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Turkey Broth

Turkey Broth

Turkey? No, I'm not mixing up my religious festivals. Yesterday (31st March) was Easter Sunday and the spouse marked the occasion by cooking turkey and ham. There was lots left over. I used some of it by making sandwiches for unexpected visitors. Today I made the turkey broth from a recipe by Roopa Gulati. This soup was my 153rd from The Soup Book. It's been about three months since I made a soup from the book that kick-started this blog. I missed it! I missed the clear lay-out and the listing of the ingredients.

The ingredients are simple enough: leek, celery, carrots, parsnip and turnip. Of course, turnip is never as simple as it should be. I couldn't find any so I used an additional parsnip (even though I don't like them) and threw in a few mushrooms. All the vegetables had to be finely diced, as did the cooked turkey meat. I defrosted some home-made chicken stock and brought it to the boil with a good dollop of dry white wine (the cheapest I could lay my hands on). The next task was to simmer the vegetables in the stock, after which I added the turkey, some cream and a sprinkling of dried parsley (I couldn't find fresh parsley on this bank holiday Monday).

Our guests arrived and so I dished up for the six of us: the two offspring, a friend ("Ellen") who was celebrating a milestone birthday, her two offspring and myself. (The spouse is away at present) I have to say it was surprisingly tasty. Ellen was very enthusiastic and my older offspring had a second bowlful. That could have been the effect of the preprandial run. I could barely taste the parsnip. The three teenagers were too busy deprecating the concerns of their elders to express any opinion of the soup! Never mind.

Would I make this soup again? Yes, and I wouldn't worry about trying to find white turnips.

Bee is for Browsing

I was browsing our bookshelves, looking for something referring to bees that might be of interest in this blog. I came across a book entitled Collected Poems by James Stephens which has been in the spouse's possession since 1967! It was awarded to him "for excellence in speech and drama" when he was a little boy.

Book II is entitled A Honeycomb and a quick scan of the poems indicates that love is the theme. The opening poem is To the Queen of the Bees. What a find! Below are the first and sixth stanzas.

Bee! tell me, whence do you come?
Ten fields away, twenty perhaps,
Have heard your hum.  
And ask your queen, when you get home,
To send my queen the present of
A honeycomb. 
I think that's all for now.

Minnie

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