monday night.  And Eric says in Russia they make something called “chee” – I know not the spelling, in addition to knowing not one word of French, I additionally know no Russian, and besides I guess it would be in Cyrillic letters, wouldn’t it? – which is something like what I made – a cabbage soup with a big old honking hunk of bacon in it.  What does “Garbure” mean, for that matter?  It’s not a particularly handsome word, is it? To make it, however – that’s my job.  And it’s simple – the chopping is the only work in it.  Just put a bunch of water in the pot with some peeled and quartered potatoes and aforementioned big honking hunk of bacon – one and half pounds of it, to be exact, all in one piece.  Once the water is boiling, add a bunch of shredded (green) cabbage, some quartered turnips, a couple of onions with cloves in them, carrots, a bit of garlic – though Christ almighty, I ran out of garlic and had to use powder, it’s so terribly sad -- some thyme, peppercorns, bay leaf and parsley sprigs.  Then just let it simmer for an hour and a half.  Piece of cake.  Good too, though, though garlic cloves would have helped immeasurably.  But the big honking hunk got all tender, so it fell easily into bite-sized pieces, and there’s nothing quite as nice as eating what is essentially bacon soup.  I imagine it’s one of those things that will improve immeasurably once it’s sat for a bit, so I am anticipating lunch with glee.  I also made some chicken stock last night, in preparation for the big Thanksgiving death march – oops, sorry, “festivities”, I mean.  Tonight I will make cornbread for the non-French dressing element.  But of course, as was pointed out to me yesterday, one must not neglect le Buffy. 7:32:06 AM    comment []