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I moved the salad table boxes into the shade by the shed early this year, because it's been really hot! This is a few hours later, it's 96 degrees out, and these greens look good! (no wilting, like in the past few days)
persimmon, cherokee purple, aunt ruby's german green, green zebra, golden boy, better boy, cubanelle pepper
His name is Khalid and he's not Arabic. He is a Bangladeshi working as a vegetable seller in Sindhagar Fish Market. 90% of low-cost labor in UAE is coming from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Emirates Travelogue
Very rustic. Sort of Irish-y because of the potatoes and cabbage, which is timely because of St. Patrick's Day, but it wasn't deliberate. I happened to have a lot of vegetables I'd been ignoring and had I not used them, in a few days they would have been inedible. Last week I made an elegant velvety potato leek soup that I painstakingly pureed.
Being that it's Friday and I had a hard week, I wanted to make something simpler. I just took whatever I could find and turned it into soup. Here's what I did.
In my lovely Le Creuset soup pot, I heated some butter and olive oil. Chopped 4 cloves garlic, not bothering to do it very finely. Threw them in the pot. Found some shallots I'd forgotten I had. Peeled one, sliced it, threw it into the pot. Took a medium onion, peeled it, sliced it, and - you guessed it - threw it into the pot. At this point, I seasoned the vegetables with salt and pepper and stirred to sweat the vegetables.
While the onions were getting some color, I sliced the whites and pale green parts of a leek and threw it into the pot. Stirred a bit. Found a bout a quarter of a head of cabbage getting moldy in some parts. Cut those bits off, chopped into shreds, and add them into the pot. Stirred a bit and seasoned with salt and pepper.
I don't really like cooking with baby carrots. They have no flavor. They are not even real! They are normal carrots shaped to look that way. They're good for snacking but not for cooking. Despite this, I had some and since they were vegetables, I cut them into small rounds and added them to the pot. Again, seasoned with salt and pepper. I am a big believer in seasoning in layers. There's better control and the food tastes better. Don't just dump salt and pepper in the end.
At this point, I wanted to get a bit of color on the vegetables so I turned the heat up to high. I didn't stir so much so the vegetables could brown a bit on the bottom - this gives more flavor. I added a couple of bay leaves and a pinch of dried thyme. You have to be careful with thyme, especially the dried kind. It seems harmless but they are so flavorful all you need is a pinch for an entire pot of soup.
Meanwhile, I sliced some mushrooms, The caps had started to open, which actually gives mushrooms more flavor. Added them to the pot and sweated them, seasoning with salt and pepper. After the mushrooms had softened a little, I dumped an entire box of low sodium fat free Trader Joe's chicken stock. I tasted the mixture, adjusted the seasoning, and added about the same amount of water as the stock.
After bringing everything to a boil, I added boiled peeled potatoes that were sliced into rounds. I kept them big because I knew they would break down once added to the soup. Once the potatoes were added, I lowered the heat and let everything simmer for a few minutes to let the potatoes soak up the flavor.
Just 3 more ingredients to go! I had some gorgeous little Campari tomatoes. I knew I wouldn't get to eat them all tonight and some were starting to get a little wrinkly. So I quartered them and after the potatoes had simmered for a while, I added the tomatoes and let them break down a little and impart a slight orange-y tint to the soup. Oh, and I added a little sugar to counter the acid.
Once the tomatoes had broken down, I added about a cup and a half of half and half. Stirred, and adjusted the seasoning. Finally, I dumped half a bag of frozen peas (quite by accident because a huge clump of peas dropped right into the soup!). I brought the soup back to a slight simmer to heat it up again.
That's it! It's so delicious! Perfect for a chilly Friday night.
List of ingredients as they were added to the pot:
butter
olive oil
garlic
shallots
onion
leeks
carrots
cabbage
mushrooms
chicken stock and water
bay leaves
dried thyme
potatoes
tomatoes
sugar
half and half
peas
And of course, salt and pepper throughout! The point of this soup isn't about using specific vegetables, just what you have on hand. The important thing is to constantly check on the seasoning. If you do that, it will turn out delicious to your liking.
Vegetable Platter - red peppers, carrots, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, broccoli, & gorgonzola dip.
Vegetable skewers waiting to go into the oven to roast.
Baby aubergine, courgette and carrot coated in extra virgin olive oil, and a blend of spices I had just roasted and ground in the pestle and mortar - roughly 2 teaspoons of cumin, 2 teaspoons of coriander, a clove and a green cardamom pod.
Here is the meal as it was served.
Here are the ingredients being prepared.
Lighting - Metz 45 triggered by an ebay trigger, at 1/4 power, bounced off the white ceiling. It is 1 metre away, camera right. This optically triggers a Sigma 500 at 1/4. It is also bounced off the ceiling, and is 0.5 metres away, camera left.
Our little backyard patio garden is coming into its own despite the unrelenting Texas heat. See notes for the types of herbs and veggies.
My wife is cazy about vegetables, so summer is her favorite season. The squash in the foreground was grown by a local farmer and sold at our weekly market, but the other veggies, including heirloom tomatoes and a wee cherry tomato and basil are all from my wife's garden.
Vợ tôi là cazy về rau quả, vì vậy mùa hè là mùa yêu thích của cô. Các bí ở phía trước đã được phát triển bởi một nông dân địa phương và được bán tại thị trường hàng tuần của chúng tôi, nhưng các loại rau khác, bao gồm cà chua gia truyền và cà chua bi wee và húng quế là tất cả từ vườn của vợ tôi.
Han's Scrunch Buggy wind-up caterpillar toy.
365 Toy Project - 34/365
Strobist Info
SB-900, 1/8 Power, unmodified, camera right triggered via sc-28 cable