SOUP A Way of Life

"Dora, my maternal grandmother, " writes Barbara Kafka in her new book, "started the soup tradition that means most to me, which is odd as she was, by all accounts, a bad cook....I hope I am a better cook, and my life has certainly been easier, but I learned from her that a pot of soup is warmth and welcome for family and friends alike."In this stunningly rich and wide-ranging book, Barbara Kafka gives the food we love perhaps best in the world a new vitality. Though the subject is so familiar to us all, her approach is totally original, just as it was in her award-winning "Roasting: A Simple Art" and "Microwave Gourmet." In a wonderfully diverse collection of nearly 300 recipes from all over the world -- some traditional, some newly minted, many so simple they require no cooking at all, each of them very much a part of our spiritual and emotional lives -- she offers up a lifetime worth of pleasure: Icy soups for steamy days (ceviche soup with ginger) and hot soups for cold days (winter duck soup)Rustic potages (great green soup) and elegant consommes (beef madrilene)simple soups to start (Moroccan tomato) and complex soups that make a meal (beef short ribs in a pot)Fifteen-minute specials (mussels and tomato soup) and those that simmer all day (pot-au-feu)