The Soup that Keeps Giving - Cottage Pie with Grilled Corn and Red Pepper

When I heard the Soup Nazi was coming to town for a fundraiser, I got all excited—finally I would get to meet the man who makes the best soup in the world!  This is a cook who is serious about soup.  He will tolerate no jokes, no foolishness.  Soup is sacred to him, his recipes secret, his dedication in the kitchen, a priesthood of soup.

 

Much to my surprise when I arrived at the fundraiser, it was the actor, Larry Thomas, who presided.  The soups—every variety from Grouper Chowder to Transylvanian Goulash to King Crawfish Gumbo—were provided by thirteen local restaurants.  While Seinfeld fans had their pictures taken with Larry Thomas—I kicked myself for forgetting to wear my Mad Housewife T-shirt—I sampled the soups and chatted up the cooks.  It was all great fun, but as I staggered away, tummy sloshing, I began thinking about soup, how it seemed to bring out a generous spirit in people.  

 

I recalled the European folktale Nail Soup about a vagabond who travels to a village, his only possession an empty pot.  He begs for food, but the villagers turn him away.  So he fills the pot with water, drops in a nail, and places it over a fire in the village square. “What are you making?” asks a curious villager. The vagabond answers that he is making nail soup which is quite delicious, although it could use a little seasoning, an onion perhaps.  “I could probably find you an onion,” the villager says.  He dashes off and brings back an onion, which gets added to the soup. Another villager inquires, and the vagabond again brags about his “fabulous” soup, which would be even more fabulous with “a tomato or two.”  So the villager brings him some tomatoes, which get added to the pot.  More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient—barley, a ham bone, carrots, and celery.  At last the soup is done.  The vagabond takes out the nail and serves everyone a bowl of the best soup they ever tasted.

 

Then I thought about the somewhat surreal fundraiser I had just attended, and how a TV sitcom about soup could end up feeding thousands. 

 

It started in 1995 when a writer for Seinfeld came up with a skit about a cantankerous cook based on a real soup kitchen on West 55^th Street in New York City.  They hired an actor, Larry Thomas, to play the role of the chef.  The episode was a hit, No soup for you! became a television catchphrase, and Soup Nazi became part of our lexicon, meaning anyone who is dictatorial about procedures.  The real cook, Al Yeganeh, who ran Soup Kitchen International, was appalled that his soup was the butt of jokes, and claimed “the clown” Jerry Seinfeld ruined his life.  If by ruined he meant made rich, that is true—after the Seinfeld show, St. Martin’s Press offered him a book deal (it was never published), and he found financing to franchise 500 Original Soup Man restaurants throughout the country.  Al Yeganeh either cashed out and bought a palace in his native Iran—I’ve read two accounts—or he works behind the scenes at two lower Manhattan shops.  In any case he is a wealthy man due to one episode of Seinfeld.

 

The bounty doesn’t stop there.  The actor Larry Thomas—who had about a dozen lines in the Seinfeld episode—has made a career out of playing the Soup Nazi.  Fifteen years of fame from fifteen minutes of acting.  He’s done Soup Nazi cameos on other shows.  Royalties from syndication keep trickling in.  And his appearances as the Soup Nazi attract people to charity events, raising thousands of dollars.  

 

What made this Seinfeld episode so classic, so funny is that everyone, the Soup Nazi as well as his patrons, take soup so seriously.  No one wants to be denied soup.  Jerry would rather give up his girlfriend than a bowl of shrimp bisque.  Like a clown performing an elaborate funeral ceremony for a wilted flower, the humor comes from elevating the humble to religious heights.  The pathos comes from its truth—nothing is sadder than a wilted flower, life and beauty extinguished, nothing is more sublime than the simple ingredients of a soup, artfully prepared and shared.

 

Soup is all about sharing.  In Nail Soup villagers pool their resources for a community soup.  Charities get Seinfeld fans to open their wallets by offering soup, and the opportunity to rub shoulders with an actor who shares his time and charm.

 

So make a pot of nail soup, open a bottle of Mad Housewife Wine, and share your meal with family and friends.  There always a little extra for someone who’s hungry.

 

Cottage Pie with Grilled Corn and Red Bell Pepper

 

To accompany your soup, try this cottage pie with grilled vegetables.  A great alternative to quiche and especially good with tomato soup.  Serve with Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon.     

 

2 cups fresh grilled corn, cut off the cob (or canned) 

3 eggs

1 cup cottage cheese

1/2 cup Jiffy corn meal mix

black pepper and pinch of salt

2 tablespoons olive oil  

1 onion, diced fine

1 sweet red pepper, diced

1 small zucchini, diced

2 or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

¼ cup Parmesan Cheese

nutmeg

 

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.     Sauté onion, red bell pepper, and zucchini until lightly browned.  Add corn.

3.     While vegetables are cooking, make the batter in a mixing bowl, whisking eggs, cottage cheese, corn meal, salt, pepper, and rosemary needles.

4.     Butter and flour a 9-inch glass pie plate.

5.     Pour half of the batter into the pie plate.  Spoon in grilled vegetables.  Pour the remaining batter in a circle over the vegetables.  Sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese, nutmeg, and black pepper.  Bake for 50 minutes.

6.     Cool for 5 minutes and cut into wedges.