Monday, February 20, 2006

Spinach mushroom soup

Ingredients :

1 packet of fresh spinach, pre-washed. Not the frozen shit. Use the frozen shit for your science experiments.
1 packet of mushrooms. I like the Shiitakes, but white mushrooms should do as well. As long as you don't go shroom-hunting yourself.
1 pack of vegetable broth. Or you could use water instead. Note, however, that soup made from water will taste like water whereas soup made from vegetable broth will taste like soup.
1 sad-looking tomato half you find in your fridge that's been there since who the fuck knows.
1 not-so-sad looking tomato half you bought yesterday 'cause the sad one's not gonna be enough for the soup.
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
4 serrano chillies, also known as "those chillies you get in the Indian store"
Some salt, pepper (use discretion)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon chilly powder
1 sprig of cilantro also known as coriander leaves if you're a fob like me
1 wife who loves you

Procedure :

Retrieve wife who loves you from the living room and through the correct combination of ingratiating remarks and thinly veiled threats to chop off your own fingers by mistake, get her to slice tomatoes, chillies, cilantro and mushrooms for you. In case wife who loves you isn't available or doesn't exist, slice tomatoes, chillies, cilantro and mushrooms using your nails and teeth. Sorry, I can't trust you with a knife if you're a man like me.

Take a big vessel. I mean, a huge one, the biggest one you own. I personally like my pasta-cooking pot. Add olive oil and turn on the heat to high. Add spinach. Saute.

Realize too late that you've forgotten to ask wife to chop garlic cloves. Carefully hold garlic cloves in right hand, open the trash receptacle and throw them inside. Add garlic powder to the spinach instead.

Once spinach attains the color and texture of the bottom of an ill-maintained swimming pool in Pune (green and mushy), add mushrooms. Saute some more. Reduce heat to medium high.

Add salt and pepper. Add soy sauce.

Open packet of vegetable broth making sure you spill some in the process. Spillage will only make your soup taste better, or so they say, they being me. Empty vegetable broth inside vessel.

Add chopped tomatoes, chillies and chilly powder. Reduce heat to low medium.

Cover and cook for 15 minutes or so till tomatoes have given their all to the soup. Using a spoon, taste for correct proportion of salt. After screaming aloud in pain because you didn't wait for it to cool, taste it again, this time first blowing on it before shoving it into your mouth.

Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Delicious soup is ready. Will feed 6 people for a single meal, or 3 people for two meals or 2 people for 1 meal if one of them happens to be me.

4 comments:

zambezi said...

nice. you should make me some when we meet next.

neha vish said...

I quickly replaced with with "husband". The recipe makes more sense now.

As for trusting me with a knife. Today morning a spot of ginger cutting that was doesn't done very gingerly cut my finger. :)) Damn. Now for the bloody mushrooms.

R. said...

rofl!!....did i just read through a blardy recipe and was engrossed during the whole time???? (while roaring with laughter?)

funny stuff!!!!

gawker said...

Thank you all. It's quite delicious, this soup. Really. Although it doesn't taste as good with fingers n stuff floating in it, so take that precaution.