When Soup is On for One

Last night I had my last meal as a single guy. (Marriage has never been one of my priorities, but I like to keep my options open—what bachelor, straight or gay, doesn’t?) Saturday night we attended a Masquerade Ball for the Seattle Opera, which is not nearly as high brow as it sounds, and had lots of fun, and I have no idea when we got home. Sunday morning, I barely had time to skim the NY Times before Dale and I started laying and rearranging all the carpet samples that I had scrounged up from the office in what has gone from my “office/guestroom/storage room/intimations of my father’s housekeeping” to the “rabbits’ room”.

I got so caught up in cleaning, or what I truly believe passes as cleaning, that I forgot to prepare dinner for myself while Dale was off getting the rabbits and packing up their gear. After eating the gift bag of Dilettante chocolates (Dilettante take note: Czar Nicholas has been dead nearly 100 years and was a lousy ruler—get over using “By appointment to Czar Nicholas II” already) suddenly I remembered one of the few things I actually read that morning: Julie Powell’s article in the NY Times Magazine about cooking her first meal as a single woman again.

It was a nice article, albeit not as crazed and fresh as her Julie/Julia blog. She and her husband had separated, and were now living apart. You can sense the sadness, the longing, but also the determination to not wallow in pathetic misery. I mean this is the woman who embarked on cooking the entire Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days as a way of working her way through the tedium of a miserable job.

Although she ordered takeout the first night, she knew she couldn’t order take out on her second night lest it become the start of a downward spiral. Instead she turned to this soup as part of her first meal on her own. I turned to it as the last meal on my own.

Powell’s recipe is a simplified version of MAFC’s, which involves emulsifying the olive oil and eggs in with the garlic broth like in a mayonnaise. It is so altered from the original recipe that I made few changed, except to reduce the salt, and use fresh herbs. (I used one of my last heads of hard-neck Korean garlic. It is getting a little soft, and the green germ within each clove is getting bigger every week, but it has lasted months longer than I thought it would. Expect more garlic recipes as I use them up.) Korean garlic tends to be hotter, and even the Parmesan did little to temper its heat. Still, her take is more rustic, and the breaking of the yolk and mixing it within your bowl certainly makes for a certain meditative means to slow down at the table, and enjoy the comforts of soup at any time of change.


Garlic Soup With Poached Eggs (Adapted from Julie Powell)
1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon fresh sage
3/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 parsley sprigs
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 eggs, as needed
Chopped parsley, for garnish
Freshly grated Parmesan cheeseCrusty bread, optional.
1. In a large saucepan, combine the garlic, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, bay leaf, parsley sprigs and olive oil. Add 2 quarts of water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil; then reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Pour through a fine-meshed strainer into a heatproof bowl, pressing on the garlic to squeeze out as much flavor into the broth as possible. Let cool and then transfer to a covered container and refrigerate until needed.
3. To prepare a serving for one, ladle about 1 1/3 cups of broth into a small saucepan. Place over medium-low heat and bring to a simmer. Carefully break an egg into the broth (do not break the yolk) and poach until the white is just set, about 1 ½ minutes—do not overpoach. (It will continue to cook off the heat.) Transfer the egg to a soup bowl and pour the broth gently over it. Garnish with parsley and cheese. If desired, serve with crusty bread. Makes 6 servings for one. Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking.