Leek, Potato and Blue Cheese Soup

Leek, potato & blue cheese soup

For a week or so, winter threatened to make an appearance here in Adelaide. But then it disappeared and we’ve had the warmest couple of May weeks for about 100 years.

Which is a shame because I love winter food. I not only love eating it but I love that so often it is the type of food you can prepare well in advance and then just pop into the oven after a long day at work, leaving the cook with nothing more strenuous to do than crack open a bottle of red.

Earlier this week we revisited the leek, chicken and hazelnut pie (yes, all the way back in 2009!) and I’d had to buy a whole bunch of leeks.

So now I’m busy using them up. Which isn’t a problem because I love leeks. I also love soup and while it’s not Andy’s favourite thing to eat (by a long stretch) he’ll tolerate it in small doses.

I’d also been thinking about how I hadn’t really used any of my cookbooks for a while so while I didn’t need a recipe for leek and potato soup I had a quick flick through for inspiration. Regular readers will know I have something of a soft spot for James Martin so I was pleased to find a leek, potato and Stilton soup recipe in his book The Collection. An extra bonus was that it was even less work than I was considering!

His recipe needed a few tweaks to suit what was actually available so it’s my version that follows. The critical thing here is that it’s a one pot, boil it all up trick. Go easy with the blue cheese: they vary in strength and if you add too much you’ll really notice it!

This recipe will serve four.  Make sure you have plenty of good, crusty bread to hand!

 

Leek, Potato and Blue Cheese Soup

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken stock pot (or cube)
  • 700 mL hot water
  • 1 medium sized leek, sliced in half (split) and chopped
  • ½ large onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 large clove of garlic, chopped
  • 1 large potato, peeled and chopped
  • 100g blue cheese, chopped
  • sour cream
  • parsley

Instructions

  1. Place stock pot (or cube) and water in a large pot and bring to the boil.
  2. Add the leek, onion, garlic and potato to the stock and cook covered (you don't want the liquid evaporating!) until the vegetables are soft.
  3. Add half the blue cheese and stir to melt. Then blitz the soup and check the flavour. You need to check the strength of the blue cheese flavour AFTER blitzing as it's the only way of guaranteeing the flavour is through the soup.
  4. If you want to add more cheese, go ahead.
  5. Finish by correcting the seasoning - it's unlikely you'll need salt though you might want to pass the pepper separately.
  6. Serve the soup hot, with a quenelle (that's a dollop!) of sour cream and a sprinkling of parsley.
https://eatingadelaide.com/leek-potato-blue-cheese-soup/

Boatshed Cafe, Hallett Cove

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date of visit: Sunday 15 March 2014

Again – just two months between visiting and posting! We don’t often go out for breakfast because on the weekends we take it in turns to have a lie in and by the time everyone is up, washed, dressed, fed, watered … well … it’s time for afternoon tea.

I should have written about this outing earlier … because all other things aside (food, ambience, service) as we ate we were treated to an impressive display of human flesh. And I’m not talking about someone wearing something a bit tighter or shorter than you might expect. Oh no, a heavily pregnant lady at the table next to us lifted up her top and treated everyone to the considerable expanse of flesh. Just to get things straight – this is not acceptable behaviour for anyone over the age of about 5. You’ve put the clothes on, they can stay on.

Anyway, the Boatshed at Hallett Cove has been on my list for a while and on this occasion there was no food in the house so heading out was our only option.

It was a lovely sunny morning so I took the precaution of ringing ahead. Toddlers don’t really understand turning up at venues and having to wait. I was told that yes, for three of us it wouldn’t be a problem, and did we want to sit inside or outside. A sunny morning doesn’t necessarily equate to a warm enough morning to sit outside and eat so we opted for inside and my name was duly noted.

But sometimes, things just aren’t that simple. And when we arrived, there was no table reserved for us – anywhere. There were a few seats available at the ledge in the verandah but having the three of us lined up wasn’t great and while the view was amazing, the brisk breeze from the ocean suggested that any food would be cold before it hit our lips.

Fortunately we were found a small table inside and we squeezed in, between a rather large, loud group of women and the coffee machine. The interior of the Boatshed is all hard surfaces so what started off as an unpleasant level of noise escalated to intolerable by the end of breakfast.

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Which is a massive shame because the breakfasts were, actually, very good. I ordered scrambled eggs and bacon. It was a generous plate with really good quality bread. Andy’s Boatshed Classic was similarly proportioned and got a thumbs up (after he’d defended the hash brown from the fingers of a greedy toddler).

The menu is very light on things to order smaller punters. While our toddler normally loves eggs he had decided he didn’t want eggs which really limited our options. We ended up ordering him the sweetcorn fritter which Andy said was actually pretty good.

So overall, the food gets a tick. Service was OK – the problem with our reservation soured things a little and I did get the impression that there weren’t enough staff (or, the staff that were on were not experienced enough). However, the real killer was the noise inside.

We actually got to the point where we couldn’t finish quickly enough.

I’ve spoken to friends who have been there and they all tell a similar story – extreme noise inside and erratic service.

I would return to the Boatshed for coffee and cake on a warm afternoon when I could sit outside. But that would be it.

Boatshed Café
1 Heron Way
Hallett Cove SA 5158
phone: (08) 8322 4000

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The Hub Tandoor, Aberfoyle Park

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date of visit: Sunday 23 March 2014

Yes – that ‘date of visit’ is almost TWO months ago. What on earth have I been doing? Hmmm, I’m not quite sure but anyway, let’s make up for lost time.

The Hub Tandoor is the latest addition to the Aberfoyle Hub shopping centre. It has taken over the building that used to house a Pizza Hut. Now, you can spot it thanks to the colourful Buddhist prayer flags and huge windows. There is ample parking which is separate from that used for the nearby Coles – which has to be a huge bonus for the restaurant.

We headed there for an early Sunday dinner and while we might have been the first people there (arriving between 5 and 5:30pm!) while we eat other tables arrived and there was also a good takeaway trade happening.

The restaurant is quite small with well spaced out tables and proper linen. Being so early we had our choice of seats (always a paralysing decision to make!) and set around to ordering straight away. For the toddler we ordered the khaja misayko (mixed platter of entrées), Andy ordered the prawn curry (jhingey maachar johl) and I opted for the bahdami kukhura (tandoor roasted chicken with a tomato and onion sauce). Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of the toddler’s mixed platter, because it was very pretty and, of the bits we were allowed to eat, very tasty. The toddler very much enjoyed the sekuwa (effectively a Nepalese chicken tikka) as well as the filling from the dumplings but he also tucked into his father’s prawn curry. Normally, he won’t touch prawns with a barge pole …

My choice (mistakenly chosen because I thought the toddler might like it) was a bit disappointing. The creamy tomato and onion gravy was really a bit too mild and sweet for me but this would be perfect for anyone who is not into curries that are either spicy hot or just spicy. Andy definitely won with his prawn curry which, while not chilli hot, had loads of flavour.

Service was friendly (something you always notice with a child in tow!) and also efficient. As an added bonus, The Hub Tandoor is also relatively cheap. The main courses mostly come in under $15!

As I’ve said before, if you think you don’t like curry, I really recommend giving Nepalese food a go. The Hub Tandoor is a great place to start and we made sure we left with a takeaway menu.

The Hub Tandoor
Shop A2, 130-150 Hub Drive
Aberfoyle Park SA 5159
phone: 08 8270 6008

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