For a hot day

I thought that pork soup would be just the thing for lunch yesterday: something keep hydration levels up through the heat of day. Precedent was sought and found at reference 1.

Proceedings started at 11:10 with 5oz of pearl barley in five pints of water, measured on this occasion with a pint glass, rather than relying on the markings inside the stock pot. Brought to the boil and then turned down to simmer.

Added 1lb 1.5oz of coarsely chopped pork tenderloin at 12:30.

A couple of large onions, peeled and coarsely chopped, added at 12:40.

On this occasion, no white cabbage, rather an elderly Savoy cabbage. A modest amount of discard, then the balance cut into strips, of the order of half an inch by two inches in size. Added at 12:50.

A few mushrooms, sourced at around 08:00 that very morning from our Costcutter. In the heat, an easy win over Waitrose. Caps and coarsely chopped stalks added right at the end.

Served, with his and hers bread, at 13:05. We did around half of it. Some stewed plums to wind up the proceedings.

By which time, BH informed us that her telephone said that the temperature had reached 29°C. My first contribution being that Samsung probably concocted this figure by some kind of average from various readings from various places round about. Very unreliable.

My second contribution was to visit the roof of our garage, where the thermometer recorded 87°F, which both Google and Bing told me was between 30° and 31°C. 

A thermometer which is probably a few years older than I am and still legible under telephonic zoom, if not to the naked eye. So allowing for extra heat under the flat roof, maybe Samsung was about right, after all.

Afternoon rounded off by a successful game of Scrabble. Successful both in that I won and that we broke the 600 point barrier again at 620 points. A victory down, in no small part, to the relaxed attitude of our Longman's dictionary to short interjections, for example 'pah'.

The stray 'T' left being what BH was left with when I went out. A modest penalty of 2 points which made no difference to the outcome.

The remains of the soup, augmented by a few more mushrooms, served well enough today, although the cabbage had gone a bit soggy overnight. Followed by tinned salmon salad instead of stewed plums. Being a bit fastidious about tinned salmon, I had discarded all the bits and bobs, and then stirred the pink flesh into a little white rice. Plus some olive oil and a little freshly ground black pepper, to give a little kick to it.

With the result contrasting favourably with the tinned pilchards in tomato sauce of both our childhoods. Last sampled in some rather grim sandwiches served by the naval aunt in Gosport; sandwiches which added insult to injury in the form of generous dollops of margarine on the sliced white. We just about managed to get them down.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/04/pork-soup.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/over-hill.html. The last of a short burst of high scoring games earlier in the year.