my evening meal

last night was another risotto - prawn, chili and ginger, one of our favourites. I went to the fridge to find some salad leaves to accompany it and, inexplicably, there were none. I blame the kittens - they eat *everything*.

the closest I could find to salad was spinach, so I took several handfuls, washed it well, then dumped it in a frying pan with all its water, splashed some honegar* on it, and cooked it very quickly, stirring all the while, until it wilted. Then I mixed it into the risotto and served it.

*highly* recommended.

*honegar - found in Waitrose last week, a mixture of wine vinegar and Vermont honey. I can't remember the last time I bought a prepared salad dressing, but this caught our eye, and very nice it is too.

lunch

parsnip soup

gently saute one roughly chopped large onion, and some chopped garlic (how much is up to you) in a large lump of butter - about 50g - for about five minutes. Do this in a large saucepan to save washing up.

grind up some cumin seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric and fenugreek in a pestle and mortar, or I suppose you could cheat and use curry powder. Sling this in with the onion and garlic and stir it about.

add about 2 pints (yes, I know, but I can't really do metric volume) of vegetable stock, and bring to the boil. Then add some creamed coconut - I cut about a 1" block from the bar, and chopped it up.

peel and slice about 500g of parsnips, and sling them in too. Bring it all back to the boil, and simmer for 20 minutes or so, or until the parsnips are soft.

then put the lot through a liquidiser, reheat, and enjoy. We ate it with onion/poppy seed bagels and cream cheese. And very nice it was too.