今日は旧正月。香港でもシンガポールでも旧正月はどこも近くのリゾート地はとても小さな子供連れのご家族で混雑するのであまり出かけず、家にいることが多かったのですが、欧米の方はそれぞれの国に帰られる方が多く、現地の方も旅行に出る方が多く、いつもは賑わう場所もとても静かで、夫とのんびりと過ごすのも結構好きでした。
Happy Chinese New Year! When we were living in Hong Kong and Singapore (specially in Hong Kong, where they have longer CNY holiday) most of the time we would stay home rather than going to a resort because all the resorts nearby were very busy with families with children. The majority of western people went back to their countries and a large number of the local people were also away on holidays, so the usually busy places were very quiet and I used to enjoy spending a quiet few days with my husband.
今日の夕食は、ちょっと久しぶりな気がするミネストローネでした。今日入れたのは、ニンニク、玉ねぎ、セロリ、人参、ポテト、キャベツ、缶トマト。お野菜は切っては入れるスタイル、ストウブのお鍋に入れてオリーブオイルとお塩を少し絡めては蓋をして蒸し焼きにし、次が切れたらまた足して行き、全部入ったら缶詰のトマトをいくつか入れて強火でしばらく炒めてからお水とスープストック（オーガニックの野菜ストック）を加えて、ポテトをゴロゴロと大きく切って加え、月桂樹の葉を入れて沸騰したら蓋をしてポテトが柔らかくなるまで煮て、薄めの味付けのところに隠し味のお味噌を加えて出来上がりです。盛り付けてから、パルメジャーのチーズを削り入れます。お野菜を蒸し焼きにしておくと甘みが出て美味しくなるように思います。
Today’s evening meal was Minsetrone, I think we hadn’t had it for quite a wihle. We used garlic, onion, celery, carrot, potato & tin tomatoes. We cut one vegetable, put it in a heavy pan (we use Staub) after putting some olive oil, added some salt, stirred and put the lid on so the vegetable would sort of steam until we put in the next vegetable. This way, I feel the vegetables release sweet flavours. After we added all the vegetables (except potatoes), we put in a few tomatoes from a tin, stirred it over quite a high heat for a good few minutes, then added water, soup stock powder (organic vegetable stock). We then added potatoes (cut in large pieces), a couple of bay leaves, put the lid on after it came up to the boil and cooked until the potatoes were very soft – then we lightly crushed the potatoes. We then added a little miso (not enough to be able to tell there is some miso, it’s meant to just add depth, it’s not totally necessary), checked the seasonings and it was done. After pouring into bowls we grated on some Parmesan cheese.
