‘A Choice of 3 Soups…and Vantage at " Van’s Vintage "….'

'COOKING WITH MAVIS’  # 7    
                         ' A Choice of 3 Soups…and Vantage at Van’s Vintage…’

      “ VANESSA’ s VINTAGE”…  

One man’s castaways are another man’s treasures! And some wo-man has been smart enough to grab her persistent dream of opening a tiny little boutique store of old kitchen collectables-and-such, to satisfy that burgeoning  creativity of hers…

Yes! “ My-Friend-Van ”  is sohhhh damn good at making something out of anything!...She’ll take an old empty fruit tin…and bloodywell turn it into a couple of amazing tin roses!

She’ll source a dozen-or-so of the tiniest old glass bottles – ( yes. ..that we’d never look at, but all discard)….and makes a cheeky ‘shabby-chic’  hanging mobile!

Or some chicken wire and whatever…and shape it into a glorious heart-shaped wall hanging…

                                             Van's bespoke bunting

 

      

                                        Van's 'Littlebottle' mobile

 

                                             Van's tin roses

                                           "Things!"

And what is Van’s Passion?...Vanessa LOVES  vintage kitchen wares..and‘suchables.’

It may not be everyone’s taste, but if you’re adventurous..with an eenzy-wheenzy itsy-bitsy notion of creativity,  you’ll find a treasure-trove of gifts and such…all most definitely old..and ‘Shabby-chic’!

....A  selection of highly collectable 1950s and ‘60s Melamine cups and saucers sit cheek-by-jowl with a paintpeeling ORIGINAL ‘Hamilton-Beach’ mixmaster!

A vast assortment, too, of vintage linen...some of which, she sews into unique  bunting…apparently popular to decorate maintables at weddings!.......and what she does with mismatching metal lids-and-large-glass-jars…WOW!...

                                   Van's stock of melamine 1950's cups

                   Van's Hamilton-Beach mixer..shabby and collectable!

                                                

                                        Metal lids...and glass jars! 

We  visited Somerset West recently, en-route to Arniston, and couldn’t but deviate from our journey to explore “Vanessa’s Vintage”…and what a vantage “ Vanessa’s Vintage “ was!

Yes! I give a whopping bouquet  to............ “ My-Friend -Van “    for her wonderful tin roses!

        

                                                                     

You’ll find her amongst the shops in an old Victorian house “Coco Bella”on Andries Pretorius Street…just past the traffic lights of St James Street, Somerset West….Van’s cell # is: 084-810-1729  

(of course ,local to South Africa!)

(no answer,  means  my friend is attending to  clients! )

                                >>>>>>>>>VVVVVVVVVVVV<<<<<<<<<<<

                                

And so to recipes….

‘COOKING WITH MAVIS’  Easy & simple: Choice-of-three Soups… 

The “must!”  of “have-to’s!”  in making marvelously mouthwatering soups,  is to ALWAYS  use some fresh celery!

I have a simple formula when making certain veggie soups….

Whether the main ingredient ‘veg-of-choice’   be butternut , or cauliflower…or broccoli…perhaps leek…or even lettuce:

The basics always :

I begin with…

1 large onion  – peeled and thinly sliced

2 medium or 1 generously large potato  – peeled and thinly sliced

1 stalk of celery  –finely sliced (or sometimes I cheat with celery leaves)

50g of butter

Seasoning :  salt / or “Herbamare”- pronounced “herba-mahree”- (organic herb seasoning salt) is super to flavour with …AND HAS NO PRESERVATIVES / or if not available to you, use a healthy vegetable stock powder if you must (without MSG)…I usually don’t, as I find that my basic seasoning is ample.

1 litre water

Then add the main veg-of-choice flavour:

 For butternut soup:

I medium butternut, peeled, deseeded, and sliced thinly

1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger (or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (cassia)

1 teaspoon yellow mild curry powder  (I love the flavour of “ Cartwright’s “ mild curry powder)

1 tablespoon sugar

***If you can’t obtain butternut, substitute sweetpotato / yams!

 For  cauliflower soup:

1 medium cauliflower – sliced into small pieces

75 g blue cheese …or more if you like (added to the pot just before you blend to a puree)

2 cups (500ml) Fullcream milk and 2 cups water

 For broccoli soup:

1 Head of broccoli

Then a choice of either same 75 g blue cheese

And the 4 cups water

Or

2 cups milk and 2 cups water ….and at the end add juice of ½ lemon!

                              Ingredients for broccoli and blue cheese soup
                  

Leek and lettuce soups…wellllllll, perhaps I’ll divulge to you another time…or why not experiment !  …It’s good to realize too, that when making soup, the quantities don’t have to be exact!

METHOD:

As ‘a-shortcut-slightly-spoilt-and-uncomplicated’  cook, I am fortunate to use ALWAYS  my Magimix food processor…but you could well slice by hand…..

I make sure first that my “mise en place” (pronounced “ miz ɑ̃ plas “ ), is done!  - it’s a French phrase - literally means:  "putting in place" -  ….I suppose it’s the ‘pre-preparation’

The pot ready on the stove, with nut-of-butter gently melting on low heat.

Having peeled and cleaned the veggies, I use the slicing blade in the processor.

I start with the veg-of-choice, lastly slicing the potatoes, then onion last, and empty all the contents in the Magimix bowl  upside down  - thus, onions first, veg-of-choice last, on the top of the pile of sliced veggies into the pot with the butter already melting.

Gently sauté these on low heat, lid on.

After 10 minutes you can add ¼ cup water and the rest of the seasoning.

Stir once or twice.

Continue with lid on, for a further 15 to 20 minutes till veggies are soft.

Turn heat up to medium, and add the rest of the liquid, simmer further 10-or-so minutes.

Leave to cool.

Blend to a smooth puree.

Reheat gently, and Voila!...easy homemade healthy soup sans  MSG or other preservatives!

***If making the broccoli and lemon soup…only add the lemon juice at the end - to the cooked, blended soup .

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                                   Broccoli and blue cheese soup

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