Cycle 3 – Item 316

16 (Fri) November 2012

Austrian Alt-Wiener Suppenhuhn

2.5

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

solo

Project 30/30/30: 16 of 45 (see also 45/45/45)

Throughout this November, I am challenging myself to eat 30 dishes from 30 countries over the course of 30 consecutive days.

Austria is the 16th country.

I did make some adjustments to the recipe.  Most significantly, I reduced the amount of roux by half on account of the peas making the broth sufficiently thick and the cream-egg making it sufficiently rich.  Incidentally, the recipe doesn’t provide for a specific amount of butter, but 1/3 cup of flour needs a whopping 4 tablespoons at least to achieve a proper consistency.  On the other hand, the recipe approximates 2-3 liters of water at the outset – in my experience, the amount of water is important in cooking soup; I’m all for eyeballing amounts, but a 1-liter differential for a 1-bird soup seems a bit much -so I started on the lesser end and added more later to get it right.  Frankly, the recipe is unworkable as written.

The soup turned out pretty good.  Interestingly, the initial rendering of the stock required pan-searing a whole onion to black before adding it to the pot with the other base vegetables, resulting in a faint smoky quality to the aroma.  In addition to the chicken stock, the broth consisted primarily of pureed peas to give it a greenish tinge and nutty flavor.  The hints of allspice and cloves provided a slight kick, while the whole cream and egg yolk in the end rounded everything out. Serving the soup with chunks of rustic bread, I’d like to imagine that the meal was a reasonably authentic rendition of Austrian comfort food.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)