A hot crisp soup for a cold crisp day

Mrs P. was on annual leave today. When, like today, it is dry, sunny and crisply cold, she hears the call of the garden. Today was the first real day of spring pottering for her. A chance to start tidying, cutting, nurturing and generally getting back on speaking terms with the garden and its contents.

A lazy bedroom morning gave way to the donning of sweatshirts and sensible shoes, secateurs were brandished, and the day’s work began.

I kept busy in the kitchen, doing small, comforting things like taking the leftover meat off a chicken carcase and making chicken stock. I thought about making a thick, rustic orangey-coloured soup (Parsnip? Red lentil? Carrot? Butternut Squash?).

But the brightness of the day demanded something clearer, something with some green and crunch. I already had some bean sprouts in the fridge, so Chinese soup it was…

Mr King’s Chinese Supermarket in Hornsey Road closed a couple of months ago, so I had to go further afield for my ingredients. All the way to Michael’s Greengrocers just before the Nag’s Head. Michael is happy to sell Chinese veg loose so I could pick just a couple of small crispy bok choi and a sprig of Chinese mustard greens. A bunch of spring onions went into my basket, and a handful of both sugar snap peas and tiny button chestnut mushrooms completed the foray. Fresh garden peas would have been lovely, but as it’s still a little early frozen ones will have to suffice.

The soup barely has a recipe. Like most oriental dishes the preparation is all. Take off the green leaves of the Bok Choi, roll them up and shred them to the width of tagliatelle. Cut the rest of the bok choi, the sugar snaps and mustard greens across on the bias in generous pieces. Top and tail the spring onions and slice them likewise. Halve the button mushrooms. Take a handful of peas from the freezer. Find some choice morsels of leftover chicken that your wife has not already snaffled for a sandwich. Open the bag of bean sprouts. Warm a couple of soup bowls. Bring the chicken stock to the boil.

To Cook: Throw the frozen peas and chicken bits into the boiling stock, and wait till it comes back to the boil. When it does, add the spring onions and the mushrooms. Give them a minute then lob in the sugar snaps. Another minute and the bok choi leaves and stems can go in, along with the mustard greens. After a couple of minutes switch off the pot! Put a handful of bean sprouts into each warm bowl, and ladle out the soup, making sure you get all the chickeny bits. A generous splash of Thai fish sauce really makes this dish.

And that was it. Our first lunch in the garden this year.