Morgan’s Soup

Sometimes, I need to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, lovingly crafting a single dish. Tonight is the perfect night for that. The weather is almost beach-like, with cool, wet air blowing through the windows and that odd clean smell Los Angeles gets sometimes.

I miss my old coworkers. We all worked in a kitchen, which had its ups and downs.

Morgan was one of my favorite coworkers. Judgmental and harsh, with unpredictable moods, yet always willing to take time to show coworkers how to do things. He was funny too, and could dish it out as well as he could take it. I miss the bastard.

He made this soup one time, and it was one of those dishes that immediately became one of my most favorite foods. It was rich, and strange and a grouping of flavors I can’t quite put my finger on.

Like all great dishes, this was born out of necessity. We got an extra case of cilantro in, and we had way too many sweet potatoes, and we were long on chicken stock and cooked rice.

I’m making this soup tonight. It doesn’t so much require a recipe as much as a walkthrough:

First, you want to get some cilantro. At least 3-4 bunches of it. Don’t bother with those horrid little clamshells of cilantro they sell at Trader Joe’s. You need a lot. Also, if you’re one of those people who hates the taste of cilantro, click away now. Because this soup is not for you. Clean your cilantro (leave on the twist tie or elastic that holds the bundle together), and roughly chop it into about three or four chunks. Toss the stems in the trash. Put your cilantro in a large container. If you have some parsley, you can use that too, but you really just want cilantro in there.

Cover the cilantro with stock or water. This is a really strongly flavored soup, so I don’t wait until I have stock to make it. If you have stock, use it. If not, water works well. Puree the cilantro and liquid together with an immersion blender until you’re left with a pulpy, green broth. Don’t be afraid to overdo it. The cilantro should be in teeny little pieces.

Cook about a cup of long grain white rice and set aside.

Take some spicy sausage. Tonight I got some generic “hot Italian” which I imagine is about as spicy as a slice of bread, so I’ll be adding some hot pepper flakes. If you can get a really good spicy sausage, use it. The strong spice is welcome in this pot. If you got links, slice them into rounds and brown them in some pig fat or vegetable oil. (Butter will burn, so don’t use that.) You do want a bit of extra fat in this soup, especially if you’re using water instead of stock. All you want to do is color the sausage, not cook it all the way through. This step takes between 5-7 minutes. Remove the sausage and set aside. If you use bulk sausage, make little meatballs. It’d be texturally preferable. Don’t use bulk sausage for this, actually.

Add chopped onion, celery and carrot to the pot and cook, covered over low heat until soft. Let it cook a while. Add a little salt, and some hot pepper flakes. Let it cook slowly, evenly, until everything is tender and smells good. While that’s doing its thing, peel and chop a bunch of sweet potatoes. I used 5 tonight, but they were small. I’d say it was about a pound of sweet potatoes. Set them aside. You can set them next to the rice if you want to. Or by themselves.

Once your mirepoix is all cooked (that’s the carrots, onions and celery) add the sausage and the cilantro broth. Bring to a simmer. If there’s not enough liquid, add more. It’s cool. Whatever.

Let this all cook a while.

About 30 minutes before serving, add the sweet potatoes and the rice.

Right before serving, mix together fresh lime juice, chopped garlic and olive oil. You want this to be a thick condiment. If you’re going to demand numbers, I’d say about a 1/4 cup of chopped garlic, juice of two limes, and about two tablespoons of oil. This condiment is harsh, and rough, but when you stir it into the soup (to taste!) it really brings the whole pot together. Another coworker, Azeh figured it out. She’s from Jordan and said that condiment (made with lemon juice normally) is really common in Jordan. It’s perfect for this soup and this soup is perfect for me. Sweet flavors from the sweet potatoes and onion, sour from the cilantro and lime juice and rich and spicy from the sausage and rice. It’s filling, ultra-cheap and keeps well.

You may be tempted to add raw rice directly to the pot in order to save a step and a dish. Don’t do it. The rice will suck up all your broth, leaving you with a weird, bad casserole. Cook the rice first!

Here’s numbers for those of you who need them.I definitely do when cooking new recipes for the first time. You can play with the ratios a bit if you want.

1 small onion

1 large carrot

2 medium stalks of celery

4 large links of spicy sausage (the spicier the better!)

2 T Pig Fat or Vegetable Oil

3-4 bundles of cilantro

8-12 cups of water or stock

1 lb sweet potatoes

1 cup long-grain white rice (use brown if you’re into that sort of thing. I won’t touch the stuff.)

Juice of two limes

1/4 cup chopped garlic

2 T Olive Oil

Puree cilantro with water. Set aside.

Chop carrots, onions and celery. Set aside.

Cook rice. Set aside.

Melt fat or heat oil in a large pot. Slice your sausage into rounds, then brown in the hot fat. Once brown on both sides, remove from pot and set aside.

Add carrots, onions and celery and cook, covered over low heat for about 20 minutes. If using a weakly-flavored sausage, add hot pepper flakes once everything is cooked.

Peel and chop your sweet potatoes. Make the chunks more or less the same size as the sausage bits.

Add cilantro broth and sausage, and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Let it all cook for around 20-30 minutes.

Add sweet potatoes and rice, and cook for another 20 minutes or until sweet potatoes are cooked through.

Mix up lime juice, garlic and olive oil, serve the soup and pass the condiment around the table.