The fun of cooking for my friend Cathy in Los Angeles continues. Unfortunately, Cathy is unwell and needs to gain some weight. You know what this means? Cream and butter ahoy!
I made another simple soup which will serve as a starter for our dinner tonight, and this is one which definitely improves with the inclusion of the fatty stuff. It’s a creamy spinach and mushroom soup, and it could not be simpler to make: Fry some onions, garlic, and a pound of chopped mushrooms in olive oil and butter until soft; add one pound of washed baby spinach, cover, and let wilt in steam; pour in two cups of unsalted chicken stock and another four cups of water, and let simmer for about ten minutes. Let cool somewhat, then blitz with a handblender until the soup reaches the consistency you desire (I like to leave some bits of mushroom, but no bits of spinach, which can hang awkwardly off a spoon). Season to taste, then add cream and a bay leaf, stir, and re-heat for serving. More cream at the end will definitely be a good thing.
[...] Last night at Cathy’s, I made dinner (cream of spinach and mushroom soup, Thai prawn curry – made with my own improvised Thai curry paste, since the stuff I’d bought got lost somewhere between the supermarket and Cathy’s house – rice, butternut squash) and Sandra Tsing Loh brought the cookies. I was going to try to describe Sandra, who is recognised as a brilliant writer, performer, composer (she played the violin, wonderfully, for us before we ate) and overall life of the party, but our friend Nancy Rommelmann has written something good enough for me to steal: Sandra is very, very funny, all the time. Not in a, “god, if this woman doesn’t shut up I’m going to pull out one of my eye teeth and stab her in the neck with it,” but in a way that makes you realize just how far down on the food chain you really are. [...]
[...] I tried a variant of Jackie’s spinach and mushroom soup. I steamed the cauliflower florets for 5 minutes, while frying onion and sliced mushroom. I added the water I’d steamed the cauliflower in (about half a pint) to a cube of chicken stock, then put the lot in the blender for a few whirrs. I poured it into a pan on the stove top, added ten twirls of black pepper and a generous pinch of dried herbes de Provence and half a tub of crème fraiche. I simmered it for a while to let the tastes blend properly, then served it. This is a very good soup which tastes, not surprisingly, of fresh cauliflower and mushrooms. It’s also very filling. [...]