What I Ate For Dinner

All soups are basically a lie. The best and the worst, the patrician and the plebian, all originate from a fundamental dishonesty. Soup represents cheap, scrappy, gnarled hunks as (somehow) full-flavored, colorful and balanced bites. Making soup is like laundering dirty food: you know what you put in there and where it came from, but you hope no one asks because you're trying to disguise it. The keys to good soup are choosing chunks and knobs of meat, vegetables and herbs that work well together, (hopefully) having some good stock around, and seasoning it all right. To be a good soup maker, you have to think like a good counterfeiter: the final product is all that matters, but it has to appear to be a carefully considered, cohesive morsel even if its constituents are no more than scraps that have passed their peak. People gotta believe that your soup comes from nothing but the best, and the best soups taste like they do (even when they don't). You can't be indiscriminate in combining your ingredients, though, or you'll get caught. After all, soup isn't a trash heap; it's a crucible. Take the beef and barley variety, for instance. It's a marvelous example of how a few basic staples available fresh year-round can produce a result exponentially better than the sum of its parts. And the ingredient line-up with this one is open to interpretation: corn would be good,for example, and the roasted bell peppers, though excellent, are not the difference between success and failure.

Start by tossing chopped bell pepper and tomato in salt, pepper and olive oil, and then roasting them at 450 degrees for about 15-20 minutes. The pieces on the edges might get a bit burned, but most should only darken and soften. Be careful about this: once a burned flavor shows up in a soup, it never leaves.

While the peppers and tomato are roasting, sauté shallot and carrots in a sauté pan until the shallots are blonde/brown. Then add the roasted bell peppers and tomatoes, barley, and beef cut into (roughly) one-inch cubes (I used tri-tip since that's what I had, and I wouldn't use anything more expensive than that for this soup. Sirloin or chuck would also work). Finish with chopped fresh sage or rosemary, and season with salt and pepper.

Now add your liquids: beef stock (about 1qt per two-three portions), a healthy glug of full-bodied red wine, and some balsamic vinegar. Simmer on low to moderate heat for about a half-hour.

After a half-hour, taste it. Reseason as necessary. Optionally, you can squeeze a few drops of lime juice in at the end to brighten the flavors and bind the soup. Serve it up with a toasted baguette.