The Coldinator: Spanish Style Garlic Soup with Poached Egg

Basta. Enough.

I never get sick. I have the immune system of an Irish peasant. And yet here is day 9 (!!) of this horrible, mother of all colds. I’m sleeping long hours. I’m pounding the orange juice. I even went and got the magic hot and sour soup at the Chinese Panda down the street.

And still my throat aches and my nose drips. Last weekend I lost my voice completely. Tonight my eyebrows hurt! Really? I’m done with feeling crap.

Time to pull out the stops. Bring out the big-ass guns. Execute the Hail Mary throw.

Come close and let me whisper to you…because that’s all the voice I got right now….

Spanish style garlic soup. With poached egg, lime and cilantro.

Yeah, you say. You can never pull that off. You’re the Bad Home Cook.

To this I say, desperate times, baby, call for desperate measures. I made this soup. I had to. I’m sick of being sick.

And it was awesome.

True. It helped that I had farm fresh eggs from the Spring Street Farm Stand. And fresh, organic cilantro. Although I strangely didn’t have stale French bread, it didn’t seem to matter. I riffed on this recipe:

One medium head of garlic, broken into cloves, peeled and sliced thin
1 quart chicken broth
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
8 i1/2 inch slices of stale French bread
four large eggs
1/2 cup packed cilantro, chopped
4 lime wedges
(I added 1 or 2 pinches of saffron, because when did saffron ever hurt anyone?)

Saute in the olive oil for about eight minutes, stirring occasionally, until the garlic is soft. Transfer to a bowl or plate with a slotted spoon.

Fry the French bread slices until lightly browned, about four minutes. Put two into each of four dishes.

Now add the quart of chicken broth. That’s one box of Trader Joe’s chicken broth. Stir, and add the garlic back in plus the red pepper flakes and saffron.

When this is gently simmering, crack an egg into a small dish, and add it into the broth, letting it poach for between 3 to 4 minutes. I basted it with some broth for good measure. Do this with the other three as well.

Remove with a slotted spoon, and drop each gently onto the crostini in the dish…

Add a few ladles of broth, and top with cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime.

Eat.

Get over your cold.

Boom.

I’m starting to feel better. Aren’t you?

 

 

Tagged as: cilantro, garlic soup, lime, poached eggs, saffron, soup for colds, spanish-style garlic soup