Feb 26 2008
Will It Blend?
It might have blended, had we had a proper blender.
- Pea and Pesto Soup
Last week, Dougal’s Mum and Dad announced that they wanted to take us out for lunch. However, that same evening we were due to go for a pre-theatre dinner for my Dad’s birthday, and so in order to limit the scale of our repast, we invited them over for lunch Chez Us.
We were both keen to use the opportunity to cook something from the lunches chapter. Dougal proposed the Pea and Pesto Soup, and whilst I’d been harbouring fantasies of sending him off to work with a flaskful of steaming soup, the lack of thermos and the fact that I leave considerably after D meant I had to concede we were as well to just cook the recipe.
I dunno whether Nigella hand peels her peas before cooking, or whether ‘proper’ blenders really are different to food processors (we even used the liquid blending attachment this time!). Either way, this is the second blended soup we’ve made that has rather failed to cut the mustard. It was a bit thin- some stock wouldn’t have gone amiss- and the pesto was too distant a flavour. I was rather sad to have given this to D’s Mum and Dad, particularly when they could have had the delights of the Chowder from the other night. Such is life, I suppose.
Is that one of those Le Creuset pots? I have the flame colour in a covered bean pot, which I love.
We have a gigantic flask for taking coffee on trips we dubbed Therminator because of its sheer massiveness.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool Le Creuset fan. My parents got a big collection of the cast iron stuff, I assume as wedding presents, so I’ve grown up with them. I own two of the casserole ‘coquette’ dishes, an 18cm one and a 20cm one. I wish they still did gratin dishes in cast iron but seemingly they are now only available as stoneware, one of which Dougal’s mummy very kindly bought us last week. I have the Volcano colour range, which is what I’ve always known. I figure it’s a safe bet too, seeing as it is the traditional range. The pricing means I have to buy them one at a time, waiting patiently for the sale….they’re not going to suddenly throw me by withdrawing the range! It does however mean that they are much less frequently on offer than the other colours!
I think that colour is called “Flame” in the States. They occasionally have them at TJ Maxx (a store which sells old stock or slightly “off” name brand merchandise cheaply), which is where I’ve gotten the ones we own. My dad’s cast iron was passed down to him from his grandparents and was made sometime in the late 1800s, so I grew up with somewhat grotty looking cast iron, not the pretty LC stuff. Worked well, though. Currently waiting to find a dutch oven cheaply. Will probably be waiting a while.
I have a quantity of ramekins in a red gradient and a green gradient, I have yet to make custards or puddings in them, however. I think I bought them to bake bread around for bread bowls or something - memory is fuzzy there.
They really are hellishly expensive at retail.
Surely TK Maxx? We have that here…they can’t have a one initial difference across the pond?
Is it definitely orange? There is a range called Cerise here too….Flame sounded so red, but I suppose orange is every bit as likely.