Yesterday I ordered Fruit and vegetables online from the New Covent Garden market.Normally this is mainly wholesale but many of the traders have started home deliver, but some further afield as well.

It might seem very strange to some, but I like grocery shopping. I go to the Chinese supermarket for all things Asian and the Indian one for all things Indian. Then I go to “posh” smallish supermarket for general shop and less than posh for heavier items when I am out in the car. Then I visit markets, but I like real markets and am lucky to have a very ethnic market very close to wear I live. It is fun really to see what the deal of the day is, sometimes it is possible to get about 3 kilos of tomatoes for a mere £5.00, great for making soups. Go there towards the end of the day and it is possible to buy Dover Sole fo a song.

SO ordering Fruit and vegetables online is a bit of an anathema to me, but when needs must, and they must during this lockdown, I succumbed. AND BOY was I impressed.

My box contained, apples, oranges, pears, bananas, onions, potatoes, cauliflower, garlic, courgette, aubergine, carrots, lettuce, cucumber, parsnips, fresh basil and then my add on box, 30 eggs, a wholemeal loaf, 1 kilo of cheese slices and 4 pints of milk. all delivered to my front door, one day after ordering ! WOW !

So onto Dinner last night. Parsnips became cream of parsnip soup served with a walnut pesto followed by pan fried filet of salmon ( from my fish delivery earlier in the week) with Anchovy butter. I dug out of the freezer for himself some homemade potato gnocchi, which were made a couple of weeks ago. Dinner sorted and perfect.

For the Parsnip soup I used plus or minus the following:-

• 4 large parsnips peeled and cut into chunks
• 500 mls stock ( chicken or vegetable
• cup of plain yoghurt
• 1 oz butter
• some milk too thin, if too thick.

Simply cook the parsnip chunks in the stock until very tender. Puree them in a food processor or blender, or even with a stick blender. Stir in the yoghurt and the butter. Add extra milk if it is too thick. Add salt and pepper to taste.

For the walnut pesto:-

• A handful of basil leaves
• 1/4 cup of walnuts
• juice of a lemon
• 1 clove of garlic
• olive oil to blend.

Throw  all except the oil into a blender and blitz and then drizzle in the oil, probably about 1/4 cup, Serve it as a dollop on top of the soup.

What did I do with the Aubergine? made Babaganoush, of course, which he had in a mock Eggs Benedict. this morning.