Turnip Soup
For some time now I've been keeping an eye out for turnips (red- or white-skinned ones, not swede turnips) as there are a couple of recipes for them in The Soup Book. I haven't seen them around very often. I did the shopping on Saturday (6th October) but didn't see any turnips in the supermarket. The spouse tried down the road in Young Stephen's - no luck. I brought the younger offspring into town and chanced to go down Moore Street. None of the stalls had the sort of turnip I was looking for and I was about the give up. Fortunately, my curiosity drove me into an Asian shop where among all the more unusual vegetables were a few white turnips. "They'll do," I thought to myself despite their rather flaccid appearance.
And so to my kitchen. Alice Waters' recipe instructs the reader to remove the greens from the turnips and keep them for a later stage of cooking. There wasn't much greenery to remove. I trimmed the roots from the turnips, peeled off the skins and thinly sliced the bases with my mandolin. This resulted in my having to file all my nails. Just as well I didn't have to play the introduction to "Maggie May." I sliced my onion, prepared my chicken stock and gathered thyme and a bay leaf from the garden.
The first cooking step was to fry the onion very gently in olive oil. Next into the pot were the sliced turnips, bay leaf and thyme. After five minutes I poured in the stock. Last in were the turnip greens, such as they were. I removed the bay leaf, called the spouse and younger offspring and dished up.
I admit that I wasn't expecting much from this soup in terms of flavour, but it was very tasty, especially when sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, as suggested by Alice Waters. My one hundred and fortieth soup goes on the "make again" list... if I ever find turnips again.
What's the Buzz?
The spouse sent me this link to an interesting story about blue and green honey produced by bees in north-east France - Colour of honey startles beekeepers
My current read is Jayne Urquhart's Sanctuary Line . It's interesting but slow. I'm feeling very impatient with it. Here's the bee reference:
Minnie
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| White turnips: what greenery? |
And so to my kitchen. Alice Waters' recipe instructs the reader to remove the greens from the turnips and keep them for a later stage of cooking. There wasn't much greenery to remove. I trimmed the roots from the turnips, peeled off the skins and thinly sliced the bases with my mandolin. This resulted in my having to file all my nails. Just as well I didn't have to play the introduction to "Maggie May." I sliced my onion, prepared my chicken stock and gathered thyme and a bay leaf from the garden.
I admit that I wasn't expecting much from this soup in terms of flavour, but it was very tasty, especially when sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, as suggested by Alice Waters. My one hundred and fortieth soup goes on the "make again" list... if I ever find turnips again.
The spouse sent me this link to an interesting story about blue and green honey produced by bees in north-east France - Colour of honey startles beekeepers
My current read is Jayne Urquhart's Sanctuary Line . It's interesting but slow. I'm feeling very impatient with it. Here's the bee reference:
During the sixth century, ... a small group of self-punishing monks had set up a colony [on the island]. Surely ... the first generation of these holy men would have been entirely worn out and used up in the task of carving the steps ... that led to their monastic enclosure: a gathering of a half-dozen corbelled, beehive-shaped huts, ...And now it's nearly dinnertime. Bye for now.
Minnie
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