Zuppa di Pesce
Yesterday (13th September) it was my turn to do the shopping so I pondered what I might make for dinner and glanced at our kitchen bookshelves. For some reason Sonia Allison and Ulrike Bielfeldt's The Gourmet's Guide to Italian Cooking caught my eye. Published in 1973, this book found its way into my parents' house but I don't remember them ever using it. The soup recipes include minestrone, tomato soup, haricot bean soup, pea soup, and a few broths. I chose the fish soup.
Among the listed ingredients are tomatoes (skinned and chopped), parsley, onion, celery, dry white wine, smoked cod, white fish fillet, a choice of prawns, shrimp, and pieces of lobster or crab, and anchovy fillets. What's not to like? I couldn't get smoked cod so I substituted smoked haddock. One of the things that struck me about how old the recipe book is is the reference to parsley and how the type of leaf (flat or curly) isn't specified. Back in the 1970s there was only curly leafed!
I prepped the vegetables, skinning, peeling and chopping as necessary. The first cooking step was frying the garlic, then I added the tomatoes, puree, parsley, onion, celery, wine, water, sugar and seasoning. While this mixture was simmering, I cut up the fish. The younger offspring was dispatched to the supermarket to buy crusty bread and then it was time to dish up.
The spouse and I enjoyed the soup, agreeing that the smoked fish gave it a good flavour. The offspring was a little reticent, fish not being quite his thing.
Baking Brief
Last weekend I baked two monster batches of chocolate brownies, one using dark chocolate and walnuts, the other white chocolate and hazelnuts. They were for the younger offspring's birthday bash, but there were plenty for the improv troupe and my work colleagues too. The recipes are in my Good Housekeeping Baking book.
Bee Alert
My alma mater's women graduates' poetry group is reading The Honey Gatherers, "a collection of love poems across centuries and cultures", edited by Maura Dooley and published in 2003. While browsing to find out more about this book I came across this webite: The Bee Photographer.
The County Dublin Beekeepers' Association Honey Show 2014 will take place on 8th November in Rathgar. Bee there or bee square rather than hexagonal.
Until next time,
Minnie
Yesterday (13th September) it was my turn to do the shopping so I pondered what I might make for dinner and glanced at our kitchen bookshelves. For some reason Sonia Allison and Ulrike Bielfeldt's The Gourmet's Guide to Italian Cooking caught my eye. Published in 1973, this book found its way into my parents' house but I don't remember them ever using it. The soup recipes include minestrone, tomato soup, haricot bean soup, pea soup, and a few broths. I chose the fish soup.
The spouse and I enjoyed the soup, agreeing that the smoked fish gave it a good flavour. The offspring was a little reticent, fish not being quite his thing.
Baking Brief
Last weekend I baked two monster batches of chocolate brownies, one using dark chocolate and walnuts, the other white chocolate and hazelnuts. They were for the younger offspring's birthday bash, but there were plenty for the improv troupe and my work colleagues too. The recipes are in my Good Housekeeping Baking book.
Bee Alert
My alma mater's women graduates' poetry group is reading The Honey Gatherers, "a collection of love poems across centuries and cultures", edited by Maura Dooley and published in 2003. While browsing to find out more about this book I came across this webite: The Bee Photographer.
The County Dublin Beekeepers' Association Honey Show 2014 will take place on 8th November in Rathgar. Bee there or bee square rather than hexagonal.
Until next time,
Minnie
Comments
Post a Comment