It's just not pretty

What's the ugliest vegetable? Celeriac certainly has to be a contender, and it fails to meet my basic quality test: if it comes out of the ground, it should be a potato.
So what do with a hideous tuber that I don't like? Turn it into soup, of course, because I don't like soup anyway, so making it out of celeriac couldn't make it any worse.
A bit of vague googling gave me the courage to plunge in with a celeriac, ginger and carrot soup.


2 onions
some oil
4 carrots
1 medium-sized celeriac ... what - head? bulb? lump, I think
a chunk of ginger, about 2 cubic inches
1 ltr chicken stock approx (actually the full of one tub formerly used to hold biological washing tablets)
I chopped the onion finely, then gently fried in the oil while putting the carrots, celeriac and ginger through the grating attachment of my minifoodprocessor (thank you, mother-in-law!)
This I added to the onion, stirred it all up and then added the stock and left to simmer.
When all the veg was soft, I whizzed it up with my soup-gun and seasoned it.
Hmm, not offensive, but a bit dull.
So I decided to experiment a bit - remember tarka dal, for which the 'tarka' is a lovely spicey butter mixture? I melted some butter and added minced garlic and cumin. When that had foamed up and smelt delicious, I stirred it into the soup.
It worked beautifully, I'm happy to tell you, though it was even nicer reheated for lunch, with a splash of tabasco sauce to spice it up.

PS Don't ask about the new oven. Please, just don't ask.

Slow progress

Things have been quiet on the blog front for me recently. This is not due to lack of commitment but because we have been MOVING HOUSE. For me, of course, the main excitement of this is that we have a new kitchen. No longer a little windowless box with a crappy electric stove with only three burners working, but a proper room with a table and chairs, a breakfast bar (where I am now perched), two windows, and a five burner gas hob!
We had the hob installed about two weeks ago and are now waiting for a new oven because the door on incumbent was smashed by the previous occupant of the house. He told us he sat on it, but the fact that the outside glass panel is shattered and the bin next to it has a huge dent leads me to suspect he lost his temper and laid waste to things.
Moving house is very stressful. Luckily for me and my belongings, when I'm stressed, I just weep for a bit then have a cup of coffee and cheer up.
Anyway, expect more posts soon as I learn my way around the new facilities!