Bitter Chiffonade

Category: Soup		Bitter Chiffonade
Ingredients: escarole garlic parsley stalks shallot clove peppercorns coriander seed tangerine peel thyme wine (dry, white) bread sea salt olive oil		Separate the leaves of a small head of escarole (or any other kind of chicory) and wash them very carefully. (It's surprising how much debris this plant can harbour.) Drain, then wrap in a towel and refrigerate for an hour. Meanwhile, roast a lightly moistened entire head of garlic* in a hot oven until the cloves within yield to gentle pressure. Let it cool enough to handle. While the garlic is baking, rinse a piece of clean muslin, and knot up in it several parsley stalks without leaves, a shallot still in its skin but transfixed by a clove, five or six black peppercorns, twenty coriander seeds, a piece of fresh or dried tangerine peel, and a sprig of thyme. Put this into a saucepan with a liter and a half of cold water and half a cup of dry white wine. Bring to a boil and skim any foam. Simmer for twenty minutes. Remove the bouquet of 'aromatics.' Now take your escarole, and separate the green, outer growth from the young white and yellow inner leaves. With a very sharp knife, shred the coarser leaves into strips one millimeter wide. Simmer in the prepared liquid for ten minutes while you shred the inner leaves. When the garlic has cooled somewhat, crush the peeled cloves into a smooth paste in a few drops of olive oil. Add a pinch of sea salt. Spread your garlic paste out on thick slices of stale bread, and grill or toast them, beneath the broiler or 'under the salamander.' Put a toast crust in each soup plate with a share of the raw inner leaves of the escarole, ladle the simmering soup over and serve out. For two big or four small servings.
Notes:		*Curly endive, Whitloof chicory, radicchio and escarole are all cultivated forms of the beautiful wild chicory. The delicate pale yellow and white shoots of Endives Belgiques are forced from saw-dust bedded rootstocks, indoors in winter. Although very expensive, they suit this dish perfectly, as do any of the other cultivars of this far flung plant.
Recipe Index	More Soups:	Roast Garlic Soup \| Mosaic Soup \| Collards and Lentils \| Bamboo Stew \| Barley and Lentil Cottage Pottage \| Carrot and Ginger Soup \| Souped Up \|
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