The first of the Dahl dishes that I created from the cookbook Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights was the appetizing Peasant Soup. Dahl introduces the recipe with the remark: "Something I make on a long dark afternoon to chase autumnal blues away". And as predictable as the English weather is, the afternoon I decided to make the soup was wet, rainy and utterly miserable; what better way to warm up then cooking!
I was at my home in Buckinghamshire, thus I had access to my Mum's great kitchen with all the luxurious amenities to hand that just don't exist in my student kitchen in London. The recipe contained a great deal of vegetables, and one of the positives of living in the countryside is that down the bottom of my road is a local farm that sells nearly all that was listed in the ingredients for the recipe.
On the way back from the farm I had to take a short pit stop at my local co-operative (not so rurally idyllic ) to purchase the remaining ingredients; parmesan, cannellini beans and white wine (definitely my favourite ingredient!).
I was very surprised at how easy the soup was to make, and the smell whilst cooking was amazing. The methodology in Dahl's book was simple to follow, as each step took me smoothly to the next. I quickly made the soup, it didn't even take me one album of songs to get through!
I left the soup to simmer on a very low heat, until my mum arrived home from work. Then the kettle was on, the crusty bread buttered, and the steaming soup poured into bowls.
Even though she is my mother and probably slightly biased, my mum said that the soup was delicious and a real success. Each ingredient was decipherable, especially the garlic, which I could of settled with adding a few less cloves of! But altogether, my parents were very happy with their dinner, now this maybe because they didn't have to cook or it could be my amazing cooking skills; I think I'll go with the latter.
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| My mum enjoying her soup. |
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| The finished article before being devoured. |
