There's a Fly in my Soup (Recipe Alert)

I miss my mom the most when I'm sick. She's luckily still alive , but avoids me like the plague when I am sick. You see I had (she says I'm old enough to look after myself now) the kind of mom who would pander to my every need when I was sick.

Don't get me wrong. We were raised to be strong, opinionated and extremely independent women ("Never depend on anyone" she says). She taught us that a woman can achieve anything a man could and encouraged our careers much further than any traditional Indian mom would. One thing that always seemed out of my reach was her standard of cooking. As a rule I avoided attempting any of her recipes, because it never came out like mom's food. She's getting older though, as cruel father time would have it, and this has become the fly in my proverbial soup. Mom forgets an ingredient here or there and so I have taken the bold step and started attempting her dishes (bearing in mind that her recipes look like shopping lists with no measurements).

Mom would make my favourite dishes and let me watch TV all day when I was sick. My dish of choice was always her hearty, winter soup.

Momma's Soup (serves 5 - 8)

Ingredients

200g mutton (trimmed of fat and cut into smaller pieces)

1 x teaspoon garlic and ginger

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of ground pepper

Optional pinch of turmeric

Thickening paste - 1/4 cup warm water, mixed with 30mls cake flour

1 x Checkers Freshmark Soup Pack (only use half the turnip)

1/2 onion, peeled and grated. Also squeeze the juice out

1 x additional carrot

1/2 tsp pepper corns (rather crush if serving to small children)

2 - 2.5 Lt's of boiling water

@CheckersSA

Method:

1. Marinade meat in salt, pepper, turmeric (optional), garlic and ginger

2. Brown meat in 1/2 tablespoon heated olive oil 

3. Add the chopped herbs, as well  the peeled and grated vegetables to the browned heat.

4. Add about 2 litres of boiling water to the pressure cooker and the whole or crushed peppercorns. Cook on low for 1 hour.

Tip - Add an additional 250mls - 500mls (depending on your pot's water retention abilities) if you are not using a pressure cooker and cook on medium to high.

5.  Add the thickening paste and simmer on medium for another 15 minutes or until done.

Bowl from @CheckersSA

Almost as good as mom's!