Carrot Soup for Dinner

We had carrot and pork soup for dinner tonight, featuring this green carrot that Shelly picked up in Guangdong Province this weekend. With Chinese New Year approaching, we've recently been seeing a special New Year carrot cake made from this kind of carrot (though this carrot cake is nothing like the carrot cake a Westerner would expect).

Always ready to try something new for dinner, Shell brought the carrot back (I have since spotted them in our local markets, now that I know what they are) and picked up an assortment of seasonings from a friend at work. The seasonings are all dried, and appeared to my untrained eye to three dried oranges, a dried mushroom and lots of dried garlic cloves. The recipe called for six ramen bowls of water, a green carrot, an orange carrot, the seasonings and "$20 of pork." Made in a wok, I brought everything to a boil before misreading Shelly's e-mail: Instead of boiling it covered, as directed, I boiled it for three hours uncovered, and then wondered why I had to keep adding water. Hmm.

Despite my mistake, it turned out okay. Shelly gave it high marks for uniqueness and decent marks for taste.

As for the green carrot, it really is similar in texture to an orange carrot or a turnip. It should make an interesting addition to future dinners, especially if I cook them correctly.