Lettuce, Pea and Asparagus Soup with Rosebud tea, favourite pan fried chicken and some nice things...

Gorgeous free downloadable botanical prints from poppytalk

A magical kaleidoscope to make

Things in  some of my favourite Etsy shops

Nice  on-line store for literary gifts with good ethos (for every one item you buy they donate a book to a community in need in Africa). Check out the Edgar Allen Poe, Poe-ke dot pouch.

 Lettuce, Pea and Asparagus Soup

Ingredients:

• A head of green lettuce, washed well and roughly chopped
• A bunch of asparagus, the tough stalky part that snaps off when you prepare asparagus to steam will work perfectly here. You can reserve the tender tips for salad or risotto. Cut up into small pieces. If they seem very tough peel first. 
• A cup full of fresh, podded or frozen peas
• A cup full of fresh spinach leaves (or frozen would do)
• Half a litre of hot chicken or vegetable stock
• A medium sized red onion or a couple of shallots, peeled and sliced very finely
• One carrot, peeled and finely sliced
• One small potato, scrubbed and peeled then cut up into small pieces
• A couple of cloves of garlic
• Half a tsp of turmeric
• Sea salt and crushed black pepper
• A little olive oil or butter
• A lemon or lime

Method:

1. Peel and slice the onion and finely and saute until caramelised in a little olive oil or melted butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan.
2. Crush the garlic and saute, being careful not to burn.
3. Add the turmeric and cook out for a couple of minutes, stirring well
4. Add the root vegetables and stir well to combine all the flavours sautéing for a few moments.
5. Finally add the lettuce and spinach leaves and do the same.
6. Pour over the hot stock and season lightly. If using bought stock be careful not to over season as they can be salty.
7. Stir well, bring to the boil and then season.
8. Reduce the heat and cook until the vegetables are all tender enough to blend. You may like to add a little more stock or hot water at this point to get just the right consistency.
9. Remove from the heat. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. We love lemon juice in some soups and I thing it works really well in this case.
10. Blend until smooth and velvety.

This is a delicious summer soup. It's rich and velvety, perfect served with a dollop of sour yoghurt or creme fraiche.

Favourite Pan fried chicken

Ingredients:

• Boneless chicken meat, either breast or thigh meat
• Natural yoghurt
• Dried mint
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Crushed chilli flakes

Method:

1. Place the chicken onto the appropriate meat board. Take a heavy kitchen implement, we have a special metal tenderiser for this but you could improvise. Give the meat a good bashing. Alternatively you could place between layers of kitchen paper or cling film and use a rolling pin or bottle. Apply some pressure to make the chicken as thin as possible without braking up. Cut up into strips. 
2. Put some of the yoghurt into a dish and add the seasoning, mix well. Place the pieces the pieces into the marinade one, by one, coating well. Place in the fridge and leave till required
3. Warm a hot frying pan and cook the chicken pieces until they are cooked through and the yoghurt coating has begun to brown and get a little crunchy and tasty.

...hope you enjoy them...
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