This is a soup to get you thru the winter.
That is the longest working soup season that I can keep in mind, a winter throughout which I’ll by no means eat salad or different chilly dish for lunch. This week’s choice is a reasonably new addition to my soup rotation. I included this recipe for Sopa Morisca in my new cookbook, FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain (Hippocrene Books).
Sopa Morisca, or “Moorish” Soup, is from Almería and Granada provinces in southern Spain, the area that was the refuge of the Muslim inhabitants after the autumn of the final Moorish kingdom of Granada, in 1492. These folks, known as Moriscos, have been ostensibly transformed to Christianity and allowed to stay. They have been lastly expelled from Christian Spain in 1609.
This hearty soup is form of a cross between Spanish sopa de picadillo that’s made with the broth from a cocido, with chickpeas, hen, and fideo noodles, and Moroccan harira soup, which can have lentils in addition to chickpeas. As made immediately the soup has a base of chopped tomatoes and is seasoned with pimentón (paprika). As these components come from the New World, I omitted them from the recipes within the cookbook as they don’t seem to be flavors of al-Andalus. To inform the reality, I like to complete the soup with a spoonful of harissa, Moroccan hot-chile paste!
 |
| A heart-warming soup for chilly weather–vegetables, chickpeas, and fideo noodles. Rooster elective. |
 |
| This recipe for Morisca Soup seems in FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS. |
Morisca Soup with Chickpeas and Noodles from Almería
Sopa Morisca Almeriense
This recipe makes use of canned or precooked chickpeas, so is pretty fast to organize. (If you’re beginning out with dry chickpeas, put them to soak in scorching water the night earlier than cooking. Drain and add to contemporary scorching water. Cook dinner till chickpeas are tender, about 1 ½ hours.)
Fideo noodles, like vermicelli, are available in sizes from the thinnest angel’s hair to medium-thick. For this recipe, use medium-thick ones or substitute spaghetti damaged into brief lengths.
Serves 4.
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
½ cup diced celery
½ cup diced carrots
½ teaspoon coarse salt
3 cloves garlic
Pinch of saffron threads
¼ teaspoon black peppercorns
¼ teaspoon floor cumin
8 cups hen inventory or water
Salt
1 ½ cups cooked and drained chickpeas
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 cup medium fideo noodles
1 cup diced cooked hen (elective)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sprigs of contemporary mint
Chopped cooked egg, to garnish
Lemon wedges, to serve
Bread to accompany the soup
Warmth the oil in a soup pot. Sauté the onions, celery and carrots on medium warmth 5 minutes. Whereas onions are sautéing, in a mortar grind the coarse salt with the garlic, saffron, peppercorns and cumin. Stir this combination into the pot with the greens.
Add the inventory or water. Deliver to a boil and cut back warmth to medium. Add salt to style. Add the chickpeas, half of the parsley and the cilantro. Cook dinner, lined, till greens are very tender, quarter-hour. Add the fideo noodles and prepare dinner them based on bundle instructions, 12 minutes for medium fideos. Add the cooked hen, if utilizing, and take away the soup from the warmth. Stir within the lemon juice.
Serve the soup with sprigs of mint and chopped egg. Accompany the soup with lemon wedges and bread.
 |
| I’ve added a spoonful of Moroccan harissa, hot-chile paste, and a few chard from the backyard to the essential soup recipe.
*** *** *** |
This is a group of regional Spanish soup recipes, from Basque leek and potato to garbure Navarra, that may see you thru the ultimate six weeks of winter. READY FOR SOUP
FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS
The Culinary Legacy of Spain
FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain. This is a contemporary angle on the standard cooking of Spain, with 120 recipes that hint their roots to Moorish Spain. See under for the place to order.
This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic tradition has left on fashionable Spanish cooking.
Writer and Spanish cooking skilled Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish affect on Spanish cooking by means of 120 recipes and pictures for modern-day dishes, from salads and greens to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that hint their heritage to meals served in medieval occasions. Dishes from this period embrace unique spices equivalent to saffron, using fruits and almonds with savory dishes, and honeyed sweets and pastries. The flavors of al-Andalus stay on in fashionable Spanish cooking and are what makes Spain’s delicacies distinctive from the remainder of Europe. (Hippocrene Books)
Order on IndiePubs (USA)
Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs on-line bookstore.
(In case you order on Amazon, please give my e book a assessment!)
***
