I just treated myself to a mini Tintin while Christmas shopping – The Blue Lotus.
Probably quite fitting then that I return home to attempt an oriental soup, completely unprepared, and unaware of any culture’s soup recipes. Tintin, or rather Herge, the racist.. I don’t know why I love the comics so much. Nostalgia about a time when I was in primary school maybe. I just had a vivid flash of the school library, which I’ve just realised was actually two quite small rooms. I am hopelessly sentimental, but anyway, this is the soup of the present:
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped, one spring oil chopped, fry in a little oil
- add 1 julienned carrot, stir
- around a teaspoon of paprika, pepper
- splash of soy sauce
- add one stock cube, a little water
- splash of rice wine vinegar
- top up to 1-1.5L of water
- add two more stock cubes (I used Oxo veg)
- squeeze half a lemon
- stalk of lemongrass thrown in, base cross cut, later removed
- a cup or two of frozen vegetables
- salt, more soy
- splash of red wine
- one sheath of soba noodles. Handful of chopped coriander.