Sunchoke (aka: Jerusalem Artichoke) Soup; the update

It’s been a busy week, chez nous.

Actually, they’re all busy, but this one had photo-graphical accomplishments.

I bet you forgot about my kitchen, still missing the majority of the cabinet doors.

More doors were added this week.

And, finally, my oven is ‘built in’ rather than hanging around all exposed.

Tile is being laid in the den. We’re using the same tile as in the kitchen and hall.

The radiator has been painted black because mon mari will build a wooden ‘house’ for it, and the black won’t show through.

Actually, I think he just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, inhaling spray paint……

He didn’t much like it.  Guess he’s too old for that sort of fun.

Naturally, whenever a new project is started, more mysteriously appear to be handled first.

Like when all the sand fell out of the door frame.

Our house is built out of huge limestone blocks.  Whenever he tries to look behind the wood door frames, etc, which all seem loose, sand dribbles out.  He jiggled out and swept up 2 huge buckets of sand from either side of this door frame.  Yes, it’s a deep wall.
The door frame is now more firmly in place.  To say that it’s attached would be wishful thinking.

Two of the rooms (we have 4 rooms) have these built in cabinets.

They’re cut into the stone walls so are really quite deep.  The bad news is they are so filthy we considered just walling them over.  The other bad news is when we decided to keep them we thought they could just be cleaned up.

We were, as so often happens with this house, wrong.

The good news is, with just a minimum of stripping the wood is turning out to be gorgeous.

The above is the ‘before’ photo.  There is no ‘after’ yet.   Another work in progress.

And now, must dash off.  We’ve joined an evening conversation class, consisting of English speakers speaking French and French speakers speaking English.

Tower of Babel?

I leave you with the easiest soup i’ve made in yonks (another bewildering British expression)

In case you’re unfamiliar with the topinambour (Jerusalem artichoke, sunchoke) this is what the little gnarly things look like:

And this is what the soup looks like….. Drizzled with a bit of truffle oil to finish:

Now, here’s the easy part:

Sunchoke Soup

10oz sunchokes, Jerusalem artichokes,  5 or 6 medium
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
Trufle oil to finish

Peel sunchokes, cut into chunks and immediately put into chicken stock.  They discolor fast.  Cover, bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.  Purée in blender or use an immersion blender. Ladle into soup plates, garnish with truffle oil and serve.

Not everything has to be difficult.

One would think of all the things one could add to this soup: herbs, onion, bacon….

All would be good.

Sometimes, just letting the veg star on it’s own is good, too.