quick

Leek, Potato and Blue Cheese Soup

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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!

 

Print
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/

Rachel Allen’s Leek and Fennel Roast Chicken

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Untitled

More cooking (yep, those restaurant reviews are still percolating) – and while this dish looks unspectacular it’s incredibly tasty and easy to do.

If you’re a cook who’s a little frightened by the idea of roasting a whole chicken, or just someone a bit short on prep time (that’s me!) then this dish is fantastic because it’s quick, requires just the one dish (the one it’s cooked in) and can be all prepped in advance, meaning you just need to put it in the oven about 50 minutes before you want to eat.

This is a Rachel Allen recipe that has been on my to-do list for ages. As is so often the case, the cooking time given is woefully inadequate and, with the oven up so high, you do need to be wary of the vegetables in particular burning. However, that is easily solved by popping a lid on part way through cooking. This has the bonus of creating some very tasty sauce that can be served with the dish.

Sadly, it is a bit anaemic looking (not just the fault of my photography this time!). If you were so inclined you could flash the chicken thighs on a grill pan prior to serving (being careful not to dry them out though!) but I suggest that if you’re particularly worried about appearance, serve it with a bright winter salad.

Potato-wise, we used the most beautiful, tiny kipfler potatoes that Andy picked up in Blackwood from the excellent Waggon Wheels (no website). This always busy fruit and vege shop stocks all the standards but also manages to squeeze in a range of varieties that you won’t find in supermarkets or even other fruit and vege shops. It’s one of my favourite places to buy veggies.

Do not be tempted to omit (or peel!) the cloves of garlic. After cooking, the skin comes away easily and the garlic cloves are so soft and so mellow in flavour that they add real depth and warmth to the finished product.

This was a big hit – and if you need to throw something together over Easter, I recommend it.

Quantities below are for 2 people, with tons of leftovers.

Print
Rachel Allen’s Leek and Fennel Roast Chicken

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken thigh fillets
  • 1 bulb of fennel
  • 1 large leek
  • 6-8 large cloves of garlic, skin on
  • 8-10 small potatoes
  • 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • olive oil

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan (220°C conv).
  2. Take a large baking/roasting dish - preferably one that has a lid - and put a splash of olive oil in the bottom.
  3. Chop the leek into 1-2 cm chunks and roughly chop the fennel.
  4. If the potatoes are not evenly sized, cut them into even sized pieces. You want them reasonably small (smaller than a golf ball) so they cook!
  5. Add leek, fennel and potatoes to the baking dish with the garlic, season and toss through the olive oil.
  6. Finally add the chicken thighs and toss through, ensuring they are also coated in oil.
  7. Bake uncovered for about 20-25 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure that nothing is burning and then cover with lid and bake for another 20 or so minutes, until the chicken and potatoes are cooked.
  8. Serve hot on its own or with a garden salad.
https://eatingadelaide.com/rachel-allens-leek-fennel-roast-chicken/

Pork Fillet with Warm Fennel and Apple Salad

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

Untitled

I’ve got three restaurant reviews in the backlog but over the weekend I actually managed to fit in quite a bit of cooking. On Friday I made a banana cake. I had an idea that I’d attempt something along the lines of ‘food styling’ and re-photograph it but the cake is about 50% eaten and that hasn’t happened, so I might need to give that one up as a bad job.

Instead, we return to below average food photography but, with this recipe (from UK Delicious, where you can see a more styled photo!), very much above average bang for buck. The amount of time you need to invest is minimal (although this isn’t really a store cupboard staple recipe, so you will need to go shopping) but the end result is deceptively stylish. The other bonus is that any one of the three parts of the recipe – the pork, the creamed feta dressing or the warm salad, can be extracted and used elsewhere. The creamed feta dressing in particular is absolutely wonderful on potatoes!

If you have time to marinade the pork fillet, I recommend it – and it won’t do any harm to make a bit more marinade than you think you need! If you are lucky enough to have a pan which can go from stove to oven, use this for cooking the pork but be aware that you may need to adjust the cooking time – and be vigilant that the pork doesn’t get too brown or crispy. If it looks like it is, turn it over and cover with tin foil.

All up this took less than 45 minutes to put together – and everything was done by the time the pork came out of the oven so we even had 10 minutes of resting time spare.

Definitely a quick mid week meal option, but also smart enough to serve to others.

Print
Pork Fillet with Warm Fennel and Apple Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 pork fillet (around 350g)
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 red apple
  • 1 small bulb of fennel
  • generous handful of hazelnuts, toasted (& skins removed, if you can be bothered)
  • 3 large radishes
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 100g feta (Australian of course!)
  • 2-3 tbsp cream

Instructions

  1. For the pork, crush the fennel seeds and garlic and mix with a generous amount of olive oil and seasoning. Cover the pork fillet and, if you have time, leave to marinate.
  2. When you're ready to cook, preheat your oven to 200°C fan (220°C convention). Brown the pork in a pan and then roast for 25 minutes. If you're using the same pan, adjust cooking time down.
  3. Rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
  4. While the pork is cooking, prepare the salad. Roast the hazelnuts. If you can be bothered, rub them in a tea towel to remove the skins, and then chop roughly.
  5. Slice the fennel, apple and radishes using a mandoline (we used setting 3 for the apple and 2 for the fennel and radish - you don't want them sliced so finely you lose crunch).
  6. Put the fennel, apple, radish and hazelnuts in a pan, dress with olive oil and lemon juice and warm slowly on a very low heat.
  7. To make the creamed feta, chop the feta and put in a small blender and beat with the cream until smooth. You may need to add a little more cream. Heat slowly in a small pan or in short (10s) bursts in the microwave (pay attention as you don't want it to curdle!).
  8. Serve the pork fillet sliced on the warm salad. Add some boiled potatoes and dress with the creamed feta, serving the remainder on the side.
https://eatingadelaide.com/pork-fillet-warm-fennel-apple-salad/