Now, I'm really, really not making this up. But these are my observations about cooking for males over the years, if I break it down into starsigns:
Aries: my Aries boyfriend would wolf it down and say 'that was great, lets make out'
Gemini: he'd talk very cleverly and wittily to me all the way through the meal
Cancerians: my Cancerian housemate would get, I dunno, a bit reverent. And offer to do the dishes. Awesome.
Leo: My bro in law's a Leo. But he prefers to cook most of the time.
Scorpio: my Dad's a scorp. He wants to debate, and he covers everything in chilli. Especially pizzas. Many a childhood meal, sis & I sat staring at all of that dried chilli on his plate, whilst Pa rabbited on about why the local parish priest thought like a protestant...
Capricorn, Aquarius, Saggis & Pisces: no stories coming to me right now...as I mentioned, I'm really not making the above up...
But Taureans and Librans? You havent cooked until you've cooked for Taureans and Librans. Ruled by the planet Venus. In love with all the finer things in life....hubbabaloo is a Libran. He claims to have a good food spirit guide that leads him to good food all over the world. Having travelled with him I have reason to suspect it's true....
Anyway. There's a pertickler gleam in his eye that Hubby the Libran has when he's partaking of good food. The following chestnut soup polishes his eyeballs. Unfortunately, he needs to be asked to do the dishes.
1. Chicken Stock:
To an extent, it's all in the stock...
2 chook frames
turnip
swede
parsnip
carrot
onion
garlic
salt
thyme
Stick the chook frames and roughly chopped veggies in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil on 180 deg for about 20 mins. Dont need to be cooked through, just need the flavour to come through...
Put all of the ingredients in a pot, cover with cold water, cover and simmer for 2 hours
2. Chestnuts:
You'll need about 3 or 4 handfuls. I'm pretty sure that the supermarkets are stocking them at the mo.
Wuith a sharp knife, make a criss cross on each chestnut.
Cover them in a saucepan with 1/3 milk, 2/3 water.
Cook them for about 25-30 min or till they're soft and the shells are falling off. IMPORTANT: make sure that you peel off the inner casing from each chestnut if its not falling off(it's light brown) otherwise everything will taste chalky and bitter, as some friends of mine discovered recently. Doesnt matter if they're a bit pulpy and milky; not for this recipe...
3. Putting it all together:
- sautee 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped carrot, 2 sticks chopped celery ibn a large saucepan.
- add chestnuts and stock....guage how much for yourself..depends on how thick you want your soup. Cook for approx 25 mins or so
- puree. Serve with a spoon of cream swirled in and a sprinkle of parsley.
...the weirdest thing about returning from Byron is that my appetite up there was all about salads and Indian food. Then I got back to our chilly hills and I'm slow cooking all day long. Caint get enough....
And hey! Darthy! Still waiting for your brioche recipe...
very inneresting read, wilms!
ReplyDeleteI'm married to a taurus and kid#2 is a taurus. you can see why I spend so much time in the kitchen :-/
love the idea of the chestnut soup - sounds gorjus! being the Lazy Woman that I am, I generally save these labour intensive recipes for socials - will try this one on for size next time we throw a partay.
we're knee deep in curries, thick parsnippy soups, spag bols, and roast chooks now that the decent weather has finally arrived. the beaut thing about slow cooking is it warms the house and la famiglia comes home to delicious aromas - very pleasing to the taurus nostril.
meanwhile, brioche! it's essentially white bread made with sugar, butter & egg yolks. I take a standard bread recipe (3 x cups white bakers flour, 2 x teaspoons yeast, 2 x teaspoons salt, 2 x teaspoons sugar, and room temp water to stiff dough) and replace water with 4 x egg yolks and about 1/4 stick of melted butter (you may still need to add a dash of water), and increase sugar content to about 4 tablespoons.
process as per bread. a good 10 minute pounding, prove til double in size, pound again for 3 minutes, divide into 3, stretch and twist into plait, prove again til double on baking sheet, then brush with whole egg and straight into nice hot oven for about 30 minutes - or til hollow when you tap bottom. should be darkish golden brown and glossy.
afterthought - while it sounds optional, the stretching and twisting is very important to the finished product! it gives a brioche that ropey texture which makes it extra yum :p
funny ... me claiming chestnut soup seems very labour intensive ...
Thanks, girls.
ReplyDeleteSend some wintery food stuffs up to me in a clip-lock bag, & I'll freeze them for the upcoming season.
Cooking interests me little. I go for quick, nutritious, & popular - thereby limiting our dinner menu to chicken wraps, pasta, & beef burritos.
As for the cooking by the stars, I'll throw a spanner in the works by mentioning my Tooly rarely talks cleverly & wittily at the dinner table.
ReplyDeletekid A is planning on moving in with ou for meals then BettyDAisy. If she could live on chicken burritos and fish & chips she'd eb a happy gal.
ReplyDeleteHey! Kid A's a Saggitarian....rarely remains seated for the meal.
As for your laconic gemini....astrology buffs get around it by saying that its all about extremes. if they aint talking to much then they aint talking, when it comes to geminis...
It's all suitably vague, isn't it, this astrology bizzo?
ReplyDeleteMmm, chesnut soup, nice. And brioche. I think the astrological analysis was earth shattering stuff.
ReplyDelete