taking care of the place
apple a day
Saturday night, home with the one I love. We cycled over to the Korean grocers’ in the freezing cold mist to get ingredients and I made soto ayam, my favourite Javanese chicken soup from childhood. He is nutting something out for himself on the guitar. I read him something I had written earlier, while he was shredding the chicken. Then we lay down for a while in silence and after a long time I said, want to hear the song I wrote on my phone the other day? I can’t remember how it goes. And he listened to it and then said, Cathoel just drop the ‘& the New Government’ and publish your songs as Cathoel. I said, but why? It’s my favourite band name of all time! And so then he told me why, mentioning some features of what he hears in my voice that made me curl my toes with delight.
The song, I tell him, reading off the tiny screen, is called In the Human Senses of the Word. He closes his eyes. Outside the window it is silent and completely dark. I can see a few lights on in a few other houses. What’s your day like right now? Catch me up.
19 comments on “apple a day”
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My Mum’s Birthday today. This coming March will be 4 years since she died. I hope all is well in your world Cathoel x
Your reply made me have tears; It is an important day though.
Oh, Kate. What a sad and important day. Thank you for sharing it. I wish you peace and hope you’re feeling ok x
Oh but this is lovely. It’s been an emotional day for me, but this evening has been very nice…just the day to day comforting things with loved ones, like you two making soup. The boys and I walked out in the cold and lively streets and got a takeaway, then we watched the Jungle Book and I kept saying, how can you not remember the story when I read it to you so often? But we really enjoyed the film…it’s an important book for me as my dad read Kipling to me and I remember it unlike my own lot :)
Sunday morning coming down… from a lovely day yesterday… and it is back to reality, mowing, gardening and some serious vegetable organising.
I’d love to visit your garden, one day, Jane.
Mmm like.
Love it!
I like it!
Lying about with the kids in front of a fan with mango and banana frappes. Feels like a storm coming but we could be cheated again. Did a shift at the cafe, very sore and tired. Feeling old, the baristas are all kids.
Ahhh the tropics! the sweltering, lying about, sweating, mango scented tropics. Hope you got your storm. My Berliner here had never seen a tropical storm before the one that struck when we were in Brisbane and he thought it was possibly the end of the world.
Have an awesome day you …..PEARLS !!
You’re so lovely, Erna. Wishing you a glorious week.
I like it.
Lovely thoughts, Cathoel. I am in downsizing mode as we plan on selling our home in spring and finding smaller, less expensive and less fussy quarters. Hope you are well. Love reading your entries.
What a conscious, appreciative thing to be doing, Laura. Thanks for your kind words. It makes me curious too to wonder what kinds of things you are keeping, what kinds of things you are finding you can throw away.
Hey what’s the recipe for the chicken!
fran
Here’s the one I used. As the author points out, there are as many recipes as there are provinces, or even villages, and this is the first time I’ve met coconut milk in this context. It was damn fine! From a website called dailycookingquest.
Soto Ayam Kediri – Kediri Chicken Soup
Author: Daily Cooking Quest
Cuisine: Indonesian
Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 30 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
3 tablespoon oil
2 stalks lemongrass (Indonesian: sereh), bruised and knotted
5 kaffir lime leaves (Indonesian: daun jeruk)
1 free range chicken, cut into 4 pieces
6 cups water
1½ tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
500 ml coconut milk
Grind the following into spice paste
10 asian shallots (Indonesian: bawang merah), about 125 gram
8 cloves garlic (Indonesian: bawang putih)
1 inch ginger (Indonesian: jahe)
5 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (Indonesian: bubuk kunyit)
1 teaspoon toasted shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi bakar)
Garnish and accompaniments
4 servings of glass noodle (Indonesian: sohun), cooked according to packet instruction
200 gram potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes and boiled until tender
4 hard boiled eggs, half each
lime wedges
thinly sliced Chinese celery (Indonesian: daun seledri)
deep fried shallot flakes (Indonesian: bawang goreng)
Instructions
Heat oil in a soup pot and fry spice paste, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves until fragrant, about 4-5 minutes.
Add chicken pieces, mix well, and cook until no longer pink.
Add water, salt, and ground white pepper. Mix well, bring to a boil. Cover the pot, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked and tender.
Remove the chicken from the broth. Once they are cool enough to handle, tear the meat to small shreds and discard the bones. Set the shredded chicken meat aside.
Add coconut milk to the broth, mix well, and bring to a boil. Turn off heat as soon as it reaches boiling point.
To serve, divide glass noodles, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and shredded chicken into 4 serving bowls. Garnish each bowl with a slice of lime wedge.
Good to see(read?) you happy m’dear. It’s a happy time for me and mine also; my beautiful, intelligent and kind hearted daughter has just graduated and gone to her Formal, dressed in a stunning full-length blue sequined gown. Ah there was a tear in her old Dad’s eye that night I can tell you.
Ha! But I guess my work is done, already I seem to hear David Attenboroughs narration..”Now the mighty ambulatory seed-pod falls to the forest floor. It’s work finished in its species complicated reproductive cycle, its’ inert form becomes merely a source of protein for the larval swarm..”etc.
Enough babble! Stay happy!