The Vegetable Garden of Oddities...

   After a couple of years of trying to raise veg in shady conditions, it came to me in a flash of brilliance that the sunniest spot in the garden is right in the middle of the lawn.
   I truly hate lawns, the horticultural equivalent of tasteful beige, so it was with some gusto that I set to with a spade a couple of months ago. What's there right now are two beds, one each side of the bowling alley path (that has to go too, at some point). The soil here is beyond fertile and completely free of stones so digging is a real, and easy, pleasure.
      These beds aren't huge but they're jammed with vegetables that you don't normally see at the market. At the back are yard-long green beans grown from seeds I brought back from Chiang Mai. In front are white aubergine plants (from the same source), and bronze and green fennel. Mixed in with these, in no particular order:

 Can someone please tell me what this is? I bought it from an organic grower at Mirepoix market, but forgot to ask its name. It's quite pungent, and a little works well in salads and stir fries.

The Espelette pepper that is one of the basics of Basque cuisine. I picked up a little plant at a market in St. Jean de Luz when we were there in June.

 Gorgeous crimson-stemmed chard, one of four plants that just keeps producing and producing. Again, bought at a local market.

   The best euro I've ever spent was for this tomatillo plant. I've never even seen tomatillos for sale in France so this was a real find. I'm thinking salsa (and margaritas) some steamy night soon. Tiny when I first brought it home, the plant now stands at least a metre high, measures the same wide and is absolutely dripping with fruit.
     Also growing lustily are Asian greens from seeds I bought while we were in the UK, (which reminds me it's time to write some posts about travels earlier this year).
    Time to cook up some of those greens, grill some slices of pork belly that have been marinading all afternoon with chilis, soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil, and crack open the jar of homemade kimchee.

Happy Days in the Garden

    I just came in from watering ours and a neighbour's garden. Being in full sun all day long, her squash plants are massive. Ours aren't doing too badly. The lettuces have been decimated by snails or slugs (try saying "decimated lettuces" after one too many verres de vin) but there is still enough for a week or two's worth of salads. The roquette (arugula) has already fed us three or four times. More seeds should go in soon to keep the harvest constant. The single tomato was a huge surprise. The yellow courgette was just big enough to pick. The red currants gleam like jewels in the low afternoon sun. 

   The odd-looking plant is a frisée that I planted last October and forgot about. It has shot up and is now displaying these pretty blue flowers.

How to Make the Simplest Soup Imaginable

Here's a soup I make often in France. Doesn't look very impressive, does it? Just roughly chopped vegetables, a sprig of thyme and water. But give it 30 or 40 minutes, and a buzz with a hand-held blender and you have delicious, home-made soup. 

I start by melting a knob of butter in a medium-sized saucepan. An onion and a clove of garlic, both chopped, go in next. Toss them around so they take on a buttery sheen. Then add cubed, unpeeled potatoes, one of medium size per person and one for the pot should do it. Using a wooden spoon, toss those around too. Next, into the mix goes the featured vegetable (courgettes in this case; carrots are good and leeks are excellent). Finally, throw in the thyme. Add water to cover, bring to a simmer, put the lid on the pot, the timer on for a half-hour and go sit somewhere and read.

When the timer pings, return to the kitchen and stick a sharp knife down through the vegetables to check that everything's cooked. Then whizz with a hand-held blender until the mixture is smooth. 

Here's where you start tinkering. Salt and pepper of course. Maybe more water to thin the mixture. A little cream never hurts. 

If you have stock on hand, you can of course use that. But, quite honestly, plain tap water is fine. Water, vegetables, herbs, salt and pepper. A lovely, comforting soup that warms you down to your toes is really no more complicated than that.