The Way To a Man's Heart...

Went for dance class last night. A new saiidi choreography was being taught, a lot of hopping! Was not too difficult to catch up with the rest, but of course I will have to work on polishing my movements and transitions, and memorising the choreography. It's nice to be learning new styles of the dance. I'm a little sad and disappointed though that I won't be performing at the jazz festival in August; I agreed to perform for it before I left for Sweden, but now apparently S asked a newer student to dance instead. *sigh* :( Oh well. Maybe she was afraid I would not come back and she'd be stuck without enough dancers. :P

Anyway. Here's something about what I did in the land of blondes, pickled herring and aquavit. During a week when F came home from work every night at 10:30pm tired but ravenous, we would cook something fairly fast and easy, but it still did take some time and we usually ended up eating at 11pm or later. So one evening I decided to make for dinner a chunky, stew-like soup. Soup filled with good stuff is comfort food to me - it brings about a certain cosy dreaminess... er.. yeah.

I improvised when it came to the ingredients, having no recipe to follow, but having an idea of what sort of flavours I want. Fortunately, the soup turned out very tasty. Now, as F and I enjoyed the result of my 'experimental' recipe a lot, I decided to record it here for my future reference, and to share with you peeps who'd like to try making it. :) To make Siryn's Hearty Soup (ahem) you'll need..

500ml water (approx)
1 packet bacon, cut into approx 2in pieces
10 new potatoes (small), scrubbed and cubed (with skins on)
2-4 tomatoes (medium), quartered
1 carrot, cubed
1 small cucumber, cubed
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
1 can/box (small) crushed or pureed tomatoes
1 chopped onion (large white Spanish)
3-4 cloves garlic (at least), minced
1 cube bouillon (beef/pork/chicken)
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
salt and roughly ground black pepper to taste

Method:
1) Pour water in large pot and heat. Add bouillon cube and bring to boil, making sure the cube dissolves completely. While waiting, fry the bacon pieces till crisp, and drain away the oil when it's done (or reserve for frying the onions if you don't mind the cholesterol).
2) Put carrots and potatoes in boiling bouillon/water. Simmer for about 5 minutes before putting in the tomatoes and cucumber.
3) Add crushed tomatoes to the pot and stir the mixture, leave to simmer. In the meantime, fry the onions in same pan used for bacon.
4) Add fried onion, beans, basil, thyme, chilli flakes and about half of the fried bacon into pot, and stir till well mixed. Simmer for about 30 minutes to let the soup thicken.
5) When you like the consistency, add garlic, salt and black pepper to the soup mixture, stir and taste.

Serve piping hot, topped with the fried bacon (maybe some grated cheese?), with sliced baguette (or similar crusty bread).

Suggestions & notes
- This recipe serves about 4 people. If you can't finish it, refrigerate or freeze; this soup reheats very well.
- I didn't use measuring cups or spoons. Everything is approximate; the teaspoons I used are the ones we use to stir our coffee/tea.
- If the flavour is too flatly salty or a tad too sour due to all the tomato, add a tablespoonful of honey - I find that usually helps to balance out the flavours perfectly.

If you wish, you can add or substitute some of vegetables with bell peppers, celery, baby corn, radishes or cabbage. Potatoes can be substituted with pasta (fusilli, shells, farfalle or similar small pasta shapes) - or you can have both. Instead of new potatoes, you can use any other waxy, low-starch potatoes that hold their shape well after cooking. The meat component can also be meatballs, or bite-sized pieces of pork/beef (marinated and pre-stirfried). In place of the beans, you can also use fresh peas, garbanzos (chickpeas), black-eyed peas, lentils or any other bean you like (probably). Raw shelled groundnuts (peanuts) would lend the soup a earthy, nutty flavour.