It's Soup [RECIPE]

There's no other answer right now.

Once you have cheated your way to a superior stock, the world is your oyster. Garnish with abandon! Or, not.

When the pressing questions are so weighted with doom, or when mourning slinks into the house—whether for a person, a pet, a job, an ideal, a long-held assumption, or a delicate democracy—history has shown that the most nurturing response is to make a pot of soup. It will not permanently remove the sadness, the discombobulation, the rising panic, but it will make you and your loved ones feel loved—at least for awhile.

As a cookbook author and recipe developer for (gasp) thirty years, I’ve researched, cooked, and slurped many soups. Some are so chunky as to stretch the definition (See: Red Beans and Rice—mmmmmm), but in general any mixture served in a bowl and requiring a spoon will qualify. Extra points if you incorporate some of your tears in the broth. As we all know, this gives a soup super-power. (Or soup-er power, if you will.)

It’s hard to choose a favorite in the soupy pantheon, but I adore Bourride, a cousin to Bouillabaisse but with garlicky-mayonnaise and no tomatoes. This soup deserves far more renown! But it’s still the winter of our discontent, and Bourride feels too sunny. As a student living in Malaysia, I flirted with Mulligatawny, but in todays world especially it feels far too Colonial. Else-time in my college career Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup—made with a full can of milk instead of just half milk, or, never: just water—was a staple. Please forgive my lazy arse. As an English housewife, I leaned into cream soups. I still go there occasionally, but cream is not a friend to my heart or that same arse, now padded with the indulgences of decades.

As a student of Chinese culture, and brief resident of New York’s Chinatown, I made Chinese Superior Stock, which takes ages to do right but rewards the effort richly. I can not claim, now, a lack of time for this pursuit, but I DO fall prey, nightly, to a sort of melancholic numbness, a depression-caused lack of any kind of motivation to chop, simmer, strain, enrich, and crow with the pride of creation. Nope. Instead I lean on time-tested time-savers, and Trader Joe’s frozen dumplings. Also: a cocktail.

You could buy “chicken stock” or bone broth, which is the same thing, and enrich it by simmering with some chicken wings, star anise, and lumps of ginger. But in my vulnerable state, even that is too much work and I would likely end up cowering on the kitchen floor looking like an overcooked noodle.

Here are my own hard-learned shortcuts (and I mean REALLY short) to “Superior” Stock and with it, then, an incredibly comforting dumpling soup:

Stir together until clear:

4 to 6 cups water, boiling

1 cube Porcini bouillon

1 teaspoon Hondashi Bonito Soup Stock (optional; especially good if you decide to add some diced raw shrimp 45 seconds before the dumplings are ready)

2 scoops Lee Kum Kee chicken bouillon powder (this is a life saver and there’s in nothing inherently Asian about it)

1 to 2 teaspoons Red Boat Fish Sauce, to taste

1 cube Trader Joe’s frozen ginger paste (see image above)

Now, add a handful of still frozen pork or chicken dumplings from Trader Joe’s; simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, throw over some thinly sliced scallions and maybe a few leaves of coriander. Go for it.

In between slurps you can gently whisper the following words: Integrity, Humanity, Morality, Dignity, Equality, Diversity, Sanity and, lest we forget: Democracy.

Note: Once you have these ingredients in your pantry and freezer, all you need are scallions to turn this into an instant hug. Or to really up the ante, play with other garnishes: slivered radish, mushrooms, pork belly, noodles, greens. Make it PHO.

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Tidbits For The Week of February 10, 2025

Brigit’s What I’m

CURRENTLY LOVING ➡️  Convenience foods
THINKING ABOUT ➡️  The upcoming economic boycott on February 28. Baby steps are still steps.
LISTENING TO ➡️  Shoop, by Salt-N-Pepa. OK it's not SOUP, but it's an awesome song. You can dance to it as an alternative to despair.