squished

kheili mamnoon (thank you) ali (my new half-iranian friend, neighbor and customer), for the beautiful home-grown yellow summer squash. i made that soup out of them. here’s how:

after working two nights in a row until 2 am, but still getting up at 7 to make my lover his breakfast and pack him up a lunch, i found myself (forgiveably) tired late yesterday afternoon when i realized that i didn’t have anything for bradley to take to work for lunch (it is my sincere goal now that he is working that he will have a hot breakfast, home-made lunch, and dinner ready when he gets home every day).

so i got to work scooping the seeds out of the biggest two specimens. i chopped them into large, rough pieces and threw them into a pot on top of sauteeing onions, added boiling water from the kettle and all of the ripest tomatoes you gave me, including the split ones (i ate the grape tomatoes while i worked. gorgeous.).

left that to simmer on low and then fell asleep.

when i woke, i pureed the soft mess i found, added some salt, my own garam masala spice blend, turmeric, cayenne, fresh grated ginger, garlic, and a can of coconut milk. then i chopped carrots, dino kale and broccoli and added them along with frozen peas.

at this point, i turned off the heat, let the veggies cook a bit while the soup cooled and i got ready for bed (again. this time for good).

sent bradley off this morning with a nice container of it, but when i heated a bit for my own lunch, i wasn’t quite pleased with the taste.

added a bit more salt, which helped, but then racked my brain thinking of what else i might use to good effect. could have added honey, but i shy away from added sweeteners. it was just too thin, not in texture, but taste… the spice was right up front, but it didn’t have anything to sit on, if you know what i mean.

fat certainly wouldn’t hurt, so i added a pat of butter.

and then i got it. sage.

i love love love love sage in curries. what the heck are you putting sage in a curry for? you ask? because i’m crazy, and the smoked woodsy astringent menthol of sage works so goshdarn well with spice. and it was just right!

kheili khoobeh, i do say so myself.

that salad is a bit of lettuce, another of those beautiful tomatoes, and a bunch of my cultured turnips and beets (like sauerkraut, but way rootier. in fact, this batch of fremented veggies doesn’t actually taste good, but makes me feel so fine that i’m addicted!).