WINTER THERAPY

Winter announced its arrival in Chicago last week with a blast of cold air and four inches of slushy snow. This rude entry is not uncommon in our region, but it is always a shock to the system. My response?  I prepared a comforting pot homemade soup.

Onto the chopping block went all the vegetables I had on hand: a stalk of celery, two carrots, an onion, a head of garlic, slices of ginger root. A quick trip to the local grocery to buy a leek, a turnip and a carton of mushrooms completed my list of stock ingredients. From my snow-covered garden I rescued two stalks of thyme and a handful of parsley. They all got rinsed, trimmed, roughly chopped and loaded into a heavy eight quart pot.

As these vegetables and herbs sweated over low heat, their reassuring scent filled the kitchen and winter's cold receded. I added two quarts of cool water, a bay leaf and some salt then turned up the heat. After a half-hour simmer, this broth was ready to receive any vegetable I chose to feature. But first, I drank a soothing cupful and declared victory.

The wet snow had melted away by the next morning, and I harvested the patch of sorrel that had survived under its winter blanket. I rinsed and removed the stems and let the leaves wilt in butter with shallots and a crushed clove of garlic. (A pound of a root vegetable or hard shell squash could have taken its place.) This mixture then simmered in three cups of the vegetable broth. I thinned soup with a mix of broth and heavy whipping cream to measure one cup before a final seasoning with salt and pepper. I have been serving myself a cupful every evening with dinner.  The rest of the broth is in the freezer, waiting to become soup after the next snowfall (possibly this week).

You may be wondering what became of the mass of limp vegetables remaining after I drained the stock pot. I removed the garlic and herbs stems, puréed the rest, thinned it with broth and seasoned it with a blend of curry spices.  Recycling these vegetables is a work in progress. Stay tuned for a definitive recipe.