A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [37]
¼ cup freshly chopped parsley
1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy kettle over moderate heat. Add the onions, celery, carrots, and bell pepper and cook, stirring now and then, for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Add the bay leaf, thyme, and black and cayenne pepper, and cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add the veal knuckle bones and potatoes, and cook and stir for 3 minutes. Pour in the beef stock and 2 cups of the water. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so that the liquid barely bubbles, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
3. Add the barley and the remaining 1 cup water, cover, and simmer 2 hours more or until the flavors mellow and marry.
4. Discard the bones and bay leaf, then mix in the tomatoes and salt. Cool the soup to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
5. When ready to proceed, skim off any fat that has congealed on top of the soup. Set the soup over low heat and as soon as it steams, add the crabmeat and parsley. Heat for 3 to 5 minutes only, stirring as little as possible so that the lumps of crabmeat remain intact. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.
6. Ladle into heated soup bowls and serve as the main course of a casual lunch or supper.
SHRIMP SOUP
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
In the South Carolina Lowcountry, where this soup has been popular since plantation days, cooks insist that it cannot be made without the tiny local “crick” shrimp. It can, of course, but soup made with brinier ocean shrimp will never have the same sweet delicacy. Note: This recipe calls for finely ground cooked shrimp—a snap with a food processor. Ten quick pulses should do the job. You can also processor-chop the onion and celery in tandem before you “grind” the shrimp.
3 tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small celery rib, trimmed and finely chopped
12 ounces shelled and deveined cooked shrimp (preferably Lowcountry creek shrimp), finely ground (see Note on Chapter 2)
¼ teaspoon black pepper
3½ cups milk
½ cup milk blended with 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour (slurry)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Amontillado sherry or medium-dry Madeira (Sercial), or to taste
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1. Melt the butter in a large, heavy nonreactive pan over low heat, mix in the onion and celery, then cover and cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until very soft.
2. Add the shrimp and pepper, stir well, then cook uncovered for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the milk, then while stirring vigorously, add the slurry in a slow, steady stream. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly thickened.
3. Mix in the cream, reduce the heat to its lowest point, and cook uncovered, stirring now and then, for 15 to 20 minutes or until the flavors meld. If necessary to keep the soup from boiling, slide a diffuser underneath the pan; if the soup should boil, it may curdle. Season to taste with sherry and salt, then heat 2 to 3 minutes more.
4. Ladle into large heated soup bowls and serve. Note: I also like this soup well chilled.
* * *
TABASCO SAUCE
Tabasco sales were slow to match the heat of the sauce itself. Edmund McIlhenny shipped his first batch in 1869—not as reported in 350 recycled cologne bottles but in 658 pristine new ones. There were few takers, however, until a New York wholesaler began distributing the sauce.
Legend has it that a Mexican-American war veteran who’d picked up some fiery peppers in the Mexican state of Tabasco gave a few to McIlhenny. “Not true,” says Dr. Shane K. Bernard, McIlhenny historian and curator involved with the new company museum in New Orleans. The truth? No one knows how McIlhenny obtained those peppers. What is known is that he harvested his first crop in 1868 at his Avery Island plantation 140 miles west of New Orleans.
Another myth: McIlhenny’s “secret” pepper sauce recipe came from competitor Colonel Maunsel White. Having been published several times, White’s recipe, which called for boiling hot peppers, was hardly “secret.