Soup Season (Part Deux)

Sour Cherry Soup

 Let's talk about cold soups. How many can you name? Get stuck at gazpacho? I would have too, before I moved to Hungary and discovered cold fruit soup. It's usually served cool, not icy cold, and sometimes it has a dollop of whipped cream on the top. It is not, as you might guess from the whipped cream, a dessert. After first trying it and loving it I would order some variation of "sour cherry" or "forest fruit" soup everywhere I saw it on the menu, from little cafeteria-style fast food places to proper sit-down garden restaurants. I even got excited when I saw it on the menu for school lunch! The method of it's creation remained a mystery to me (as well as exactly what some of those "forest fruits" were) until I decided, recently, to make it. Here's the recipe from my Hungarian cookbook:

simmer simmer simmer

Being a bit late for cherry season, I decided to make the "forest fruit" variation, so I found a box of frozen fruits at the grocery store label "forest fruits". What did it contain? As far as I can tell, raspberries, strawberries, and red currants. The fruit, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, cloves, and salt are all tossed together in a pot and simmered for about ten minutes. While that comes to a boil, whisk the sour cream and flour together to make a thickener (remember the roux from the Jokai bean soup? same idea here). 

Sour cream based thickener

You stir the thickener in about a table spoon at a time, and then volia, soup! Only it's not cold yet, so you must make this soup a few hours in advance of when you'd like to eat it. And don't forget the whipped cream!