31.01.08: Seven Pulses

Carlo claimed this soup contained seven pulses, including at least four varieties of lentil, plus chickpeas and some little brown peas he called 'Ghana peas', prolly black eye peas. OK, that's only six pulses and I can't adequately describe the method by which Carlo invented this soup, either, but I can tell you it worked brilliantly well, however he did it. From somewhere, he'd picked up a bag of crispy fried onion bits (sic) which he mixed into the soup as he served it to vary the texture and add flavour to a concoction that someone described in the log bok as being 'ooh, coriandery and coconutty and chunky and smooth. Marvellous. I want more!' Someone else wrote, 'fantastic'. Which it was, in its characteristically Carlo type of a way. Popular, too.

Look, I know these blog posts have become a bit perfunctory and I haven't posted many images recently, but to paraphrase the late John Lennon, life is what happens from day-to-day while you're busy making more grandiose plans. Normal service will be resumed when I've got a bit less on my plate;-)

13.11.07: Lentil and Vegetable Stew

Compare the image above with the one on the right and you can see that things are starting to happen at the Pullens Centre. One of the residents - Simon - repainted the woodwork downstairs on the side of the building that faces into Iliffe Yard in order to smarten the place up before the open weekend at the end of the month, when the Centre will be the venue for a community art exhibition. Simon wasn't prepared to erect scaffolding and tackle the upstairs and so the chaps from Makers - the contractor responsible for the external refurbishment of the estate - were persuaded to take the job on themselves. They've also brought forward the redecoration of the frontage so it too will look good for the Open Yards weekend.

What's more, you'll notice the white van in the photo belonging to OCO, the heating engineers contracted to Southwark Council. The boiler at the Pullens Centre hasn't worked all year, despite the attentions of various chaps at various times. Now, however, its been replaced with a brand new one that actually dispenses hot water on demand! Yay! Now we can retire the energy-hungry urn we've depended upon for hot water this past month.

Today, Lou made a lentil & vegetable stew that went down very well, with comments in the log bok that included: 'Really delicious soup, thank you!' 'Yes it is, Ta!' 'Simply the best' (or should that be beast?) and 'a true tummy treat'. 21 bowls were served.

Lou used 2kg of brown lentils which were soaked over night. Lentils don't necessarily need to be soaked in advance, but it reduces the cooking time and - according to some - soaking one's lentils and discarding the soak water before boiling them in fresh water reduces 'gaseousness' a.k.a. 'fartiness'.

I wasn't watching when this chunky lentil soup was made, but I'd guess that Lou boiled the lentils separately while frying onion and garlic in the bottom of the soup pot, to which she added coarsely diced potato, carrot and leek. I daresay she continued to the veg. for ten minutes or so before adding the lentils, covering with stock and cooking for at least half an hour, garnishing the soup with chopped parsley as it was served.