What is home?
With all of the quirky posts and parodies in this blog, is it odd to start off a post about a fruit soup with that question?
There's a place within each of us...sometimes it might take a little while to find, but all of us know it when we get there. It's home.
There's an indescribable feeling that happens. It's a deep connection. There's an inner warmth. There's a peace. There's an inner smile that wraps around you and enfolds you and gives you a peace, a knowing, a feeling that everything is going to be ok.
Home is a connection with family, friends, new and old, ancestors who have gone before you and those you've yet to meet.
When you find home there's a glow that beams from within and spreads out and touches those around us.
A happy coincidence occurred the other night. As I did some light reading on the culinary history of the Hungarian Empire, I came across a recipe....one that dates back centuries:
Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup
I had flirted with the idea of making it before but every time I ran across the recipe, it was out of season for cherries and I just had no idea where to look for what I needed.
This week, our CSA's package delivered fresh tart cherries at the same time I happened across the recipe once again.
Now was the time.
The original recipe was slightly different, adding a bit more sugar. My cherries were tart but not super tart so I cut back on the sugar it called for. I also strive for a perfect balance of flavors while cooking, making sure something isn't overly sweet. When you are using fresh fruits, or fruits of any kind for that matter, tasting as you go along....with any recipe is recommended. I usually start out with half of the sugar a recipe calls for generally and move on from there.
The recipe is simple. Once the cherries are pitted, the rest is relatively easy; boiling the cherries, tempering the sour cream, simmering for an extra few minutes and then...
There was my first taste.
I didn't even wait to chill it.
It was a recipe I had read about for years and had always wanted to try.
The taste was purely Hungarian.
It was a taste that transported me not only back to my childhood and my grandparents but I found myself imagining their parents and theirs before. I experienced Eastern Europe in all of it's culinary glory. It was more than just a soup in that taste,
it was Home.
It was an indescribable connection with all of those who had lived before me. It was such an odd sensation to get from just a simple act of making soup. It was such an unexpected reaction.
We cannot move ahead in life without honoring and cherishing those who have passed, our culture, our heritage. It is how we find out who we are and move on to create new traditions and new life. Once we taste home, we know we are loved unconditionally.
We may not always feel that here in this life but know that your other family walks with you too and every once in a while they make themselves known with that unmistakable feeling of home.
So, I present to you the recipe for Sour Cherry Soup.
It has the tangy sweet and sour flavor of yogurt but is not as thick.
It definitely has that European flavor to it.
It's not for everyone, as one person's home is surely not another's.
My husband wasn't a big fan. He doesn't like sour. I couldn't get enough of it (and am putting extra time in a the gym to make up for it.)
So, the next time you run across some tart cherries, pick up some sour cream.
Or
just think of Home
2 cups fresh, tart cherries, pitted
4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp flour
a pinch of salt
Boil over medium high heat in a saucepan for 10 minutes:
the pitted cherries,
water and sugar.
Reduce heat to barely a simmer.
Mix the flour, sour cream, salt and confectioners sugar together.
Add a ladle full of the boiled cherries to the sour cream.
Mix well.
Add the sour cream that you have mixed with the cherry juice into the pot on the stove.
Stir.
Simmer for around 5 minutes until thickened.
Do not let boil or your soup will separate.
You may add a cinnamon stick while cooking if you wish.
This soup may also be served with Cream Sherry or Red Wine drizzled on top for the grown ups.
Enjoy the soup, enjoy the summer, and above all, may you feel and enjoy Home, my friends
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