Sunday 8 February 2015

Food memories: soup



To me, the prospect of soup for lunch or dinner always means a little twinge of disappointment. I think it's because the idea of something watery from a can always suggests you'll be hungry again before too long; that there will be nothing exciting in terms of texture or flavour. Vegetables diced into tiny cubes. Flakes of chicken that could almost be mistaken for tinned tuna.

As a child we always had Heinz Cream of Celery when we were unwell. I dutifully ate it. I wasn't keen.

But then when I really think about soup - the proper, home made kind - it brings back many memories. Particularly those soups my grandma used to make for us when we visited. She'd take an age to come to the door, then disappear again in search of her keys, then unlock and unbolt and finally let us in. We'd be met by the smell of dill, soured cream, meat, sauerkraut. There was always soup of some kind bubbling away in the kitchen. I'd be dispatched to the dining table with a bowl of something steaming, hearty and fragrant in a dish of thin porcelain. A slice or two of Polish rye bread spread with unsalted butter. A battered soup spoon.


I made beetroot soup the other day. There's never any point trying to go for an exact replica of my grandma's cooking. It was always a handful of this, a sprinkle of that. But I do know she used a base of onions, fried in butter until almost black, and grated fresh beetroot (I steamed mine first). Chicken stock. Dill. And a final stirring-in of soured cream which turned the soup from a deep, clear purple to a rich, opaque dark pink . It smelt fantastic. It tasted even better. And it transported me back to being seven years old, sitting at that table.

Many Polish soups I grew up eating sound a little odd to the uninitiated: cucumber (actually potato soup with very finely-sliced gherkin thrown in, and surprisingly delicate in flavour), cabbage (the slight sourness of sauerkraut, the little morsels of chopped garlic sausage), sorrel (from the garden - I love that lemony flavour again with big chunks of floury potato). 

You fry using butter and you always add scraps of leftover meat. More often than not it's pork or chicken. Nothing goes to waste. Even the clean bones used to be thrown onto the soil beneath the flowers. I have no idea why.

We'd always come away with a basket heavy with food. Empty jars were saved and filled with soup or bigos, a stew of cabbage and meat. In my family, you don't visit anyone and leave empty-handed. You're laden with those big jars, perhaps a box of brown eggs too. But always soup. Cooked slowly in a big pan so there's enough for another day and enough to give away.

I think it was my grandma's way of saying, 'I might be brusque and waspish but I love you in my own way. Now bugger off home and eat your soup.'


28 comments:

  1. I love soup now as an adult but I didn't love it as a child. Then, the only soup I'd ever had was my mother's and grandmother's chicken soup, which I didn't enjoy. Both were cooking for men with high blood pressure and they believed that any salt at all would be deadly for them, so they used none and the soup tasted like dishwater. I became interested in soups as an adult when I was on Weight Watchers years ago and there were some very healthy soups in one of my recipe guides. I tried them and found them to be really good so I learned to make a few others and now I make soup from scratch about once a week!

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  2. I really enjoyed reading your soup bowl of memories. They do sound delicious. Recently I've begun to make soup often, usually with butternut squash, sweet potato, chilli and tomato. I love an orange soup but think I need to maybe branch out a bit. Your dark pink beetroots have me tempted x

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    1. It's an earthy-tasting soup and I love it - just don't make the mistake I've made before (boiling it once the soured cream goes in). It doesn't affect the flavour but curdling isn't too pretty!
      S x

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  3. Your soups remind me of a time when I was dating a Czech, we enjoyed similar hearty soup dishes when visiting his home country. I do love the idea of potato soup with pickled cucumber slices. I wonder if these should be sweet pickled or dill pickled. Must try both. Oh and the imagined smell of sauerkraut with smoked garlic sausage soup with sour cream makes me salivate. Off to the kitchen to see what I can make. Have a lovely week. x

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    1. You too! We always use dill pickled gherkins but I don't suppose it would make a huge difference... Hope your soup-making is a success :)

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  4. I love home-made soup. Your beetroot soup sounds wonderful. I've made beetroot soup with horseradish but never dill. Must give it a go.

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    1. Do! Just a little sprinkling... I bought some posh beetroot soup (Yorkshire Provender Company?) a few weeks back with horseradish in it. It was very nice.

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  5. When I was growing up, homemade soup always meant carrot, lentil and ham with the fluffiest dumplings, my favourite part. I love beetroot soup and make a version which is flavoured with lemon and mint (though now I fancy trying it with dill!).

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    1. Dumplings - I've never tried making them but they are delicious. Must buy some suet...

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  6. Wonderful food memories, the beetroot sounds delicious. I used to have a Philippino friend who always used to say she didn't understand why people bought tinned soup when all you needed to do was throw some vegetables in a pan. Every time I think about buying soup, I think of her. Soup is a wonderful thing for using up vegetables, either the ones in the bottom of the fridge or for tackling gluts. CJ xx

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    1. I always feel a bit smug when I make soup with leftovers. Resourceful. We could do with a compost bin really, just for those peelings and veg which is beyond even soup.
      S x

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  7. The beetroot soup sounds amazing! I love hearty soups and homemade bread. It definitely makes a meal. we were fed tomato or cream of mushroom when we were ill as children - out of a tin too.Not my favourite either!

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    1. I cheated today and bought a sourdough loaf. That or rye bread are my favourites, especially with soup...

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  8. Found you through following a link on your comment at Annie Cholewa's blog -- by coincidence I posted a memory about soup today myself, and by another coincidence there are beets. But my goodness, all your photos are gorgeous. I've scrolled back through a month of your posts and each photo is a delight. Thank you!

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    1. Hello! I'll come and pay you a visit. And thank you for your lovely comment :)

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  9. How wonderful to have these memories to share with your child one day! I love beets but have never made soup from them. My mother used canned noodle soup to make me well. Now that I'm old, when I get sick with a cold, I crave that soup.

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    1. There's definitely comfort in familiarity and in things which evoke memories of being cared for, isn't there?

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  10. Lovely memories. I made a big pot of carrot (from our garden) and orange soup the other day. Some has been put in the freezer and we're having the rest of it for dinner tonight.

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    1. Oh yes, the only thing better than making soup is making enough to freeze! Pret a Manger do a great soup (Malaysian chicken) and the recipe's here https://theimpertinentpea.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/malaysian-chicken-soup/. It freezes really well and tastes wonderful.

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  11. I love the idea of what your Grandma was thinking!

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  12. Comfort food for me when I was little was heinz tomato soup with white bread sandwiches with philidelphia cheese spread in! I used to dip them in. Actually I remember eating it loads. Perhaps I should have some now and again! X

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  13. Oh my goodness - I didn't realise Heinz even did a cream of celery. Ours was always tomato...when we were feeling poorly. x

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  14. What a wonderful post and great memories - well, apart from that tinned soup!! I cannot imagine what having to eat celery soup when ill was like, but not good I imagine! I think that homemade soup is a wonderful thing and it sounds as though your grandmother had it down to a fine and wonderful art! A lot of love in those pots and jars, and in this post too! xx

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    1. Thankyou Amy. I like that last sentiment :) x

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  15. Your soup memories sound exactly like my (Polish parents but born here) husand's!

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  16. Oh your soup sounds wonderful Sarah. I love beets. And soup. I make it a lot although sometimes it resembles a thick stew! The soups of my childhood were most often cooked by my granny. I remember going shopping with her on a Saturday morning and calling with the butcher. She always got some shin bone to flavour the soup stock and added lots of root vegetables, potatoes and parsley. She also added a mix of lentils, pearl barley and split peas. I'd love a bowl now! Thanks for transporting me back to her kitchen. Hope you're enjoying your weekend! Bee xx

    PS I wonder if the bones where to fertilise the plants. My Dad used bonemeal for his roses. I could be on completely the wrong track though! X

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  17. I love your food memories. I love soup too. i'd love to participate in some beetroot soup but allergies get in the way (quite spectacularly for beetroot!). We've been enjoying a spiced lentil soup I learnt to make on a cookery course...maybe one to blog about?
    xx

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  18. What a lovely, nostalgic post. There's something so warming and comforting about soup. Your grandma sounds like such a strong and assured woman, which is such an important influence to have in your life.

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