From the archives: Bicycle soup!

During my forty odd years of eating I have been served many different kinds of soup: veggie soup, soup with meatballs and rice, shark fin soup, soup with farm animals, dinosaurs, smurfs, stars, etc. Never in all my living days did I think I would get to taste bicycle soup!

Well, here is a photograph of just that:

If you have sharp eyes you will be able to see that on this particular day we were running short of matching cutlery!

Munchy Monday #19: Pumpkin and noodle soup

I'm sorry about last week's "munchy" - we were yet again with no telephone line. Here is a recipe which is new to us. The quantities are for 6 people.

You will need:

600 g pumpkin, peeled and chopped into largish cubes
1 cob of corn, cooked
1 tomato
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
150 g pasta noodles
1 litre chicken stock
Olive oil to fry
Croutons (optional)

Method:

Put the onion and garlic in a saucepan with a little oil and fry until soft. Be careful not to brown. Cut the tomato horizontally and grater the flesh into a bowl. Discard the skins. Add the tomato flesh to the onion and garlic mix. Cut the corn cob into slices of about 2 cm in width and add them to the onion and tomato mix. Fry gently for a minute or so and then add the pumpkin cubes. Fry a little more and then add the chicken stock to the pan. Bring to boil, add pasta noodles and simmer for 10 minutes. Check for salt and serve hot with croutons, if desired.

Note: As I like fish very much I served this as a supper starter, followed by baked panga and then, for dessert, fresh fruit and a cookie.

(I think next time I will just empty a small tin of corn into the soup instead of the cob which was difficult both to prepare and to eat.)

Munchy Monday #18: Pumpkin and potato puree

I thought I would dedicate most of the October "munchies" to the pumpkin, a member of the gourd family. It is classified as both a fruit and a vegetable, and can be used as a sweet or savoury. We eat it both ways.

You will need:

Equal quantities of raw pumpkin and potato, peeled and chopped
1/2 medium sized onion, roughly chopped (for every 4 medium sized potatoes)
Salt and pepper
Water to cover
2 or 3 knobs of margarine (optional)

Method:

Gently fry the onion until soft. Do not brown. Add potato and pumpkin cubes and fry for another minute or so. Add enough water to cover, add salt and bring to boil. Gently simmer for 12 - 15 minutes, or until the potato and pumpkin cubes are just soft. Remove from heat, add margarine and blend until smooth. Once served, shake a little black pepper over each dish of puree.

We have just eaten this for supper and it is so filling. To follow we had "picanton" with a sauce made of mushrooms, young fresh garlic pieces, asparagus and baby prawns.

"Picanton" is a small chicken which is only 20 days old or so. What is it called in English? Can anyone enlighten me, as I couldn't find it on internet.