This week the weather has been seasonably cold (for the Northern Hemisphere) prompting a good chunk of the population to complain about how low the mercury has been rising. Look, unlike the unreasonable heat of New York City's summers which are made worse by an urban heat island effect, an average of freezing in December and January is actually normal. According to the BBC the current weather pattern of wintery mixes and icy sidewalks would have been worse (and more frigid) thirty years ago.
For me the cold is a time to embrace a lot of things, like curling up with a good book, drinking hot drinks, wearing sweaters, embracing the cold and the feeling of burning warmth when you go back inside to a heated building. It is also a great time for cooking and not hating yourself for heating up your already hot and muggy apartment or wanting to curse out whole foods for reminding you that you do not own a BBQ. Baking is what December is about!
I've been meaning to try this garlic soup recipe off of 101cookbooks.com, ever since one of my cousins sent it to me. It's not particularly hard but I'm generally frightened of anything that needs a better part of an hour to simmer because soups should be easy. As in open can of soup, pour into a saucepan, pour in some water if need be and heat until hot. It's all right there. Why then, make soup from scratch? Because it is fucking good. And it's winter and freezing outside. Instead of complaining that it's cold out, and you probably have almost all of the ingredients in your kitchen anyway or you should if you know what's good for ya. Take a head of garlic, crush 12 cloves, peel said cloves and the chop the buggers into small pieces. Then bring four cups of water to boil, dump in the garlic, a bay leaf, two sage leaves and some thyme. Add salt. Reduce the broth mixture to a simmer. Leave it like that for about forty minutes. I don't know, go outside and go sledding or curl up a book and read or something. After you've finished a chapter or have lost feeling in your fingers return to the kitchen. Does the pot smell like something garlicky and wonderful? If yes, strain the water into a bowl and pick out the bay and sage leaves. Pour water and the garlic back into the pot off-heat.
Now, in a smallish bowl toss in an egg, two egg yolks, a good portion of grated Parmesan cheese and pepper. Whisk it up until it looks like something you would make scramble eggs with. Now add some olive oil and whisk whisk whisk. Take a ladle full of your broth and SLOWLY add it to the egg mix, whisking all the while. And now we're almost done, so you take the contents of the bowl and put them into the pot, turn the burner of the pot on medium low and continue whisking until the soup has been reduced to a thicker consistency, say somewhere between two percent to half and half cream. Take some bread, crusty, french, whatever but real bread and place it in your bowl. Pour soup over and drizzle some olive oil. Eat and feel warm and smug.
