Back with an Ad Hock Soup.....

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

I'm back! Right back where I began actually. Back from yet another trip to Side, my favourite Turkish town, with a suitcase full of cheap fags and an empty bank account. Teeth fixed up beautifully by Halile the sainted dentist (again), ate and drank too much (again), went white water rafting for the first time (never again!). I am happy, relaxed, tanned and skint. So very, very skint.

I ate so well in Side but the highlight was definitely Emir's Pansion where we ate the best meze and fabulously fresh fish and lamb followed by perfectly ripe, fresh fruit for about a tenner a head. On two of the occasions we ate Chez Emir he brought us gorgeous soups which I am determined to recreate at home. One was lamb and runner bean, the other lamb and okra, both were soooo rich and simple and good I could have eaten a pan full.

So off to the cut price vegetable section in the supermarket where I found a big bag of mixed carrot, turnip, leek and onion (20p), a bag of chillis (20p) and a bunch of coriander (12p) and fashioned a lovely soup out of them with a bit of cooked ham out of the freezer. Essentially carrot and coriander, but the ham definitely improves it! Nothing at all like Emir's, but that's for another day. A day when runner beans or okra can be found in the reduced section.

Ad Hock soup

1 bag soup mix veg (carrots, leeks, parsips & onions)
1 clove garlic
1 chilli, chopped
2 tsp Marigold stock (or Kuckarek stock, which I think I prefer these days and is very cheap!)
Small bunch of coriander
200g cooked, smoked ham hock

Sweat the veg and garlic in some olive oil at medium high heat for ten minutes, add everything but the coriander plus 4 cups or so of water, bring to boil and simmer for 45 mins, add coriander, liquidise.