To get a party started, try this simple, stylish soup
As much as I love to eat chunky, hearty soups as the weather gets colder, I'm also a sucker for the kind of purees that can be part of a fancy party: as a plated, sit-down first course or even as a passed appetizer, served in miniature glasses.
That kind of soup, in my mind, needs to be relatively simple but powerfully flavored. And it never hurts to include ingredients that get people talking. I knew that's what I'd get when I spotted a recipe for Apple Soup With Juniper in Darra Goldstein's recent book "Fire (plus) Ice: Classic Nordic Cooking" (Ten Speed Press, 2015), and I was right.
The recipe combines Granny Smith apples with warming flavors from ginger, juniper berries, cardamom, allspice and cinnamon. For the liquid, Goldstein employs a little apple cider but mostly chicken stock; I went with my homemade vegetable broth for the latter. The result is something a little mysterious - tart but deep - and you wouldn't necessarily know that it included apples unless somebody told you. It's barely thicker than freshly squeezed juice, which makes it good for sipping. I added an extra touch, saving one of the apple peels, thinly slicing it and frying it for a frizzly garnish.
Goldstein designed the soup as something comforting for when the weather first gets chilly in Scandinavia.