Something New

Earlier this afternoon, I decided to make a carrot and cumin soup for dinner, to be served alongside some fish (coley) goujons and a side salad (of some form or another - I'm not a great advocate of salad.) The carrot and cumin soup was actually quite good - if a little hot. The first sensation was that of pure organic carrot, really nice and then you got the aroma of the cumin, along with the heat of the chilli and the ginger. Then, after having the back of your throat pleasantly warmed by this heat, a second spoonful burned my tongue lining off - the cheffy swirl of double cream that I put in the centre of the orange soup clearly not being enough to cool it down. A couple of dollops of creme fraiche later and it was really lovely. Just a nice warming taste that I think would have been better suited for the winter, but was still great. The folks loved it, even if they found the heat a little hard to deal with - they had four dollops of creme fraiche each. But I've known for a long time that they can't stand much fire - even if it's an entirely wimpy amount of chilli. Anyway, carrot, cumin and then a lovely warmth, followed - I think - by a little sweetness from the onion. On the whole quite nice. Even if the kitchen is still a mess from three blenders' work, two having broken on the first whiz. Hell, I'll clean it tomorrow.
Also, cardamom shortbread, I'm not sure if that many people do it. But I found a recipe for oat shortbread in one of Rachel Allen's books, made it and it was lovely. Tampered with it a bit and it's absolutely divine. You have a first bite and it's just normal, nothing spectacular, but then the second bite leaves your entire head filled with the scent of green cardamom and it feels like a sweet, buttery and crumbly ritual cleansing. Very good, if I do say so myself.
God, I should have started this blog ages ago. There's so much that I want to say and have wanted to for yonks. But I will try and keep the retrospective blogging to a minimum if I'm to get any, or keep any loyal supporters of my random rants.
Night :)