Portuguese Soup

The basic soup of Portugal, as we learned during our week in Porto a couple of years ago, is made with potatoes, chorizo, and kale. According to the expat locals who were helping guide our trip, the kale is the key. It has to be shredded into extremely fine, long slivers. By hand. And the soup itself has to be coarsely pureed, also by hand, using a potato masher. And the key is the...uh...well, the kale of course, per a few sentences back up there above. But it’s also the unique and recognizable texture generated by the hand-mashing operation. It is in no way acceptable, authentic, or in good taste to use mechanical devices like blenders or food processors. The hand-mashing is the key. Along with the hand-shredded kale threads, of course.

One night we took a long cab ride to sort of street fair where there were rides, shops, and restaurants in abundance. First photo is "on the road to the street fair".

As is the second.

And here's the start of the street fair itself.

Among our objectives was dinner for the dozen of us at an outdoors place specializing in grilled anchovies. And kale soup.

Here's a tub of anchovies waiting their turn on the grill.

And that sucker was HOT!

Place was packed. Looked like they served hundreds of people a night. There were a couple older guys working the grill. Their hands and clothes were burned, they dripped sweat, and worked like Trojans.

Here's one of the grill guys. Not sure what the deal is with the comic bow tie. Traditional Portuguese chef's dress? Way to keep sweat off the anchovies on the grill? I'm guessing we'll never know. Inside the tent that was the dining room, a large family and an assortment of school kids also worked hard making salads and serving. We had the soup for an appetizer, along with pitchers of a not-aromatic but nicely tart, so perfect for the soup and grilled fish, Vinho Verde. The fish were fabulous. As was the soup.

They were making the soup in huge vats, pretty much the size of 55 gallon U.S. drums. And when it came time to puree each batch, and our expat friends told us to watch, that we’d get to see a huge military-style hand potato masher in action? Why, they used a huge immersion blender about the size of an electric motor from a high-end bass boat. I couldn’t even look at our local must-use-a-potato-masher-by-hand folks.

Here’s an easy way to make kale soup. I like this because it’s supremely easy and is very clean and fresh tasting. I suspect it’s how 90% of the kale soups we had in Porto were made. Bring chicken broth to a simmer with a diced potato (a reasonable-sized one, obviously) per person and one diced onion. In Portugal, the potatoes were invariably peeled. I leave the skins on. Salt and pepper, plenty of the latter. If you use a few shallots and/or a leek along with the onion, the return in flavor is worth the investment. While the potatoes are cooking, slice a Portuguese or Spanish-style (not Mexican or Central American) chorizo (or linguica or kolbase) thinly. Stack a handful of kale leaves tightly and sliver them into as thin strips as you can. Traditionally (again) the leaves should be rolled as if you were chiffonading (is that really a verb?) basil. When the potatoes are done, use your immersion blender (or potato masher) to break down about half the solids. Toss in the sausage and kale, when they’re hot, serve.

You can get a more elaborate, but even tastier, kale soup recipe here: http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/food-PortugueseKalePotatoSoup.html .  This one uses garlic, carrot, and two kinds of potatoes, plus a food processor (!). The author is Charlie Burke, it’s a site for New England tourism and culture. 

Either recipe, with good bread and a salad, will serve you well as easy Sunday or even weekday night suppers. But they’ll make a lot more sense to you if you visit Portugal. And if you go to Porto, you can of course spend an afternoon wandering the Port houses across the river before dinner. Can’t do THAT in New England!