who is a great cook? c'est moi, the one and only

Ahem, I cooked soup today WITHOUT a receipe. I'm pleased to say it wasn't too bad. Ok so it would have been more photogenic if i had taken photos of it pipping hot in its pot or my soup bowl, but as usual, I forgot to take photos until its a bit late. those three tupperwares are what i intend to store for three meals :) after I have satiated myself. Burp.


Let me give you the receipe (and my recommendations)

1. Take 2-3 oranges (you can use clementines or ordinary ones but clementines are usually sweet), 2 apples and 1 persimmon. Slice them into quarters (please peel the apples)

2. dump in mushrooms,spinach and tomatoes as well.

3. let it simmer in water (use your own judgement); maybe for at least 20-30 minutes?.

4. meanwhile, saute a large onion, a clove of garlic, sliced pieces of two chicken breasts for about 8-10 minutes or so.

Dump them all in the soup and let everything simmer some more. switch off when you have checked the flavour.

Ok some amendments. you are advised to remove the cut pieces of persimmon after the soup is completed. All of the above fruits add sweetness and some flavour to the soup---the chicken breast pieces don't help---but the dissolved apple and orange bits do. The persimmon just tastes weird after its flavour has gone into the soup. I tried eating a slice and choked. the rest of the fruit pieces, having melted, became gorgeous. Even the melted onions and so on were yummy.

Truth being told, the real story is, I have been down with flu and so was too "lembek" (weak in Malay) to walk out and buy bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and the usual herbs I fall back upon to make veggie soup, as I looked around my larder and realized I absolutely did not want to eat canned creamy soup (i HATE creamy soups!), or anything fried or oily. I even felt sick at the thought of eating bread.

So pouncing on my fruit stock---I had the foresight to buy lots of fruits and veggies and chicken breasts as i guessed I would be too ill to walk around very much the next few days---i decided to turn them into soup stock.

And oh, I cleaned up the kitchen, even cleaned up left over pots and the a dirty cooker left by my housemates.

So who says I'm a dirty girl? (with a meaningful toss at her mother!)