Carrot Soup with Coconut and Lemongrass
"It's a soup day!" I thought to myself yesterday as the spouse got ready to go out shopping. "I'll run downstairs, choose a soup and give Dinks a list of ingredients."
Too late! He'd already left the house. I cast an eye over our cookery books, considered Keith Floyd's Floyd on Fish briefly but then chose The Soup Book. "A summer vegetable soup, I think," I said to myself. The book practically opened itself at this carrot soup recipe. We had onions, garlic, garlic, ginger, coconut milk and other ingredients. I rang the spouse and ordered carrots, lemongrass, red Thai curry paste and kaffir lime leaves. The latter wasn't available at our usual shop so I strolled down to Young Stephen's, not really expecting him to have them in stock. There he was, too absorbed in singing along to Return to Sender to pay me any attention so I checked myself what was available on the herb and spice rack. Aha! Kaffir lime leaves. I was very pleased at not having to trek down the road to the next village as, at the spouse's suggestion, we had spent the latter part of the morning walking down the South Bull Wall in the lovely sunshine.
Back in the kitchen that afternoon I prepared my ingredients, peeling, slicing, chopping and grating as necessary. Then I had a break. Just before 5 o'clock I started cooking. I fried the onion, added in the chopped ginger, garlic and lemongrass, after which I dropped in the carrots and curry paste and poured in the stock. When the carrots were tender, I spooned in the coconut milk and whizzed the mixture in the liquidiser. A quick re-heat and I was ready to dish up the soup. We sat and tasted. It was delicious. "Complex," said the spouse. The younger offspring had a second helping. Need I say more.
Bee Bop
On Sunday 14th April the spouse and I watched a documentary about the Africanised honey bee. We hadn't expected to enjoy it and my finger hovered over the "change" button on the TV remote control. We stuck with it and enjoyed it. We felt informed.
In the last couple of days I have read something about how late bumblebees are appearing. I was surprised. My first sighting of a bee this year occurred on the 6th April. I had brought the younger offspring down to the Dodder to help out with a clean-up. The clean-up had been postponed a fortnight earlier due to prolonged rain. We hauled ourselves down to the meeting point and were provided with a long-handled "grabber", compostable refuse sacks and gloves. A few days later I spotted a bee (a large one which I presumed was a queen) trodden into the footpath.
I occasionally dip into my new collection of Sylvia Plath's poems. Most recently I read The Swarm and some notes on it. So what? Well, I'm not good at analysing poetry so can't put into words why some poems intrigue me. What I am sure of, however, is that The Swarm is not about bees!
That's it for now.
Minnie
Too late! He'd already left the house. I cast an eye over our cookery books, considered Keith Floyd's Floyd on Fish briefly but then chose The Soup Book. "A summer vegetable soup, I think," I said to myself. The book practically opened itself at this carrot soup recipe. We had onions, garlic, garlic, ginger, coconut milk and other ingredients. I rang the spouse and ordered carrots, lemongrass, red Thai curry paste and kaffir lime leaves. The latter wasn't available at our usual shop so I strolled down to Young Stephen's, not really expecting him to have them in stock. There he was, too absorbed in singing along to Return to Sender to pay me any attention so I checked myself what was available on the herb and spice rack. Aha! Kaffir lime leaves. I was very pleased at not having to trek down the road to the next village as, at the spouse's suggestion, we had spent the latter part of the morning walking down the South Bull Wall in the lovely sunshine.
Back in the kitchen that afternoon I prepared my ingredients, peeling, slicing, chopping and grating as necessary. Then I had a break. Just before 5 o'clock I started cooking. I fried the onion, added in the chopped ginger, garlic and lemongrass, after which I dropped in the carrots and curry paste and poured in the stock. When the carrots were tender, I spooned in the coconut milk and whizzed the mixture in the liquidiser. A quick re-heat and I was ready to dish up the soup. We sat and tasted. It was delicious. "Complex," said the spouse. The younger offspring had a second helping. Need I say more.Bee Bop
 |
| Busy at the South Bull Wall |
In the last couple of days I have read something about how late bumblebees are appearing. I was surprised. My first sighting of a bee this year occurred on the 6th April. I had brought the younger offspring down to the Dodder to help out with a clean-up. The clean-up had been postponed a fortnight earlier due to prolonged rain. We hauled ourselves down to the meeting point and were provided with a long-handled "grabber", compostable refuse sacks and gloves. A few days later I spotted a bee (a large one which I presumed was a queen) trodden into the footpath.
I occasionally dip into my new collection of Sylvia Plath's poems. Most recently I read The Swarm and some notes on it. So what? Well, I'm not good at analysing poetry so can't put into words why some poems intrigue me. What I am sure of, however, is that The Swarm is not about bees!
That's it for now.
Minnie
Dinks?
ReplyDelete