It might be sunny but it’s cold, so I’m sitting here at the laptop with a weather eye (and nose) on what is going in the kitchen.  Something warming is called for, Leek and Potato soup and the only man to ask is Mr Slater.  The Kitchen Diaries  is a lovely book for people who grow their own veggies (or aspire to like me)  It doesn’t really have set recipes, Nigel tends to wander into the kitchen with a handful of ingredients and say ‘What am I going to do with this lot?’  and I often cook this way anyway, so I’m not too fazed by not having exactly the same ingredients.

I have 2 leeks not three, no butter so a glug of olive oil to soften them for twenty minutes.  I’ve just added three peeled and diced potatoes to cook for five minutes before adding about three quartes of a litre of chicken stock, salt and ground black pepper and the magic ingredient, a Parmesan rind to simmer for 40 minutes.  Now, Nigel Slater has multiple Parmesan rinds lurking in his fridge and I only generate them one at a time but even that is enough to add a gorgeous richness and depth  to the end result.  At the end, remove the rind and scrape any gooey melted cheese into the soup,  blend till smooth (Nigel throws in chopped fresh parsley at this stage but I don’t have any…hmm, maybe I’ll try sorrel?) check the seasoning, reheat and serve with grated Parmesan. 

I used a few leaves of lovage in the end, not much as it has quite a strong celery flavour but really added to the depth of flavour. I just added a chunk of homemade sunflower seed bread and feel nicely replete …

And now, the washing up…

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