Need an ethnic soup

[Bicycle Lee]

Tunisian fish stew....

hmmmm

[albie]

I second Sashimi's endorsement of ``Italian Wedding Soup." There's a fascinating story behind it, one that borders on sociology, as it illustrates so well what happens in the process of cultural assimilation.

Of course, add this delightul escarole and tiny meatball soup to the list of ``Italian" dishes that are unknown in their purported country of origin, a la chicken parmigiana, shrimp francese, tortoni, etc. etc.

And it has nothing whatsover to do with any traditional Italian wedding menu item: it derives from the Neapolitan ``minestra maritata" or ``wedded soup" in which quantities of greens like escarole, chicory, savoy cabbage, etc. are ``married" to chunks of various meats, i..e pigs' feet, hocks, beef short ribs, etc.

The term ``minestra" varies greatly in meaning in Italy, anc can refer to any dish, from a souplike pasta e fagioli to a much more substantial almost-stewlike melange of vegetables, often with meat, as decribed above. The common denominator is the inclusion of vegetables.

[alacarte]

Matzo ball soup!

Udon!

Wonton!

Russian pelmeni soup!

YUM!

[Poots]

Just got back from Hungary where i had a very good soup called Hazlazle or something like that. It's a fisherman's soup very red with nice chunks of river fish. served with dried hot peppers on the side to add yourself.

[Pan]

Close: Halászlé. I was pretty sure I remembered that spelling, and got these "about 14,200" results from a Google search on it.

[Poots]

That's it. thanks Pan, sorry for my laziness. It was a wonderful soup, bright red like Goulash with huge hunks of fish and a nice kick of heat, especially if you added the side of dried peppers.

[jmbrightman]

One of my all-time favorite soups.  Snert.

Also known as Dutch Pea Soup.  It was my first meal on my first trip to Amsterdamn and a passion ever since.

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any chance you post a link to the recipe? I had yours from the City Paper from way back when, now can't find the copy.

[Holly Moore]

Here's the recipe from a 1991 column for the Philadelphia City Paper.

Melt some butter in a heavy stock pot, add two diced onions, two chopped celery stalks and four minced cloves of garlic.  Saute until soft, about five minutes, and toss in the split peas.  Cook for another five minutes.  Then add a pound of smoked ham hocks, 6 cups of water and 2 cups of chicken broth along with a few bay leaves, salt and a hearty sprinkling of coarsely ground pepper, lots of pepper.

Simmer away, covered, for a couple of hours.  Then remove the ham hocks and salvage the ham from the bones. 

Now comes the fun part.  Shun your Cuisinart or blender in favor of a wire mesh sieve.  Pour some of the soup into the sieve and using the back of a spoon and a spatula, force it through the wire mesh into a bowl.  Keep going until it's all pureed.  Repeat the process a second time - much quicker and easier - from the bowl back into the soup kettle.  If you insist, you can use a food processor or blender - works just as well and is much easier.  Too mechanically soulless for me, though.

Add the meat from the ham hocks, to the pot.  Bring everything back to a simmer.

For some inane reason, in the City Paper column recipe, I added sliced kielbasa along with the ham hocks to the finished soup, topped the bowls of snert off with grated aged cheddar and served it with horseradish on the side. I think the kielbasa was in homage to my mother's lentil soup which was packed with sliced frankfurters, but I haven't done that lately. No idea where the cheddar or horseradish came from.

Nowadays I add a couple of sliced carrots to the onions and celery stalks sauté and guiltlessly use a Cuisinart. I'll probably toss in some kielbasa to this weekend's batch. Sounds kinda good.

[jmbrightman]

1991 - pre-Internet, pre- a lot of things...The one time I used a food processor I was not happy with the texture, and never used it again. The horseradish adds a nice touch of heat/flavor, and the kielbasa makes it a meal. Thanks for digging it up for me. I am going to make a batch tonight.

[Jaymes]

Avgolemono

Looks pretty, very tasty, easy to make, easy to find, the lemon makes it taste somewhat exotic but not so exotic that most Americans find it "too foreign" to be enjoyed.

Or go even more "ethnic," and try an African Peanut Chicken Soup. You can google for many recipes, and I'm sure there are African restaurants in LA. I'm in Houston and there are several - Ethiopian seemingly the most popular.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Jaymes (log)

[Chufi]

Here's the recipe from a 1991 column for the Philadelphia City Paper.

Melt some butter in a heavy stock pot, add two diced onions, two chopped celery stalks and four minced cloves of garlic.  Saute until soft, about five minutes, and toss in the split peas.  Cook for another five minutes.  Then add a pound of smoked ham hocks, 6 cups of water and 2 cups of chicken broth along with a few bay leaves, salt and a hearty sprinkling of coarsely ground pepper, lots of pepper.

Simmer away, covered, for a couple of hours.  Then remove the ham hocks and salvage the ham from the bones. 

Now comes the fun part.  Shun your Cuisinart or blender in favor of a wire mesh sieve.  Pour some of the soup into the sieve and using the back of a spoon and a spatula, force it through the wire mesh into a bowl.  Keep going until it's all pureed.  Repeat the process a second time - much quicker and easier - from the bowl back into the soup kettle.  If you insist, you can use a food processor or blender - works just as well and is much easier.  Too mechanically soulless for me, though.

Add the meat from the ham hocks, to the pot.  Bring everything back to a simmer.

For some inane reason, in the City Paper column recipe, I added sliced kielbasa along with the ham hocks to the finished soup, topped the bowls of snert off with grated aged cheddar and served it with horseradish on the side. I think the kielbasa was in homage to my mother's lentil soup which was packed with sliced frankfurters, but I haven't done that lately. No idea where the cheddar or horseradish came from.

Nowadays I add a couple of sliced carrots to the onions and celery stalks sauté and guiltlessly use a Cuisinart. I'll probably toss in some kielbasa to this weekend's batch. Sounds kinda good.

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I´m sure that´s a great soup, but it´s not really a traditional Dutch split pea soup.

Snert needs celeriac, and has no garlic or butter.

If you simmer the soup long enough (4 hours) and have the vegetables diced up small enough, there´s really no need to puree this soup. Here´s my family recipe as posted on the Dutch Cooking thread:

Dutch split pea soup

and see here for a picture that looks better than the one on the Dutch Cooking thread.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Chufi (log)

[Holly Moore]

Mine is the version of Snert traditional in the southern Netherlands. Also on just one of the small islands in the Waddenzee - Ameland I beleive.

Edited to add: for those unfamiliar with Stephen Potter and "One Up-manship"

Edited November 15, 2008 by Holly Moore (log)

[marlena spieler]

am just returned from poland, where the soups are a cuisine unto themselves. my favourite is: dill pickle soup, and if it sounds bizarre--it has cream and vegetables too--it is in fact, sooooo delicious and i'll be you can find a polish resto in your area that serves a yummy one!

there is also zurek: soured rye soup with sausage; sauerkraut soup (my cabbage diet soup!), tripe soup which is very very very good if you forget what it is.....oh poland is all about the fabulous soups! borsht of course....we had a lovely borsht that floated wild mushroom-stuffed ravioli-like dumplings, tiny little ones......

then, from italy (after poland i went to campania), there is always pasta fagioli.....humble beans and pasta which never fails to be deeply delish.....

wish i were going to be there to share a bowlful.....

xoxo m

[prasantrin]

Just got back from Hungary where i had a very good soup called Hazlazle or something like that.  It's a fisherman's soup very red with nice chunks of river fish.  served with dried hot peppers on the side to add yourself.

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I've had that soup, as well, in a small town just on the Hungarian side of the Hungary-Romania border. It was very delicious, and I've often thought of it but could not remember the name. Thanks for reminding me (and thanks to Pan for posting the spelling!).

[Chris Amirault]

Or go even more "ethnic," and try an African Peanut Chicken Soup.  You can google for many recipes, and I'm sure there are African restaurants in LA.  I'm in Houston and there are several - Ethiopian seemingly the most popular.

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I'm not sure it's more or less "ethnic" than anything else, but we've got a whole eG Cook-Off dedicated to mafé right here. It's fantastic.

[Jaymes]

Or go even more "ethnic," and try an African Peanut Chicken Soup.  You can google for many recipes, and I'm sure there are African restaurants in LA.  I'm in Houston and there are several - Ethiopian seemingly the most popular.

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I'm not sure it's more or less "ethnic" than anything else, but we've got a whole eG Cook-Off dedicated to mafé right here. It's fantastic.

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Perhaps you'll recall that the original poster used the word "ethnic" in his request. I suppose you might say that all soups are "ethnic" to some group (beef stew is probably ethnic to American Midwesterners, for example), but should you be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, as I did, you might assume, as I did, that by "ethnic," he means something uncommon to the average American.

Which I think an African Peanut Chicken Soup might quite likely be.

[HowardLi]

French onion is the first thing that came to mind (after I noticed that you didn't want anything from the Asian or Latin regions).