My mate J used to live about a street away from me, about equal distance from the fabulous Victoria Market, choc full of all the fresh fruit, vegs, meat or seafood you could possibly need for a big cooking session. Together with the rest of the Carlton gang, we used to rotate home cooking sessions - great of us kids living away from home. I still remember when J taught me and Y how to make a creamy brocolli and potato soup and Chinese steamed fish. I'd forgotten what a good cook he was until our home cooked meal on New Year's Eve in Les Houches.
It started off with Y making a lamb stew and me with my coq au vin. I had started chopping up some shallots and streaky bacon for my coq au vin when we realised that s the whole chicken probably had better days. What to do with all that bacon and shallots? As he was cutting a leek for Y, J thought of a cosy potato and leek soup to warm our tootsies.
And that's how it began with J guiding me through this recipe.
We had:
- 2 large rashers of bacon, diced
- 3 large shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- stalks of 1 large leek, thinly sliced
- 2 potatoes, diced
- 1/2 cup cream
- dried italian herbs, parsley and oregano (whatever herbs you like)
- vegetable stock
Cooking the soup itself is quite simple. Pan fry the bacon until lightly browned and remove from pan. Remove most oil except a good coating to fry the leek, shallots and onions. Add the potatoes and gently stir fry for a few minutes. Add about 2 litres of water (refilling every now and then) and let it gently simmer for about an hour. Add stock and pan fried bacon and simmer for another 10 mins.
Stir in cream and butter (J's special ingredient - you can leave this out if you want this to be a healthy soup) and serve immediately.
