akirlu: (Default)
Ulrika ([personal profile] akirlu) wrote2005-10-26 11:32 am

Homage to Catatonia

Sleep, chicken soup, and ungodly quantities of echinacea at the onset of symptoms have done it again. I appear to be hale today. Though possibly the lowball of scotch had a hand in it as well, now that I think.

Fridge Raider's Fast Chicken Soup

In a largeish pot over medium heat, melt a generous tablespoon's worth of butter, and add a couple dashes of chili oil. While the butter melts and begins to fizz, chop up a generous handful of baby carrots into 1/8" slices. Toss carrots into the fat and braise while chopping up two stalks of celery, cut lengthwise, into fine slices. Add celery to fat, and stir the lot. Take a large handful of peeled garlic gloves, mash with flat of cleaver, chop up coarse and add to the rest of the braising veggies. Stir. When the carrots just start to brown, add 2 cans chicken stock (or equivalent homemade if handy). While the stock warms up, chop fine and add: half a bunch of chives, half a bunch of chilantro, 2-3 green onions. Toss in the remainder of a bag of frozen shrimp, and a half bag of Trader Joe's frozen Thai Shrimp Gyoza. Heat, stirring occasionally, until Gyoza are warmed through. Taste and add chili oil to taste. Serve with crusty bread, crunchy beer, and the last few episodes of Sports Night. Serves two, but the dog will be shorted on her share of gyoza.

Lately I find that I really prefer soups that have been cooked just to heat through rather than to cook the living blazes out of the vegetables. I really like the brightness of flavor with greens that are still green and celery that retains some crunch. Still, it's really the Thai gyoza and the chili oil that made this soup.

Edit: Obviously not all hale, though. Title edited from "In Praise of Catatonia" to the actual George Orwell reference I'd intended all along.

Shouldn't the title of this entry

[identity profile] del-c.livejournal.com 2005-10-26 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
...be "Homage to Catatonia"?
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Re: Shouldn't the title of this entry

[identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com 2005-10-26 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
It should, of course. That was, in fact, my intent at some point in the vague and fuzzy past before I typed it up, but apparently Eric Blair fell out of my head in the interim. But if I change it now, your comment becomes incomprehensible, or at least cryptic.

[identity profile] cluefairy-j.livejournal.com 2005-10-27 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Damn that sounds good.

[identity profile] shikzoid.livejournal.com 2005-10-27 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
Didn't you know that the Medical Community came up with a(nother) study that says echinacea doesn't work?

(It works for me, too.)
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[identity profile] akirlu.livejournal.com 2005-10-27 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
Could be. The one I know about is the one finding that it doesn't help kids with respiratory illnesses. Since my experience is that: (1)it only helps with colds; (2)it only helps if you megadose absolutely as soon as you've got symptoms and (3)it doesn't help once you're already sick, the finding about kids who already have a respiratory illness surprises me not at all. You've got to have the self-awareness, and autonomy, to start taking large doses the minute you start feeling cold onset, or it won't help.

I also know that the first time I tried it it was with deep skepticism and out of desperation, because I was *certain* that I was about to be desperately ill -- I had swollen tonsils and fever and aches and the whole business -- and I was already on the ground in Palm Springs for a trade show with the uberboss and couldn't call in sick. And the next morning I was absolutely fine. Since nothing else has ever turned that trick for me, I was sold.

[identity profile] shikzoid.livejournal.com 2005-10-27 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
That's exactly how it works for me, too. I'll take two capsules before going to bed if I have a sore throat and the next morning it will be gone.