There is a Portugese folk story of the wily beggar who gets the most miserly woman in the village to supply him with the ingredients for a delicious soup from what she alleges is an empty larder. He claims to be able to make the soup from nothing but a magic stone and some water. A carrot, some seasoning, the odd onion or hambone that she might find discarded at the back of her larder would make it even more delicious… in some versions he even manages to sell her the stone after they have drunk the soup!
Some people take this as a parable about co-operation in difficult circumstances. I see it as a serving suggestion.
When you find yourself contemplating an empty fridge, it’s easy to give up and order pizza, but when your bank account is in the parlous state mine is in, and you pride yourself on your ability to produce good food, it’s time to implement the stone soup system.
My magic stone that transforms the scraps into an edible dish is pen and paper. A hunk of dried cheddar, the remains of some chicken gravy from the weekend, some slightly sweaty mushrooms: this are not inspiring to look at, but write down the list without the descriptions, add anything you may have in the freezer or store cupboard, and the likelihood is that you will be inspired. Even if it were just a dried out chunk of cheddar, a little bit of butter and milk and some frozen peas, that could be turned into a passable macaroni cheese with the aid of some nutmeg and a bayleaf.
Tonight’s list, after I had thrown out the soggy tomato, drooping carrot and a half and the remains of an elderly salsa, consisted of: spring onions, cream, créme fraîche, parsely, stewed plums and (in the freezer) some prawns.
The results you can see above - at least the main course. I had gobbled the plums and cream before I thought of preserving their image for posterity!
1 comment:
Unfortunately your story about stone soup reminded me of a 'muddy puddle soup'served up for me and a couple of friends by someone known to both of us. Let's call him Dear. I had made a delicious stew and served it the previous night with creamy mashed potato and peas. The following day there was a bit of rich gravy left at the bottom of the casserole, enough mashed potatoes to make a few potato cakes and some peas. Yummy I thought. I'll get cracking on the potato cakes. However when I got to the kitchen I realised I had been beaten to the leftovers and a soup was being concucted with everything lashed in the casserole with some added water. It can only be described as looking like the contents of a muddy puddle and it didn't taste much better either (not helped by the bitter taste in my mouth).
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