Courgettes for Soup and Oregano

The last day of September. The dog barked in my face to wake me up at 7am. Sleep had been limited as I was still buzzing from an epic evening in a nearby Spa town. Familiar locations had been visited but they were given a new and exciting twist.

As I'm an avid cricket fan I often use cricket phrases in my everyday conversation. Therefore as there was heavy rain I decided to take an early lunch as no play outdoors, in this case walking my Terrier, was possible during the morning. I also had guests on powerful motorbikes to entertain for a brief spell in the afternoon before I headed out for a catch up with some of my oldest friends.

All things considered as well as having an early lunch I decided to make some soup using four locally sourced Courgettes. These ones were quite small and the experts tell me that this means they taste sweeter. I am not the biggest fan of cooked Courgettes but they are good in soup I must admit. Otherwise I prefer them raw with salad.

On the player was Deep Purple's controversial 1969 classical crossover "Concerto for Group and Orchestra". When my dad was a student in the early seventies he shared a house with, among others, a chap who owned this record. My Dad was not impressed with it. However once you pierce the fairly unadventurous classical compositions you find that the raw power of the nascent second incarnation of the band is well in evidence. Also, outside of the concerto piece there is an early version of the classic "Child in Time" and a powerful  rendition of the original band's "Wring that Neck". Both these songs are worth the price of the album alone.

The ingredients of the soup were as follows:

4 topped, tailed and sliced Courgettes.
1 topped, tailed and thinly sliced White Onion
1 tablespoon of Black Pepper
1 tablespoon of dried Basil
1 tablespoon of dried Oregano.
Quarter of a Pint of Black Tower White Wine.
Half a pint of Vegetable Stock.
Olive Oil.

I sweated the Courgettes, Onions and the Herbs in my trusty Le Cresceut Dish with some Olive Oil for twenty minutes on a medium heat on the hob. I kept the lid on during this process to ensure the ingredients cooked more quickly.

I then added all the White Wine and simmered everything for another 30 minutes keeping the lid on.

After that I added the Vegetable Stock simmered the ingredients for another 20 minutes, this time with the lid off the Le Cresceut.

I then left the food to cool for two hours and blended it before serving it.

The Black Tower White Wine has a strong and rich taste that almost makes it as potent as Red Wine. In this case it served to make the soup rich while the Basil and Oregano enhanced the sweetness of the Courgettes.

Green grows the soup- ready to eat and bubbling brightly.