We’re currently working on translating all the recipes here to Swedish and adding them to a separate blog with just recipes so that my fellow Swedes don’t have to do lots of crappy translating. When I started speaking English on a daily basis (that is, when Alex moved in with me) I quickly discovered I was nowhere near fluent in kitchen English ( a typical session of cooking would go ‘Alex can you hand me that.. thing. I need it for this.. thing. You know the thing? For the thing?). I’ve picked up a lot since then and now know most of the necessities of cooking English. No more lying awake at night thinking about what a colander is or trying to understanding what all those weird sounding spices were. I thought the word for whisk was whip since you used it for whipping cream. Anyway, so we’re translating things at the moment. We’re also trying to get an index together of all the recipes on here. So that’s taking quite a bit of our time at the moment.

I found a bag of organic Jerusalem artichoke tubers for almost no money at all (less than a dollar or 50 pence) and so decided to make us some delicious soup. I love this creamy sophisticated soup so much but we rarely get to eat it because Jerusalem artichokes are usually ridiculously expensive. Being on a tight budget usually doesn’t allow this kind of luxurious food. I sprinkled some store bought ‘bacon’ bits on top and served it with some nice white bread on the side.

Jerusalem artichoke soup: Serves 2

• 250 g (1/4 lb) Jerusalem artichoke tubers
• 3 small potatoes
• 1 smallish garlic clove
• ½ tbsp oil
• 1 dl (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) white wine / cooking wine
• 250 ml (1 cup) water
• 1 stock cube
• 150 ml light cooking ‘cream’ (half and half? Mine’s 5% fat but light cream or medium would work too)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tsp thyme

Peel the artichoke tubers and the potatoes. Chop into smallish pieces. Mince the garlic. In a medium pot sautée the potatoes, tubers and garlic in the oil. Add wine and boil for about a a minute. Add water and stock cube and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until everything is soft and a bit ‘mushy’. With a handheld mixer or a blender, mix the soup until smooth. Add back to the pot and add the ‘cream’. Heat. Add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with a nice bread and maybe some ‘bacon’ bits (they’re so good!).