Simon: Parsley Soup, P146

I hate it when Hwsgo's right. Well not really - he is rather good at this cooking lark and I do listen to him, I'd just never admit that to anyone. Especially not to whoever's dropping in on my blogs... anyway, frying off some fennel then adding and frying off some chicken is a damned good way to reheat said chicken, and yes, admittedly, much much better than some of the dodgier things involving white sauces that I've done in the past.

And so from horror to disappointment. I've made soup, but it's not one of my best ones. I had almost all the ingredients for Simon's parsley soup, so when I saw bundles of Parsley in the market I leapt on them in anticipation of another special tasting treat. But no: I've made leek and potato soup with some parsley in it. Noticably. I may be being unfair to the recipe - I didn't quite follow it exactly in a not-quite-having-the-right-ingredients sort of way, i.e. I could only find one of the two leeks that I thought I had in the fridge, didn't have the energy to completely separate parsley stalks from leaves etc etc. (and I didn't envisage pulling parsley stalks out of my hand blender when I first started this quest). Simon recipes are usually robust to a little ingredient variation - maybe this one wasn't. It's not a horrible soup, it's just not spectacular.
But it did at least bring back another of those fun moments in cooking: the one where a lumpy bunch of vegetables suddenly turns into a big smooth soup. Maybe it'll be better in the morning.