Avocado and Rocket Soup

Avocado and Rocket Soup

The introduction to this recipe on page 114 of The Soup Book states that "rich slightly nutty avocado works well with peppery wild rocket" and recommends the Hass variety. I hadn't given much thought to the varieties before, but on reflection my earliest memories are of smooth green-skinned ones (possibly Fuerte or Gwen) rather than the rough-skinned purplish-black Hass. This avocado information comes courtesy of Wikipedia and the California Avocado Commission website, by the way.

I am not a fan of lettuce and was made to eat it as a child. As an adult I have to smother it in dressings in order to get it past my reluctant tongue. In the last ten to twelve years I have found that restaurants in Dublin over-dress, over-decorate and over-garnish salads with lettuce - a cheap way of making a plate look full, I presume. Pleasant to look at but olfactorily repellent to the likes of me. So thank goodness for the arrival of rocket (Eruca sativa; also known as arugula).

Anyway, back to the recipe. It calls for ripe avocados, lemon juice, cold light chicken or vegetable stock, and harissa. It can be tricky enough to find ripe avocados - I find they're either as hard as nails or too soft. Fortunately, I was down at the local greengrocer's just after they opened this morning and was able to pick out the best of older stock. Back at home I had to wait for a bag of chicken stock to defrost before preparing the soup. No cooking involved at all - just washing, peeling, chopping, blending and chilling. The spouse and I tasted it before and after the addition of the harissa. You could get away without the harissa, but it does give it a kick. Tabasco sauce could substitute.

Coincidentally, today's Irish Times magazine has a chilled avocado soup recipe. The ingredients include vegetable stock, plain yoghurt, Tabasco, lime juice and garlic. Sound good. You can find more avocado soup recipes on the California Avocado Commission website, of course.

The recipe I followed is by Marie-Pierre Moine. I have to admit I hadn't heard of her before, but have discovered that she is the author and co-author of several books about French cooking, all published within the last twenty years.

I am an avocado. A poem by Kate Burnside

I was wondering if anyone had written a poem about avocados and came across I am an avocado on the Authors Den website. Here are a few lines -

My fleshy substance puzzles:
Am I savoury or sweet?
Delicious or non-descript?
And with or without texture?

Bee positive

The spouse sent me this link to a positive story about bees - http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0602/bees.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter. According to the story on the RTE news website, the number of wild bees has dropped, but more people are keeping bees.

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