Gourmet's Thai-Spiced Tomato Soup

I remember quite vividly the first time I read Gourmet. I was thirteen years old and visiting my father and his new wife in their house in a suburb of Boston. It was the first time I'd met Susan - my new stepmother - and I was jetlagged and a little overwhelmed. But Susan was nice and my father was happy and the house was cute and there was a cat named Taylor who warmed to me right away, so I found myself relaxing in spite of it all.

And furthermore, the next morning when I woke up too early and came downstairs, I discovered a stack of magazines with looping script that spelled out Gourmet, with luminous photographs and mouth-watering recipes and photographs of food and stories - well-written, to boot - about the very things I liked to read about. I leafed through the pages slowly in wonder. I felt like the world was opening up, quite literally, in front of me. Whole galaxies of possibility in front of my very eyes! I'll never forget that feeling.

Before long, I was copying - in longhand - all the recipes that grabbed my imagination. I don't even remember how many loose leaf pages I filled, but for years after that first visit, I would look forward to settling down on my visits to see my dad and Susan with a stack of Gourmets by my side; hours stretching ahead of me in which I could read and fantasize and lose myself in the beauty of that magazine.

For me, as for many, many others, Gourmet was not just a magazine. It was one of the first things that Susan and I shared, and I can't look at an issue without thinking of her. I had an emotional attachment to it, as well as a professional one. As a cookbook editor, I used Gourmet to find photographers, stylists, and writers, not to mention book ideas. It has been an invaluable source of inspiration.

Much has been said and written about the folding of Gourmet over the past few weeks. I know some people never warmed to the "new" Gourmet. I know some people subscribed only because of Ruth Reichl. I know some people think the Internet killed Gourmet. And some people think heartless businessmen in suits are to blame. I don't know what did Gourmet in ultimately, but what I want to address are readers threatening to cancel their subscriptions to other magazines out of protest or anger because of the folding of Gourmet.

Please don't. Please remember there are people behind all those other magazines, people who work hard and who are passionate, who have tastes and opinions that matter, who are doing their very best in a very difficult industry, whose work each month inspires millions of cooks and readers and dreamers and artists. If anything, in the wake of Gourmet folding, we should become new subscribers to other food magazines, lending those publications our support and our dollars, letting the writers and editors there know that people are still reading, still paying attention, still hungry, for lack of a better word, for nourishment. Magazines aren't static - they're living, growing, changing things and they need us, like a plant needs water, to keep them vibrant and alive.

I found this fantastic soup on Gourmet.com earlier this week. After one of the magazine's editors warned that web-exclusive recipes on the site would eventually disappear when the site got taken down, I spent the better part of an hour getting lost in there, finding delicious things to cook, rereading older pieces by MFK Fisher and Francis Lam, marveling at the amount of work that went into it all.

Tonight, after more than a week out of my kitchen, I chopped up an onion and cooked it in olive oil, then stirred in ground cumin and a few spoons of prepared red curry paste, cooking and stirring the paste gently to release the fragrance. Then I poured in chicken stock, a can of tomatoes and their juice, crumbling brown sugar and some salt. After a brief simmer, a 15-minute window in which I had just enough time to straighten up the apartment, admire a new pair of shoes and read my mail, the soup was ready. I blitzed it into smoothness with an immersion blender, and brightened it up with a good squeeze of lime juice. My apartment smelled incredible.

Would you understand what I meant if I said this soup tasted like the brightest summer day, simultaneously, impossibly full of languor and excitement? The flavors are strong and bright and layered, despite the humble ingredients, and the fact that you can make the whole thing within half an hour of walking in the door only makes this taste better. The original recipe has you add a cup of water to the brew, but I left it out and the soup was perfect: just hot and spicy enough and not too thick. I find traditional tomato soups, slick with cream, leave much to be desired. This one is my new gold standard: practically shimmering with life.

Thai-Spiced Tomato Soup
Serves 4

1 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons Thai Kitchen red curry paste
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
2 (14-oz) cans reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 (28-oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
A handful of cilantro leaves (optional)

1. Cook onion in oil in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add curry paste and cumin and cook, stirring, 2 minutes.

2. Add broth, tomatoes, brown sugar, and salt and simmer 15 minutes.

3. Purée soup in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids). Return soup to pot and reheat. You can also leave the soup in the pot and purée using an immersion blender. Stir in the lime juice and serve, garnishing with cilantro, if using.

Comments

[Dermott]

Oh my god, I can't believe it. You made me cry.

[Angela Brassinga]

I agree, everyone subscribe to at least one magazine this year ... please. Or make a point of reading and borrowing those offered at your local library. Looking forward to trying the soup. Have you tried Mae Ploy Curry Pastes? They are incredible. Once you have tried them you may never use Thai Kitchen again. If your local store doesn't carry the can be found on Amazon.

[Darina]

What a lovely post. I'm going to miss Gourmet. I really believe in buying other magazines, too. I'm afraid everything is going the way of the internet and I wouldn't like that at all. I need to hold those magazines in my hand, take them into the kitchen with me. The photos, too, are such an inspiration.

[erin]

As a graphic designer and food lover, Gourmet has always been my go to magazine for inspiration and I do feel like I have lost both a friend and a mentor. I will sorely miss the gluttonous moments when first sitting down with a new issue in hand...eager to see what surprises were in store. Glad to see I'm not alone!

Oh and the tomato soup looks and sounds delicious! Perhaps with a little slice of garlic toast and a glass of red wine...mm!

[Susan Esayian]

Thank you for the article - I agree... as I have now lost two of my favorite magazines this year (Domino and Gourmet) that I will keep subscribing to Bon Appetit and add on Saveur.

[Something's Dishy]

That soup looks lovely! It combines my two favourite soups - Tom Yam Goong and Tomato Soup.

[alexandria]

this was ridiculously easy to make. i did so last night, and right now am having a bowl with a grilled cheese sandwich. it's perfect. so often tomato soups bore me. this doesn't, yet still qualifies as comforting.

[Meri]

Why chicken broth?
?????????????????????

[Sasa]

I'm can't remember if I've told you how lovely I find your writing and how I can really relate to what you said about cooking to anchor yourself to a place because I'm chronically forgetful but if not, I really do. I am half Kiwi, half Japanese and have recently moved to Austria with my (half Italian, he claims though he means half South Tyrolean!) boyfriend and sometimes the best cure for that always missing someone feeling is to cook something from where they are...Though sometimes that just makes it worse. Anyway, thank you for your thoughtful insights and delicious recipes.

[Christine]

Great post and a great looking recipe. That was lovely. Thank you.

[jeff]

I would try fish sauce instead of the salt. Fish sauce generally works well with tomatoes and is a more traditional Thai ingredient.

[Elizabeth]

I can't agree more. I didn't discover Gourmet until I was 25 in 2005. I fell in love immediately. I subscribe to a lot of food magazines, but Gourmet is (was) my favorite. I would wait and wait for it to come in the mail. I felt sort of silly being so sad over a magazine folding, but then I realized that I should start subscribing to other magazines to help keep them safe. I probably wouldn't have discovered Fine Cooking when I did was it not for Gourmet ceasing publication. Sigh. Thanks for your lovely story. Farewell Gourmet!

[KA]

Great blog! I love reading blogs about food and cooking.

And what the other commenters have mentioned is true - Gourmet magazine was always such an inspiration.

I'm going to try the recipe for Thai spiced soup tonight. I can't wait to see how my family likes it (they think I am crazy when they see me at work in the kitchen but I don't hear them complaining once they are served lol).

Please check out my recipe blog @ www.kachef.com and let me know what you think. Bon Appetit!

[liz]

i loved the description so much, i just had to make the soup right away...it tasted wonderful!!! thank you, luisa :)

we're displaced americans living in asia and i got the thai red curry just made from a shop in bangkok...i think it was pretty strong so i ended up adding a half a cup of water and it turned out perfectly! just like you described it...like the brightest summer day!

[Janet]

I took some of this tomato soup up to my neighbor who just had surgery and then I ate some myself, with a nice glass of red wine. It's raining here in the East Village and I wish I was moving to Berlin too. Congratulations to you on the book and thanks for the Gourmet tribute with this easy and tasty recipe. I temped in the Gourmet library in the 80s and it was my best temp assignment ever.

[Ashley]

Tucked into this tribute, I admire your call to everyone to support the food magazines remaining. And the soup, well, it sounds nothing short of amazing.

[betsy]

Your post made me cry for my friend Ruth who gave me my first Gourmet subscription in 1976. We shared holidays and recipes until her death four years ago. Our daughters, who observed our friendship and shared their own, loved our cooking and began their own lives as cooks. Oh, how I miss our intimate references to particular issues, linked to our lives' special events. We could say, "June 78," and both totally know exactly what we meant.

[LittleRockCatering]

Thanks for your post. You inspired me to cook.

[K. Parris]

When I first heard about Gourmet magazine folding, I went right to my blog and wrote about my first experience with the mag and how I was going to miss it. Your take on it is refreshing and a good point, especially regarding the other people working for those other magazines. The accompanying recipe was a great tribute. Kudos.

[Claudia]

For my daugther and I, the end of Gourmet was the end of an era!!!! I will really miss the magazzine.