Day 9 - Brunch and Other Things

After too few hours sleep thanks to work last night I dragged myself from my bed and met one of my oldest friends for a civilised brunch affair.  We went to one of my favourite places, The Wet Fish Cafe, and I ordered the 'Bubble & Squeak, Poached Eggs, Crispy Pancetta, Sausage & Hollandaise Sauce'.  I thought since it's quite a feast I could do as the name suggests and combine my breakfast and lunch intake.  There was a slightly embarrassing moment when the waiter said that they were out of 'bubble' leading P and I to discuss which part of the potato and cabbage concoction the bubble would be and would I therefore just get a potato cake or pile of cabbage. I have since discovered that 'Bubble' is simply a shortened name of the entire thing.  The 'bubble' part is likely because the ingredients are first boiled - giving us the bubbles, and then it is fried producing the squeaking noise, hence the second half of the name. Oh the shame.  Anyway, in the end they had enough 'bubble' to go around so it joined the rest of the awesomeness on my plate. It was delicious and I wish I could depict it here in all its glory but I was so ravenous photos were forgotten.  Having stuffed ourselves well and truly  P and I returned to Chez Fisher for a cup of tea.  All in all a very lovely way to spend a Saturday morning.

After P had left, Gerry returned home from making TV magic and we both promptly fell asleep on the sofa.  I had intended on watching 'Did You Hear About the Morgans?', which to my credit I did start but it was so truly awful that I fast forwarded through the end and hit my snooze button.  SJP and Hugh Grant should be ashamed of themselves for that effort.
Awaking at 6pm, I put the brain into gear for dinner.  I wanted something quite light but comforting. I checked the fridge and came up trumps with half a squash, a small sweet potato and some sweetcorn.  Soup it was.

I fried up half an onion with garlic in oil until translucent and then added diced squash and sweet potato.  I sautéed this for around 8 mins just to soften it up a little and then added a pint of stock, 100ml of milk and a pinch of basil.  I simmered this for around 15mins until the veg were tender and chucked in the sweetcorn for the last 3 mins until cooked through.  Off the heat and all whizzed together.  It was actually really nice, quite fragrant from the sweet potato but Gerry said was a winner.  Once again I have created culinary magic from ingredients in my fridge. Hurrah!!

Sweetcorn, Sweet Potato & Squash Soup