Tuesday was a particularly traumatic day. Not the whole day, we're just talking about 45 minutes, but it was 45 minutes of acute pain. I had a wisdom tooth extracted while awake. Lying on a dentist's chair with my mouth half frozen with shaking hands while wearing headphones and trying to convince myself I was watching the TV, the dentist first cracked my tooth and then extracted it. Needless to say, I was feeling pretty fragile and in need of some deep comfort, (I still am). The only problem was that I didn't desire solid food, like a baby, I needed something pureed and soft. So, I made a soup.
I decided on tomato because, as a child, this was the soup I would be given by my mum when poorly or sick. It therefore has comforting memories as well as a delicious taste and a psychological tendency to make me feel better. In those days it would probably be from a tin from Heinz, although my mum is a great cook, we really liked those Heinz soups. Cream of tomato, chicken, cream of mushroom, oxtail etc. we loved them all. My soup, however, was made from scratch.
Recipe
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 orange pepper, chopped
1 green chili pepper, chopped
6 sprigs of thyme
1/2 tin plum tomatoes
1 dried Heirloom tomato
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp butter together until hot in a large saucepan and fry the onion, garlic, pepper and chili together over medium heat until soft.
- Add everything else, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Blend well until fairly smooth and serve.
Even though I blended the soup, (see picture at top of post), it wasn't quite smooth enough. With the doctor's dire warning about avoiding any seeds or nuts ringing in my ears, and worries about disturbing the 'hole', I pushed the whole soup through a sieve until it was velvety smooth. Now, it was even more like a tin of Heinz and therefore, infinitely more comforting. (I didn't add any sugar or sweetener, but you could certainly add a little to balance out the complex tomato flavours of sweet, salty, sour and bitter, a little salt also accentuates natural sweetness).
Next up, another soup, mushroom. I have to admit that when I looked at this picture this morning I was a little amazed, you see, I made this soup last night after a few drinks, a good few drinks, after attending a pub quiz at our local. The recipe that follows is drawn from sketchy memory and a photograph I took of the cooking process. I do remember that it tasted really mushroomy, so I can guess at how I achieved this:
Recipe
4 chanterelle mushrooms, sliced
10 crimini mushrooms, halved
handful of mixed green leaves
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp mushroom ketchup
1 tsp mushroom salt
4 dried porcini mushrooms
black pepper
handful leftover cooked chicken
Throw everything except chicken and basil oil into a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes.
Blend and serve with chicken and basil oil
This is the scene that greeted us this morning in Vancouver. Beautiful, peaceful and very, very cold. This is also very unusual for November
This is a Buddha's hand lemon. Pretty isn't it? What am I going to do with it you ask, read on...
Today, feeling a little less sore and steadily advancing to more solid foods, I decided to make a salad to assist on many levels. First, to help me recuperate with some much needed greenery, secondly, to help me utilize the contents of the fridge and thirdly, to help me wean myself onto food with a little less puree and more chunk. So, green salad with a sharp dressing.
First, the dressing:
(I always have problems balancing the oil and vinegar with dressings, always adding too much oil at the beginning so that the vinegar or souring agent is always too weak and I end up making way too much just to balance it, be warned, you may have to tweak this considerably),
1 tbsp walnut or other oil
3/4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Mix together and taste, adjust as necessary
At this point, the oil is overpowering the vinegars. (I got it just right eventually).
For the salad:
1 head of broccoli, boiled until just tender, about 3 minutes and drained
handful mixed greens
handful spinach leaves and beet leaves
1 tbsp chopped Leerdammer cheese
1 small red and green pepper, sliced
1/2 cup leftover cooked chicken
2 tentacles from a Buddha's hand lemon, sliced into rings
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Mix everything together in a large bowl and pour the dressing on top, ensuring you whisk it well to amalgamate everything. Serve.
Some nice additions would be some nuts or some pumpkin or sunflower seeds to add some crunch.
I think I feel brave enough to try something with some bite tonight. In my vague and hazy memory, I think I had some chicken wings last night...
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