All-season soup

Nothing can quite match the unalloyed joys of a steaming bowl of broth

WHEN winter comes, can soups be far behind? As a matter of fact, we look forward to the onset of chill in the weather so that the steaming bowl of broth can warm us inside out. Others may prefer a cuppa of tea or coffee or even stronger stuff but truth be told, nothing can quite match the unalloyed joys of the soup. Strangely, Indian cuisine doesn’t give the soup its due. There are yakhani and shorba but these are for the aged, infirm and the convalescent. The concept of beginning a multi-course meal with a soup that sets the tone is alien to most of us. Things are changing a bit and when eating out many Indians routinely order cream of tomato, mushroom or sweet corn with or without chicken with desi khana.

We feel this is only an expensive time pass. Chinese dining in this land is hardly any better. Hot and sour, won ton, man chow add to the variety but few make the attempt to integrate these in a well-composed meal. One large bowl is split into two and a meaningless game of mix and match is played among the vegetarian and non-vegetarian diners. There are few takers for thin clear soups consomm`E9s or subtle aromatic Thai. A journey aboard Shatabdi or Rajdhani, where the fare includes the meals, has addicted many of our friends to the watery tomato soup with breadsticks and butter and others have been seduced by ready-to-eat soup sachets.

The problem with these is that like two-minute magic noodles, the taste soon begins to jade the palate. We strongly recommend that our readers make the basic stock at home as far as possible and enrich it with any handy add-ons. Nothing gives you a better opportunity than a ‘homemade’ soup to show off your creativity. Our only advice is to stay loyal to native preferences and not fall into the trap of Western ‘classic’ recipes. As rasam proves, we, in India, like it hot and flavourful! This time, we share with our readers a quick-fix soup that uses an instant stock.

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