When I was living in my first college apartment, my friend Ronny, also in his first apt, taught me to make potato soup. He said an old lady had showed him how. It was simple, basic. Perfect for my beginner cooking skills. I still use it as a base today for lots of variations, adding broccoli and dill or curry and corn. This is what we learned.
Cut up some potatoes and put them in a pot. Cover with water. Salt. Cook, covered, until soft. Take out the potatoes and cut really small. Put them back in the pot with the "potatoey water." (I don't think either of us knew the word "stock.") Add milk and butter and reheat. I usually put black pepper in it too.
I was making this soup (with sautéed onions and broccoli) and began wondering about the old lady who had taught him to make potato soup over Christmas vacation many years ago. How old was she? Younger than me? I'm 53. I bet I seem like an old lady to a nineteen year old.
Kurt was writing with a young musician from NC yesterday, probably somewhere in his 20s. We got to talking about food. He had been trying to make hummus, but couldn't get it creamy like the stuff you buy. I gave him a basic recipe, one he could use as a basis for different variations.
After he left, I pictured him, many years down the road, making roasted red pepper hummus or sundried tomato hummus, still based on a recipe I wrote on the back of a water bill in 2012.
I'd become the old lady.
Hummus
1 clove garlic
3 T tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 T olive oil
salt to taste
2 cups cooked chickpeas (1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked and cooked with salt and a little garlic
powder, or adjust it to the amount of chickpeas in a can)
Process in a food processor (or blend, or mash) until creamy.
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