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Traditional Lamb Broth

Traditional Lamb Broth

Just in case you were wondering why there was no new blog entry last weekend, I was away in the Savoie region of France. It wasn't a soup-making-free zone: I made a leek and potato soup for my hosts from a recipe I found on a dedicated leek and potato soup website!

This weekend we've been travelling home, unpacking, washing dirty clothes and trying to get ready for the school and work week ahead. I decided I would try and squeeze in a soup, if only to round the number made up to one hundred and ten!

The recipe from The Soup Book for traditional lamb broth is by Marie-Pierre Moine. The ingredients include middle neck lamb cutlets, celery, parsnip, carrot, potato, spring onions, parsley, cabbage and allspice berries. It being a Sunday, the spouse did not have much luck with middle neck lamb cutlets and was rather disappointed by his preferred butcher's lack of interest. Never mind! A couple of packets of shoulder chops have had to suffice.  I didn't hold out much hope of getting allspice berries so was torn between throwing in some juniper berries or just using ground allspice. A spice information website helped me to decide upon ground allspice berries.

Traditional lamb broth
So, I put the lamb, celery, parsnip, carrot, potato, spring onions and parsley into the larger of my two dekshees, poured in cold water, seasoned the lot and brought it to the boil. Then I left the mixture to simmer for about an hour before putting the final touches to it. Having taken the lamb out of the dekshee, I removed the meat from the bones and put it back in together with the shredded cabbage, allspice and peppercorns. When the cabbage was cooked, I dished up. The spouse and I were not overwhelmed. "I wouldn't rush to ask you to make this again," said the spouse. I wouldn't rush to make it again even if he took a month of Sundays to ask me. I'd rather make a proper Irish stew with loads of carrots and potatoes.

Borrowing from Borodale

It being the 26th February today, I thought I'd share some lines from Sean Borodale's entry for this date in his Bee Journal:
Morning has streams of river sun.
Cold stamping cold.
The bees are not out. Listen
to the grey rut of world, the frozen track steams. 
That's all for now.

Minnie

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