BASEL CARNIVAL SOUP
SOURCE: NIKA STANDEN HAZELTON. THE SWISS COOKBOOK.
Basel prides itself for being the sole Protestant and Calvinist stronghold in the world that recognizes and celebrates a religious Carnival, albeit at a week after the Roman Catholics have begun their Lenten fasting. Integral to the three-day long Basler Fasnacht is a spiced brown soup, which, upon drinking at 4:00 AM on the first Monday after Ash Wednesday, kickstarts the grand street parade in the historical district. The color of the soup results from toasting the flour in hot molten butter, a process that recalls the preparation of the deeply colored roux in Cajun cooking. Given the disapproval of drunken behavior during the festival, the soup probably substitutes for any alcoholic beverage, thus symbolizing a temporary abstinence and truce among insomniac locals.
Ingredients
7 tablespoons/100 grams butter
6 tablespoons/50 grams all-purpose flour
7 to 8 cups/1.75 to 2 L hot water, vegetable stock, OR beef stock
1 medium-sized onion studded with 5 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon/6 grams tomato paste
OPTIONAL: 1 tablespoon/15 mL dry Madeira wine
OPTIONAL: Grated Gruyère cheese
Specific Equipment
Large saucepan around 3 quarts or 3 L in volume
Wire whisk
Serves 4
Instructions
1. Melt 6 tablespoons/85 grams butter in the saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk altogether constantly for 7 to 10 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and deepens to the color of a milk chocolate. Do not scorch the mixture at high heat as this will make the soup smell burnt and taste bitter!
2. Remove the saucepan from heat. Pour in the hot water or stock gradually to the butter-flour mixture, while continuously whisking to prevent any clumps.
3. Return the soup to low heat and add the clove-studded onion and bay leaf. Season with salt to taste and simmer the soup for 1 hour with occasional stirring.
4. Remove the soup from heat and discard the onion and bay leaf. Stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon/15 grams butter. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Finish the soup with tomato paste, dry Madeira, grated Gruyère cheese, or a combination thereof, if desired.
