Boum! Standard time and garlic soup

...and there, we're back in standard time. Just like that. Boum!

Argh. Just like that we're back to November, back to pitch-black rainy mornings and grey afternoons before the snow makes life brighter again in the North. Depressing?

A bit, yes.

For a while.

But then I remember that November is also for lighting up a fire in the fireplace, and for reading cookbooks before the e-mail in the morning to find inspiration for yet another warming meal with friends in the evening. This is the time for gathering in the kitchen to chop, and to gossip, and to drink red wine while mixing together all those strong and exotic flavours that are too overwhelming for lighter evenings. Time for having soup with freshly baked bread, and to stock the fridge with game and to eat strong cheese in the candle light.

So what if hiding away in colour-filled silence on a sunny bridge is over for now? I'm hiding in my kitchen instead, making garlic soup and roquefort quiche with marsala-stewn mushrooms, herb-filled meatballs and tiramisù rich and delicious enough to chase off any storm or depression. I'm hiding away in my plush new sofa, stealing a glass of marsala from the ridiculously pompous crystal decanter someone brought home from God-knows where. And from here, the darkness outside seems pretty poetic.

This is a soup I've been meaning to try ever since Pitkä posted the recipe in August this year, when summer all of a sudden decided to have had enough of Finland... And on Friday I finally got around to making it. It was as over-the-top tasty and creamy as you could ever imagine, and it is absolutely perfect for a rainy evening with friends and candles.



Garlic soup

3 entire garlics
2 onions
2 table spoons olive oil
1/2 decilitre all-purpose flour
9 decilitres vegetable broth
2 decilitres single cream
freshly ground black pepper and chopped flat-leaf parsley to serve

Peel the garlic cloves and the onions, and chop the onions finely. Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan and fry the whole garlic cloves and the chopped onions lightly before mixing in the flour. Add the broth and let the soup simmer over low heat for about 30 or 40 minutes. Finally, purée the softened garlic cloves and mix in the cream. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and chopped flat-leaf parsly and serve steaming hot with a slice of fresh bread.