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I have to thank KSP for a couple of things. Firstly, the winter tyre timing. She said that they were going to switch over the other week, and so I suggested to Mirinda that we do the same and then, of course, we had snow this week. Secondly, on Sunday, she let me know that krydd peppar is all spice berries. That will save me buying bottles of them in the UK every time we visit. It was also handy because I needed some today for dinner.
I made zrazy which calls for five all spice berries and, in the past, I’ve been very careful not to over-egg the sauce. Given I bought two more packets at the ICA this morning, I could count with complete abandon, knowing my supply will be uninterrupted now.
The zrazy wasn’t the only thing that kept me occupied in the kitchen today. One of the reasons I could never be a professional chef is how much time I’d have to spend on my feet. There is also the constant cook, eat, clean up, cook, eat, clean up, etc. Though, of course, I’d have staff to do the cleaning up.
If I was to be a professional chef, I think I’d prefer to be like Rachel Khoo and her Little Paris Kitchen. She would cook meals for a couple of guests at a time in her small Parisian flat. Never a rush, always pre-booked and cooking the things that she wanted to cook.
Of course, that sounds exactly like my world already so I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.
That includes knowing when to switch from salad at lunch to home-made soup. I deemed it switchover time today.
I’ve mentioned it before, that ICA sell little packs of vegetables as winter approaches, especially for soup and I bought one today to be peeled, chopped and roasted before being blitzed into liquid. I never used to roast them but then found a recipe for spicy carrot soup which raved about the extra flavour you get if you cook them in the oven. Now, unless otherwise dictated by a recipe, this is what I do.
By the way, the red stuff in the photo above is a sprinkling of lovely Hungarian sweet paprika which Fiona bought me while she was on her Danube tour. It added a lovely piquancy.
Mirinda enjoyed it and that’s all that counts really, given she had to eat it. Of course, I still had salad. I could live on salad, particularly when I include my home-made pickled beetroot.
I have my grandfather to thank for that. My love of pickled beetroot, I mean. He did all the pickling in our house. Beetroot and onions were his specialities. While I don’t really like the vinegar sting that pickling often gives to food, for some reason beetroot and onions are a pleasure.
Which brings me to the third thing I made in the kitchen today. Another batch of apple and tomato chutney.
Mirinda loved the last lot so, given that’s almost finished, I felt it was only right I should make some more. The only shame was that, unlike last time, I had to use apples and tomatoes from ICA rather than natural produce from Nicoline and the Button People.
Obviously, I need to work on my labelling.
