Soup & Bread 1/9/12: Cumin, Cardamom, Coriander & Cilantro

Last night — thanks to the largesse of Magda Krance, S&B contributor and manager of media relations for the Lyric Opera of Chicago — I trekked downtown to the Lyric’s production of Englebert Humperdink’s (!) Hansel & Gretel.

It was evil cold in the Loop but, as my friend Liz pointed out, at the opera  fur coats are still the height of fashion — and something about the posh comfort of the be-furred patrons set the key motif of the opera into sharp relief. Gingerbread houses and German lieder aside, the whole thing is just the story of hungry kids in dire straits.

The theme of hunger runs through the production design, which featured a series of gorgeously painted drops depicting empty, bloody, or broken plates (and one alarmingly vaginal, toothy open mouth). But how great is it that it was reinforced out in the glamorous lobby over the holidays, thanks to Lyric’s partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository, and a food drive that netted more than 874 pounds of food? That’s what we call foregrounding the issue, in one of the more unlikely spaces.

It also occurred to me that last week’s Soup & Bread theme was perhaps particularly suited to talk of hunger and want. Because it’s spices like cumin and cardamom that can take the humblest peasant food — like, ohh, a midwinter root vegetable soup — and turn it into something luxurious and satisfying. Last week Inspiration Kitchens produced an amazingly flavorful parsnip-cardamom soup, garnished with beet relish (above). Poutine Fest‘s Molly O’Sullivan turned boring old carrots into a spicy heartwarmer of roasted carrot and cumin, topped with currants and a sprinkle of toasted coriander. Celestial Kitchens whipped the lowly pumpkin into a bowl of rich curried pumpkin soup. Molly Breslin, of Breslin Farms, went all in with a vegan black bean soup dosed with all four Cs. Won Kim produced an amazing vegan coconut curry, and brothers Justin and Preston Major went the rib-sticking route with a white chili liberally flavored with cumin and cilantro.

All were revelatory, but perhaps none more so than Kate Hochslauer’s cilantro soup — made, she said, with 20 bunches of the cheap and plentiful parsley and which packed a stunning punch of green, herbaceous flavor. Recipes for Kate’s soup and many others will be posted soon.  If you’re curious to see more photos from the evening, which raised almost $600 for Inspiration Kitchens, there’s a Facebook set here.

Before I get out of here and move on to posting those recipes, lets take a moment to pour one out for our friend and neighbor Dan Blue. Dan was a fixture at the Hideout — the bar was only a few hops from his home — and one of the most gallant and generous people you could ever hope to meet. His support of Soup & Bread was unstinting: He loaned us bread knives and crock pots; he showed up one night with a vat of seafood chowder — and when Sheila needed shrimp for her mom’s red pepper-shrimp bisque, Dan was there … with four frozen pounds of it. He was a sculptor and metalworker and a man of tall tales and many mysteries, and he died January 1, at his loft on Ada Street. We miss him very much. For the next few weeks the Hideout is collecting remembrances of Dan in this notebook at the bar;  his friend Art Shay posted this heartfelt tribute last week over at Chicagoist.

And, of course, speaking of neighbors — we’ve got a slate of cooks lined up for January 16, cooking to the tune of  “Our Neighbors to the North.” Whether those neighbors are in Kenosha or Yellowknife is up to them, but we’re sure they can rise to the challenge. On the soup line are Mana Food Bar, Meredith Neuman, Sarah Steedman, Cindi and Mike Webber, Alison True, Lynette Schroeter, and John Roeser. We’ll have bread, again, from La Farine and PQM, and music from DJ Treetop Lover (aka Mike Bulington). All proceeds benefit the Irving Park Community Food Pantry.

See ya then, eh?