Ok, so I may have just this second finished writing one blog, but I may/may not (definitely have) consumed two entire packets of mentos strawberry and lime sweets and I may/may not (definitely am) experiencing the most innocent of highs, and am therefore unusually motivated to churn out more...(I stopped there, went to bed, and lived in a psychedelic dream world for 8 hours).

Thankfully I have been saved from having to stay true to my glucose-induced productivity by none other than Sir Robert Booth, who has managed to rustled up this little number, without actually rustling anything at all. Not even any dry leaves:

Before you get excited, this isn’t Polly.

This is Rob Booth, educated at the too-much-spare-time and nothing-else-to-spend-his-money-on academy of culinary arts and the Iknowmorethanyou Postgraduate School of Taste. Welcome to my first ever guest blog post. Drink it in.

My initial blog concept was thus: my spiced sweet potato and orange soup, Boards of Canada’s track ‘Aquarius’ and Anthony Burgess’ famous novella ‘A Clockwork Orange’ were to be clubbed together in an attempt to enjoy some Gregson style success. In case it isn’t apparent the underlying theme of this combination is the colour orange. I had grand intentions of waxing lyrical on ideas of perception and synaesthesia, as well as documenting that particular frequency of light’s relevance to my lifelong struggle with disability¹. Unfortunately, Polly has already done Burgess’ book on this blog, and not knowing any other worthy books featuring the word ‘orange’ in the title I was left at somewhat of an impasse. Abandon the idea? Go home to mother weeping for what could have been? No, instead, I’ve lazily chosen to carry over 66% per cent of the aforementioned motif and then, having arbitrarily chosen a text, offer a limp and tenuous segue in order to stimulate some semblance of thematic coagulation, in the meantime abandoning all designs on a meditation on the colour orange, exchanging it with this frankly unnecessary meta-ramble. It is a shame my career in blogging must start on such a contrite note but I offer you, in order of edibility;

1.     Spiced sweet potato and orange soup.

2.     ‘Aquarius’ by Boards of Canada.

3.     Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes.

Spiced sweet potato and orange soup.

I’m a big fan of soups. In fact, for someone who still possesses the ability to masticate effectively, obsessively so. They’re cheap, quick, tasty, vegetarian and I like the fact my hand blender looks like the hypothetical appendage of a hypothetical Robot Wars entrant designed by Sir Jonathan Ive. Orange and sweet potato season is drawing to a close and this soup is seasonally schizoid in it’s taste and appearance; at once indelibly a thick, hibernal root vegetable soup with a hint of warming spice, yet it’s vivid hue and sweetness make very much a soup for a still sunny spring evening. It’s nice ‘n’ veggie. It’s also vegan if you lose the dairy. This comes out pretty spicy so cut down on the capsaicin if that’s not your bag.  Here’s the recipe, if you’re a stickler for quantitative exactitude prepare to be disappointed. Just taste it as you go along;

Serves two as a main meal with lots o’ good bread

·      1 knob of butter

·      A glug of olive oil

·      An onion.

·      Two smallish carrots, or one big boy.

·      1 LARGE free-range sweet potato or two small-ish ones.

·      A ½ thumb of fresh ginger

·      A teaspoon of good chilli flakes

·      Half a vegetable stock cube

·      A teaspoon of paprika

·      A pinch of cayenne pepper.

·      150ml-ish of orange juice.

·      Cream to finish. And a couple of coriander leaves if you are so inclined.

Chop the onion and carrot roughly and the ginger in to little chunks. Peel and dice the sweet potato evenly. Get the pan lubricated by heating the butter and olive oil with chilli flakes, add the onion, fry for two minutes then get the ginger and carrot in for 8  minutes or so on a gentle heat until softening slightly. When soft chuck in the sweet potato and paprika and cayenne pepper, mix it up for a bit then cover with water, with a supplementary inch or so. Add the stock cube when the water comes to a boil then simmer somewhere between gently and violently for 15 minutes or until the sweet potato becomes tender. Taste, season accordingly with salt and pepper then stir in the orange juice and continue to simmer for a couple of minutes. Taste again (use a clean spoon if you’re sharing, please). If it meet yours specifications take it off the heat and blend to the consistency of your liking, I like mine velveteen. Reheat, bowl up, stir through some cream and add a coriander leaf or two if you’re serving it to someone with aesthetic sensibilities.

‘Aquarius’ by Boards of Canada

Consume this soup whilst listening to this curious nugget from Boards of Canada’s ambient canon. From that seminal album what they did 15 years ago. The link between this song and orange being the persistent utilisation of a vocal sample saying that most unrhymable word. It’s also quite useful if you’re learning to count. Turn it on. Eat soup and let the oscillating approximation of melody aid your sensory experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg-iKP0zI9Q

Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes.

Roland  Barthes’ appreciation of orange and all orange fruit is well documented in literary circles. Throughout his lecturing career he would dedicate the last hour of allocated contact time before Christmas to a workshop style lecture, in which he’d instruct his students on the best way to convert a tangerine and some oil in a to a lo-fi scented candle. This choice has nothing to do with the fact this is the last book I read credible enough to boast about having done so on the internet to nobody. Starting as a meditation on the spatial and temporal implications of photography and spiralling delicately in to a delicate eulogy to his deceased Mother. Thus it would be very disrespectful to spill soup on it. So don’t.

¹ Colour blindness.