Monthly Archives: September 2011

When I came back from Goma and Georgia from Evros…

It’s been more than a year since I last updated this website and it’s a shame. It’s a shame as a lot of friends all over the world have actually asked me to update it and I haven’t responded.

Nevertheless in the meantime I was pretty lucky to enjoy cooking with/for friends a lot and it was nothing but a pleasure to me. So the important part was done and documented, waiting in my hard drives patiently to be published.

So here am I, back to Greece again to our beloved “Giafka”. I returned from a trip to Goma, DRC just a couple of days ago while Georgia who is now working at Evros supporting  a medical project for immigrants, came back  to Athens for R&R. So we decided to celebrate this with a proper dinner of course.

So the funny part of the story today!

I had prepared almost everything for the soup and I was a step away from blending it when I realized that i was missing the european socket adaptor. Our blender was purchased in Uganda and carries a British outlet. We only had one adaptor at the house and it was Mimi’s (my other roommate). Mimi is actually in Vietnam or Cambodia or somewhere in the area with the “triorofo” gang on holidays. Georgia texted her to ask whether she has the adaptor or she knows where is it. Don’t forget it is a bit late evening, Saturday night and the possibilities of finding a place to buy an adaptor and enjoy our soup were of course minimum. Anyway we got no answer for a while. However we have this mini market shop in the neighborhood, just a across our house, owned by an old sweet guy, Mr Giorgos who just happen to have everything. I actually would like to call his shop “Mr Giorgos wonder store” cause he has managed to fit everything in pretty limited space, one might say. Long story short, Georgia found a universal adaptor at his shop and we managed to blend the soup.

While we were eating our soup  Mimi replied to the text:
” If you want to know about the adaptor so you can use the blender, I am not going to tell you cause tomorrow that I am coming back you will be all wasted and hang over-ed” (referring to a possibility of using the blender to mix cocktails).

R&R vegetable soup with a spicy kick

Today Georgia my roommate came to Athens for a short R&R break. This soup is dedicated to her and to coming-back-home-from-the-field  moments in life. I guess we have a lot of them in our house. Enjoy!

SERVES 6

Shopping list
olive oil
2 medium onions cut in big chunks
2 tbs garlic paste
2 zucchinis cut in big chunks
5 medium carrots cut in big chunks
5cm pc  ginger grated
1 tomato grated
salt & pepper

For the broth:
6-7 cups of water
1 chicken broth cube
1 vegetable broth cube
2 bay leaves
4 cardamom seeds
2 dried chillies

And now what?
So let’s start by heating 4 tbs of olive oil in a big saucepan in medium heat. Saute the onions until they get tender and translucent. Add the garlic and continue stirring for 2 more minutes. Now it’s time to add the remaining vegetables and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Meanwhile  start preparing the broth. Bring to boil the water in a pan and add all the ingredients. Reduce the heat, cover and boil for 15 minutes.

When broth is ready, strain it into the vegetables. Keep aside the 2 chillies to use later. Add salt and pepper. Cover and boil for 20 minutes or until the carrots are tender.

Use a blender or a food processor to whizz until smooth. Start blending the vegetables first and keep the liquid part for the end so you can control the density of the soup. Remove the seeds from the chillies and blend them together with the mix to get the spicy kick!

Extras:
I love garlic croutons with most of the soups. In a frying pan add olive oil and 2 tbs garlic paste in medium heat. Cut some bread in big chunks/cubes and fry them until they will turn gold while you stir frequently.

I also like adding some saute mushrooms in this soup. Finish with a few drops of sour cream and balsamic cream.