Potato and Leek Soup

Potato and Leek Soup

This picture is not quite as great as this soup

Oh baby, it’s cold outside.

But luckily there are leeks – lots and lots (and lots and lots) of leeks.

If you aren’t familiar with leeks get to know them quickly.

Leeks are in the onion family and look like large green onions, with a long green top and a straight white bulb underneath the ground.

The main difference is that unlike onions, the green tops of leeks are much flatter and tougher than onions and generally aren’t that great to eat, whereas the tops of onions are tender and can be eaten raw or cooked.

On leaks, you trim off much of the dark green top and use only the light green and white bottom portion of the plant. 

But if the tops of leaks are tough, they make up for it with a tender and mild white bottom that is great for broiling, grilling and most of all soup.

Leek and potato soup harkens back to the cold rainy climes of Ireland, Wales and Scotland even though many identify it as French. There are hundreds of recipes out there for such a simple dish but I like this one the best because it is just that – simple.

So when the wind starts to feel like it’s coming off the frigid North Sea rather than the balmy Gulf of Mexico it’s time to start simmering the leeks.

One note: If you want to get classy about the operation – or it’s one of those perfect winter days when you don’t need to wrap your hands around a cup of hot soup - you can easily make Vichyssoise. Despite its French moniker, the dish was invented in the US and it requires just a minor tweak to the recipe.

When you are done with your soup, put it in the fridge to chill. Once it is cold, top it with some heavy cream and give it a stir. This can be done in the pot or in each individual bowl. The amount of cream obviously depends on the amount of soup but no one ever got in trouble for going heavy on the cream. Stir, garnish with a bit of chive (or save a little of the tender light green leek top) and serve. Voila! Your dinner date will think you are feting them with complex French cooking and (with enough white wine) who knows what might happen next.

What do I need?

A soup-sized bundle of leeks

• 3 large leeks (or one handful of smaller leeks)
• 2 Tbsp butter (I usually double this)
• 2 cups water (I have subbed in 1 cup of white wine with good results)
• 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 lbs potatoes (I think this is around 3 large potatoes)
• Marjoram - dash
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (if you don't have fresh use dried but it can also be cut altogether)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• Salt & Pepper

What do I do?

     Leeks are tricky to clean. I highly recommend you have a look at this link How to Clean Leeks. I usually skip the part about rinsing them after they are chopped but I am willing to take a chance on a bit of grit in exchange for cutting time in the kitchen.

After you have cleaned your leaks, chop them. 

Peel the potatoes and dice into 1/2 inch pieces

Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper in a medium sized sauce pan.

Cover pan, cook on low heat for 10 minutes.

     Do not brown the leeks (but if you do it will still turn out fine)

Add water, broth, and potatoes. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup so smooth out the consistency. 

     This can be done by scooping it into a blender or I use a hand blender to puree it right in the pot. If you don’t have one of these I highly recommend them and you just might see an ode to a hand blender in a future post.

Add marjoram, parsley, and thyme. 

     (Feel free to add more herbs for a stronger flavor)

Salt and pepper to taste

    I often serve it with a bit of grated cheddar cheese on top because cheese is pretty much the best thing in the world

Ode to a Swedish salad spinner

Ode to a Swedish salad spinner

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all 
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.' 

John Keats- “Ode to a Grecian Urn”

Its cheap plastic contours will never be confused for the smooth white marble of Athens and it has none of the pastoral carving that inspired Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn” but there is no kitchen implement that makes eating from the garden easier than a salad spinner - and that includes a pot.

I got mine at Ikea (www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60148678/) where it is currently on sale for less than $2.

(Mine actually looks less like a Grecian urn and more like a misplaced Storm Trooper helmet but Keats didn’t write an elegy to a Storm Trooper helmet, so an urn it is.)

The one thing that grows year round in the garden is leafy greens – kale, collards, mustard, lettuce, arugula, malabar spinach, bok choi and on and on. All these things can be cooked in any style you like or eaten raw but they all need to be washed and that is a pain in the ass.

The folds of mustard hold dirt like Velcro and, despite our best organic efforts, pests like aphids and caterpillars still set up house in the nooks and crannies of our curly leaf kale.

I almost always wash and package everything I pick all at once into bags of larger greens for cooking and lettuce/baby greens to eat raw.  

For a little extra time on the front end, I have greens and lettuce ready to go. It means I am more likely to throw in some greens when I am cooking dinner or lets me whip up a quick salad for lunch before I head out the door for work.

The easiest and most thorough way that I have found to wash anything from the garden is to soak it in the sink for 15 to 30 minutes. A shorter soak is fine but a longer one gets off more of the dirt without having to touch up individual leaves by hand. 

A longer soak also ensures that any bugs that might be hiding on the under sides of leaves can’t hold their breath through the wash cycle and end up in the sink instead of your salad.

Let the water do the work.

But a long soak and curly leaves also means a wet mess when you drain the water, which brings us back to that sexy little salad spinner.
Put on some music to get you pumped up, maybe do a couple stretches and then pull the greens out of the sink, drop them in the spinner and go to town.

When the water stops pouring out the bottom, stick your newly washed organic greens in a ziplock bag in your fridge and get ready to have an amazing week.

But, before you give it a quick rinse and put it back on the shelf, take a second to appreciate supple curves, the simple physics and the timeless beauty of that white plastic Swedish salad spinner.

Atchara - Pickled green papaya

Atchara!

 

I  am a huge fan of pickling things and am on a mission to use green papayas after our trees froze in last week's polar vortex, leaving a ton of green fruits that I don't think will ever ripen.

Put that all together you get atchara – a pickled green papaya dish from in the Philippines. I guess there are lots of regional variations of this from neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

It’s a refreshing combination of spicy sweet and sour that nicely accents the salty savory dishes from the islands and archipelagos of Southeast Asia.

I found the recipe at this pickling blog.

http://jarheadpickling.blogspot.com/search?q=papaya

I followed it pretty much word for word except that I did larger but very thin slices of vegetables rather than grating or julienning them because it was easier for me. I used a mandolin and ripped through everything quickly but if you don't have a mandolin and aren't a professional with a knife I would go ahead and grate everything.

I’m sure if you wanted to mess around a bit with other vegetables to accompany the papaya that it would work just fine – I even saw one recipe that called for raisins.

Atchara is served as a side dish for all kinds of things in the Philippines including fried fish, grilled meats and rice and noodle dishes. I like it as an accompaniment to takeout pot stickers, dumplings and egg rolls.  It can also spice up a sandwich

What you need:

• 1 large green papaya
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 1 jalapeno (or more if you want it hotter)
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger;
• 1/3 cup salt
• 2 cups white vinegar;
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar;
• 2 tablespoons peppercorns;

What you do:

Slice the papaya, onion, carrots, garlic and jalopeno as thinly as possible

            The mandolin saves a lot of time and a few cut fingers or just grate it

Sprinkle the salt over the green papaya in a bowl. Mix it up with your hands to evenly cover the papaya slices and put in the fridge overnight.

Put the other vegetables in a bowl or bag in the fridge

The next day, pour the excess water out of the bowl and put the papaya in a strainer. Press out any remaining water and then rinse off the salt. 

Put the vinegar, a large pinch of salt, peppercorns, ginger, garlic and chilli (if using) in a pot and simmer the brine for 5 minutes and then cover it and let it cool a bit.

Fill clean jars with the papaya, onion, pepper and carrot, then top them off with the pickling brine

Cap the jars and store them in the fridge – technically you can keep atchara at room temperature but it will last longer in the fridge. If you want to do the room temperature thing for some reason then I would sterilise whatever jars you are using by putting tin foil on the top and sticking them in the oven at 350 degrees for 90 minutes and then let them cool in the oven over night. DO NOT TAKE THE JARS OUT OF THE OVEN EARLY because cooling the glass too quickly can shatter it.

Kale and White Bean Pasta

Kale and White Bean Pasta 

This is one of my standard dinners. It is quick, easy and cheap but best of all it takes advantage of what we always have growing in the garden – greens. The white beans soak up the flavors of the onions and herbs while the kale adds color and a bit of crunch. I usually serve it as a main course but it could easily be a side dish to something light like grilled chicken or fish.

This recipe calls for kale but you can use other greens as well or a mix. I regularly use curly kale, dinosaur kale, swiss chard and arugula when I cook this depending on what is available. Collard and mustard greens and bok choi generally don’t work as well.  

It is really hard to measure greens. They are really bulky when they are raw but they cook down to a quarter the size or less. My rule of thumb is to chop until I think I have enough and then add another handful. If I had to measure I would say take your standard plastic grocery bag and pick enough to fill it half full. By the time you pull out the middle ribs and chop them up that should be about right.

For the herbs, I always use rosemary because I like it and always have it in the garden. Other herbs that I have use both fresh from the garden and dried include basil, oregano, garlic chives and parsley. If you don’t have fresh ones, use dried. Also, don’t be afraid to use a lot. It’s pretty hard to ruin a dish with too many herbs and pretty easy to not put in enough.

What do I need?

Lots of Kale or other greens

¼-1/2 cup Olive oil

1-2 cups White wine

1 Onion

1 can White beans

1 large sprig Rosemary and other herbs

1 pound pasta - cooked

Salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese

What do I do with it?

~ Put the oil in a pan and put it on low.

                If the pasta is not already cooked, then cook it while you make the sauce.

~ Chop the onion and add it to the pan

Make the onion pieces as big or small as you like. You don’t want the onion to sizzle so much as sweat.

~ Clean the kale, take out the center rib and chop the leaves.

                Again- the size of the pieces is up to you but for this recipe I often like to cut them small so they get evenly distributed through the pasta.

~ When the onion starts to get translucent, add the wine, beans and kale

~ Strip the leaves off the rosemary sprig and throw them along with salt and pepper and any other herbs you are using

~ Cover it and let it simmer gently for 10 minutes or so.

                The greens should turn a darker shade of green and wilt when they are ready.   

~ Taste it. Add any additional salt/pepper/herbs it may need

                The consistency of the sauce is up to you but you want to make sure it will cover your pasta. It is easy to thicken it by mashing up some of the white beans in the pan. If it looks too thick add a little wine.

~ Put the pasta in a large bowl and add the sauce on top and give everything a stir to get the pasta coated evenly.

~ Put into bowls and top with Parmesan cheese and additional fresh herbs.