Traditional Chicken Soup
The weekend just gone was another busy one but for happy reasons. The younger offspring has just become a teenager. Fortunately there were no tantrums, no sulks, no studied indifference. The excitement was occasionally muted but for the most part he was unselfconscious in his enjoyment of the celebrations. I made him white chocolate brownies which are one of his favourite home bakes.
The celebrations meant delaying the preparation of the soup. It was a two-staged recipe anyway which meant I could make stock in advance. We had lemon-roasted chicken for dinner yesterday so I saved the carcass to make stock for the soup. The ingredients for the stock were the chicken carcass (Marie-Pierre Moine suggests this as an alternative to using a whole chicken), carrot, leek, garlic, dried mushrooms (which the spouse bought but which I forgot to put in the pot), celery, parsley and thyme. When I got home from work this evening I got stuck into making the soup.
The spouse had left pearl barley soaking for me, so all I had to do was chop an onion, crush garlic and slice mushrooms.ready for frying. Next in was the barley followed by the stock. For the final steps I put in cooked chicken, cream, parsley and lemon zest.
The younger offspring came home from school asking what was for dinner. "It smells epic!" he called out as he brought his bike out to the garage. I ladled out three portions and we tucked in. The spouse thought the various textures made it palatable: the crunchy barley, the chewy chicken and the velvety vegetables. He was right. Only for the different textures the soup would have been irredeemably bland. I wouldn't necessarily avoid the soup but it's not on my "make again" list.
Bee Amused
The spouse and I were watching QI last week and learned how what we call Brazil nuts are not nuts! Also we learned that the Brazil nut's reproduction depends on the presence of a particular type of orchid (Coryanthes vasquezii), which in turn is dependent on being pollinated by the orchid bee (Euglossa).
I was just having a little search on the internet for poetry about bees. I came across a reference to The House of Bees by Stephen Murray. I've never heard of this Irish poet before and I am curious.
You can listen to the poem Bees by Jean Valentine at this link.
I'll close now. Until next weekend.
Minnie
The weekend just gone was another busy one but for happy reasons. The younger offspring has just become a teenager. Fortunately there were no tantrums, no sulks, no studied indifference. The excitement was occasionally muted but for the most part he was unselfconscious in his enjoyment of the celebrations. I made him white chocolate brownies which are one of his favourite home bakes.
The celebrations meant delaying the preparation of the soup. It was a two-staged recipe anyway which meant I could make stock in advance. We had lemon-roasted chicken for dinner yesterday so I saved the carcass to make stock for the soup. The ingredients for the stock were the chicken carcass (Marie-Pierre Moine suggests this as an alternative to using a whole chicken), carrot, leek, garlic, dried mushrooms (which the spouse bought but which I forgot to put in the pot), celery, parsley and thyme. When I got home from work this evening I got stuck into making the soup.
The spouse had left pearl barley soaking for me, so all I had to do was chop an onion, crush garlic and slice mushrooms.ready for frying. Next in was the barley followed by the stock. For the final steps I put in cooked chicken, cream, parsley and lemon zest.
Bee Amused
The spouse and I were watching QI last week and learned how what we call Brazil nuts are not nuts! Also we learned that the Brazil nut's reproduction depends on the presence of a particular type of orchid (Coryanthes vasquezii), which in turn is dependent on being pollinated by the orchid bee (Euglossa).
I was just having a little search on the internet for poetry about bees. I came across a reference to The House of Bees by Stephen Murray. I've never heard of this Irish poet before and I am curious.
You can listen to the poem Bees by Jean Valentine at this link.
I'll close now. Until next weekend.
Minnie
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