Kitchen Musings by Ophelia

Curried Mushroom with a grilled vegetable sandwhich

(a pizza dough baguette fresh from the oven in the background)

This soup is tangy in its mildest rendition, and just gets hotter, depending on the strength of the curry used. You can also dust with cayenne pepper for added tastebud tingling. Nowadays we can always find a variety of marvelous wild mushrooms, even int he supermarket. Use what is available. For the dried mushrooms, I like the mix of oyster, morel, and porcini, but a cup of any single variety can be substituted. Garnish with chopped parsley if you can't find chervil.

Ingredients
2 cups boiling water1 cup assorted dried oyster, morel and porcini mushrooms

(1 ounce dried mushrooms)Light vegetable oil cooking spray

1 1/2 cups chopped leek, white part only (2-3 leeks)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon curry powder

4 cups skim milk

1 chicken bouillon cube

2 cups chopped fresh portobello mushrooms (3 smallish mushrooms)

4 cups chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms (10-12 mushrooms)

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 tablespoon chooped chervil

Preparations:
Pour the boiling water over the dried mushrooms in a bowl and set aside to soak.

Preheat a heavy stockpot over medium heat for about 1 minute, then spray it twice with the vegetable oil. Add the leeks and saute' for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until translucent. Add the flour and curry powder. Stir with a wooden spoon until the leeks are well coated. Add the milk and bouillon cube. Raise the heat to high and cook just until bubbles begin to form around the edge.

Reduce the heat to low and whisk until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Stir in the fresh mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the reconstituted mushrooms from their soaking liquid, strain, squeeze out excess moisture,a nd roughly chop. (Save the soaking liquid for another soup or sauce; here it would thin the soup too much and curdle the skim milk.) Add to the stockpot and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the cherry.

Garnish with the chopped chervil.

There you go, I took this recipe from the cookbook of one of my favorite lady chefs, Rosie Daley. I've had cooked this several times and each time I asked for more. Try it and you'll surely like it.

I wish all my friends and visitors great days ahead. Take care Bloggers! and Blog on!

Sincerely,

Ophelia

e e cummings

Miranda, 1916 by John William Waterhouse

One of my favorite major American poets is E.E Cummings. He was known for his disregard of the use of uppercase letters. One Cummings scholars believes that on the occasions Cummings signed his name in all-lowercase, the poet may have intended it as a gesture of humility, and not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use for his name. Herein I am delighted to share with you two of my favorite poems by E.E Cummings.

stand with your lover on the ending earth-

and while a(huge which by which huger than

huge) whoing sea leaps to greenly hurl snow

suppose we could not love,dear;imagine

ourselves like living neither nor dead these

(or many thousand hearts which don't and dream

or many million minds which deep and move)

blind sands,at pitiless the mercy of

time time time time time

-how fortunate are you and i, whose home

is timelessness:we who have wondered down

from fragrant mountains of eternal now

to frolic in such mysteries as birth

and death a day(or maybe even less)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Solitude by John Everett Millais

Yours Truly

Have great weekend ahead bloggers!!! Poetically Yours, Ophelia (God knows why I got encased in here...lol!) Huggsssss and kissesssss Bloggersssssss!!!!