I spent some time on the old internet this morning. Reading blog to blog, tweet to tweet, I ended up with a serious craving for a poached egg (done in swirly water) served on toast. That was breakfast.

Later on, I came across Jamie Oliver’s recipe for asparagus soup, served with…. poached egg on ciabatta! Here’s the recipe and a picture of what it is supposed to look like: Creamy Asparagus Soup with a Poach Egg.  Here’s how mine evolved:

First, I started with a bunch of white onion, leeks and celery:

Next, I added chopped asparagus, and a litre of chicken broth:

If you are doing this at home, your pot should now look like this:

Yes, like a swamp. Because leeks are stringy sorts of things, when you lift the spoon out of the pot, bits of onion and leek stick to the spoon, and it is quite swamp-like and creepy.

While stirring you might day dream of zooming along the top of your asparagus soup in an air boat …

 

…or not.  When you are done, you give the soup a good whir with a whizzer. However, my whizzer became clogged with swamp sludge, so I dug out the blender, and blended it until it looked like this:

Next, came the egg on ciabatta. It takes a bit of guts and resolve to poach an egg in simmering water, especially when bits of egg white like to escape the clutches of the yolk, and swim around in the water like ghosts. I girded my loins, and ended up with this lovely, perfectly poached egg on my toasted ciabatta:

Michael’s egg, on the other hand, seemed to take on water, so when he happily pierced his egg, it gushed water and soaked a corner of his toast. Luckily, we were eating alfresco, and the water was unceremoniously drained over the balcony railing to the lawn below.

(Interruption: Had to break for Coronation Street. Not sure about you, but if I were at home in my hoity-toity apartment condo, shouting with an ex-lover about a murder of my most recent lover, and had a bloke sprawled on the living room floor as the result of a blow to the head from a wrought iron candle stick, and who was also bleeding all over my expensive carpet, I would at least shut the door to the hallway so the neighbours couldn’t hear or see what was going on).

Back to food. Jamie Oliver’s website also offered up this tasty recipe, titled The Best Pasta Salad. Click the link for a visual and recipe. I had to adjust the recipe slightly on account of not finding yellow cherry tomatoes or chives at the Italian Centre Shop. The end result was pretty to look at, and very delicious.

This brings us to the end of a busy day of chopping, simmering, stirring and whirring. A toast to all you readers, with a charming glass of Chateau La Grave, Minervois Expression. A tasty blush that suited today’s fare quite nicely. This was one of the French offerings from my subscription from Hemispheres Wine Guild.