I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #33
A damned fine soup
I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #33
Today’s post is the 33rd of “I eat, I read, I watch,” my column highlighting a solo dinner and my reading and watching accompaniments. Don’t just eat alone - dine solo! You’re worth it. And it’s not hard to do.
Missed earlier instalments? Check out the list at the bottom of the post.
I eat: Moroccan Tomato Soup
This is a soup I’ve made many many times, usually to start a dinner party. It’s a sure hit. No-one can believe how easy it is to make and I often share the recipe.
The soup starts, as everything good does, with sautéing a diced onion in oil, this time with a couple of cloves of garlic in the mix. As that softens, I start compiling the next ingredients: two cups of water and a cup of peanut butter. Getting refrigerated peanut butter out of the jar and into a cup measure is no easy feat. Here’s a trick — I measure out the water in a 4 cup measuring cup, and then put clumps of peanut butter into the cup to displace the water until it shows three cups. This may be obvious to many of you, but it took me a while to sort it out.
Along with the water and peanut butter, I add a can of whole tomatoes, liquid and all. Then comes the seasoning: 2 tsps hot sauce, 1 tsp white vinegar, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chilli pepper, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp pepper (I used pepper corns), and 1 1/2 tsp salt. Bring it to a simmer and then let it cook for 30 minutes or so. Be sure to stir it regularly and turn the heat down if it starts to stick. You don’t want to burn this loveliness! At about 25 minutes, I got the immersion blender out and whirred it all into the smoothest, most luxurious soup. Oh, and got a slice of bread toasting under the broiler to eat alongside it. Yup, I can live without a toaster but not without an immersion blender. Priorities when kitchen real estate is at a premium!
Gorgeous soup visually and even better to sup. Twenty years before I began making it myself, I was eating this regularly for lunch at Trinity Square Café, next to the Eaton’s Centre and not far from Toronto’s City Hall where I began my career. The Café’s part of a recovery program for people living with mental illness and a decade or so ago I bought their fundraising cookbook letting me make it myself. Check it the Café though if you’re ever downtown. FYI, it’s moved to 56 Queen Street East, still not far from the Eaton’s Centre. For 40 years, it’s been an important part of the downtown lunchtime landscape. Here’s their website: https://www.trinitysquarecafe.ca/
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Origin: Canadian onion, Canadian tomatoes, sadly, we do not produce peanuts… (after posting this saying we don’t grow peanuts, I was corrected - we DO and I will be seeking out Canadian peanut butter right away)
Cost: $3 for 8 meals?
Got a favourite fundraising cookbook recipe? In the Comments below please!
I read: Lies I Told My Sister
Louise Ells is someone I met last year at Eden Mills Writers Festival. She’s a lane changer, so you have her column to look forward to in a few weeks. But today I want to talk about her novel, Lies I Told My Sister.
The action takes place in a hospital emergency waiting room. From there, the protagonist tells the story of her life, her loves, her losses, and her relationship with her sister. The flashbacks allow Ells to hold some info back, artfully dropping enough hints to make you want to read on, and then filling in the gaps later. Written in the first person, it reads like a memoir which suits me fine — memoir is most of what I read these days. Lies is a compelling story written in a easy style. I recommend you pick up a copy. I’d loan you mine, but Louise’s personal inscription is so nice, I don’t want to risk it not coming back to me!
Reading something by a writer you know? Let’s hear about it in the Comments below.
I watch: The Assembly
CBC will always be my first and only love for radio, but its TV offerings can be a bit hit or miss. This one, however, is a big hit for me. The Assembly is a celebrity interview show, but not the usual polished and beautiful hosts lobbing obvious and easy questions to equally polished and beautiful guests. Nope. Here we have a group of autistic and neurodivergent interviewers asking unpredictable, probing, and direct questions to celebrities in a no rules interview. And because of that, the celebrities are an unusual group too; the first was well-known quirky TV host and comedian, Howie Mandel. In the course of his interview, he reveals his own neurodiversity — he suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder. And while I might steer clear of saying he “suffers” from it, he made a big point of saying that he DOES suffer. That he’d have an easier life without OCD. Great interview. Will surely watch the rest of the series. Available on CBC Gem.
Got a favourite CBC show? In the Comments below please!
Missed the earlier instalments of this column? Click:
#1 (pork chop & green beans)
#2 (trout & veg)
#3 (shrimp pepper bisque)
#4 (rice & peas with coleslaw)
#5 (ramen)
#6 (burger & fries)
#7 (duck sausage & salad),
#8 (shrimp & veg with pasta)
#9 (Wigilia)
#10 (mushroom shepherds pie)
#11 (roasted veg and sausage)
#12 (leftovers)
#13 (garlic shrimp with rapini on egg noodles)
#14 (beef stew)
#15 (salmon mac and cheese)
#16 (salmon cakes and ragout)
#17 (pork tenderloin, red cabbage, potatoes)
#18 (pulled turkey and salad)
#19 (almond butter chicken korma)
#20 (lobster tacos with asparagus)
#21 (rainbow trout, garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted asparagus)
#22 (pork tenderloin and black-truffle infused egg noodles with fresh asparagus)
#23 (grilled halloumi with roasted asparagus and mushroom salad)
#24 (savoury bread pudding)
#25 (Kung Pao chicken)
#26 (tofu, pepper, and shiitake stir fry on rice)
#27 (stuffed zucchini)
#28 (pulled duck tacos with cauliflower-stuffed red pepper)
#29 (Slow Cooker Chicken and Creamed Corn)
#30 (Beef stew with apple juice)
#31 (Eggs, Eggs, and More Eggs!)
#32 (Creamed Salmon on Sourdough)
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