A vegetable I am particularly fond of is the leek, and I’ve written about it many times before here, memories of family dinners when I was a child – they were grown by dad and mum would serve them with white sauce. I cooked them for my own family, but now I’m really the only one who likes them. I generally have them now sliced thinly on salad, or as soup. Leeks are cousins to onions and garlic, and their posh Latin name is not leekium leekium but allium porrum. Their appearance is stately, a thick white stem which becomes green at the top, but at the same time I always imagine a face drawn on the side so the green looks like sprouting hair.
I bought a couple yesterday, and as I sit here by the window writing I look through the old Good Housekeeping Cookery Book to see what recipes it offers. I make soup to my own recipe, but wondered what Good Housekeeping would offer. In the section meal-in-itself-soup section there is Leek and Potato Soup with Meatballs. I’m not very keen on meatballs, there’s something about the texture which I don’t really like, and I fancy them even less in soup. However, in case the recipe appeals to you, here it is:
Soup
1/2 lb leeks, washed and sliced
3/4 lb potatoes, diced
1 oz butter
1 3/4 pints white stock (e.g.chicken)
salt and pepper
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 oz plain flour
1/4 pint milk
- 1. sauté the sliced leeks and diced potatoes in the butter for 5 minutes
- 2. add the stock, seasoning and herbs, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour
- 3. sieve the soup and add the blended flour and milk
- 4. reboil, stirring until thick
Meat balls
4 oz minced beef
1/2 an onion, grated
2 tsps tomato ketchup
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 an egg, beaten
1/2 oz plain flour
- 1. mix the meat, onions, ketchup, salt, pepper, herbs
- 2. bind with the egg and form into balls
- 3. add to the thickened soup and simmer for 1/2 hour
This is the actual recipe, but I think I would be afraid the meatballs would disintegrate into the soup unless they were dusted with seasoned flour and fried first in a pan to seal the outside. Then I would add them to the soup and simmer until they were properly cooked.
I’m sharing a sunny salad image – my soup pictures all look rather drab and wintery!
Lois Elsden 