LURKING SOUP FOR A DRAGGING DAY

Lurking Soup © ignominia 2012

I like food, it is always comforting. Even when it’s not your best meal it is a finished, complete task you can start and finish on your own. 

 

Do you have just few ingredients? You don’t need zillions to make something to eat. 
Alone and with only half hour to spare? You don’t need someone to get back to you, to wait for a confirmation call or long processing time that will drag on and on until its completion will be anticlimactic.

  

You crack an egg in a pan with a teaspoon of oil and in 5 minutes you eat it, it’s that simple.

So today, after a meeting that postponed the issue to an undefined date, followed by writing e-mails that will require more e-mails, I opened the fridge and decided to warm myself up from a pissy day, with some soup.

Nothing much, as the photo will confirm, just something warm and finite for a day that drags on.

Got some broth that I make with vegetable scraps collected when cleaning veggies: the tough ends of leeks, the outsides peels of onions, the “fingers” of fennel bulbs (they look like Mikey Mouse gloved hands don’t they?), the carrots lurking in the fridge’s bottom drawer, celery leaves or parsley stems, the odd misshapen potato and any cheese crust you get. I keep them in the freezer in a bag to which I add from time to time. Sometimes the back and neck of a chicken end there, the odd bone, mushroom or the squeezed lemon rind.  When big enough I throw the contents in a big pot, cover with water and after it boils I let it simmer for 15/20 minutes. Once cool I filter it with a fine mesh colander and freeze in mason jars. Forget Campbell!

So with the quart jar I thawed last night, when the sky was darkening and promising the much needed rain that fell today, I heated a cup of more of the broth and when it boiled I added two handfuls of pastina (thin or very small pasta made just for soups), a piece of bouillon or salt to taste (try black salt, a naturally low sodium pink seasoning found in Middle Eastern or Indian stores) and a spoon of thinly sliced fresh scallion (white and green bits) that are ubiquitous in the stores here in Spring.

That’s it!  A very basic LURKING SOUP