Potato Leek Soup

Cooking a pot of potato leek soup in a Le Creuset

At some point a few weeks ago I realized that my camera had been sitting in a drawer for weeks on end, and I hadn’t shot any photos other than selfies with my dog on my terrible front facing phone camera. So I’ve been trying to remedy that – here’s to taking at least a photo a day in 2016. (I also had to download a fresh install of Lightroom on my computer to edit them and now I’m scrambling to find the original box with the serial. I refuse to pay for a monthly creative cloud membership… Grrrr… Where is that box?!)

Given that it’s winter, and you might be looking for something warming and relatively healthy after the holidays, may I suggest potato leek soup as a good option to cook this weekend? I had a large pile of leeks, onions, and potatoes on my counter from my winter farm share, and needed to do something with them before they died completely. The leeks were already getting dry on the outside and I was too ashamed to provide photographic evidence. Another resolution this year is to make sure I don’t let produce go to waste. Soup is an excellent remedy!

My kitchen helper is also on duty to provide quick response clean up to any floor mess I create. I’m still a little nervous that he’s chosen the spot directly in front of the stove to curl up, but if I’m cooking anything that might splatter, I use the back burners.

Bertram the Kitchen Helper

Right, the soup. You’d think this has become a puppy blog. I’ve been eating this for breakfast for the past few days. Have you ever done breakfast soup? It’s actually quite satisfying.

Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek Soup (for allium lovers)

I recommend that you make this a day in advance. Like almost all soups, a night in the fridge gives the chance to mature into a more robust flavor. Soups just taste better when you make them in advance.

Here’s the thing about this soup. I don’t bother chopping the vegetables. I just boil them mostly whole, and the puree with an immersion blender. Admittedly, the potato gets a tiny bit gluey when you do this.

A better way would be to patiently chop the vegetables in sort of bite size or inch long pieces before putting them in the pot. And then use a masher at the end to get a nice texture. But I’m a little lazy. So I don’t. But do what you wish. If you have guests coming, don’t take the short cut?

a knob of salted butter (a few tablespoons), or olive oil
a pound of leeks, chopped
two yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic
a pound of potatoes, cut into large cubes
2 bay leaves + a few sprigs of thyme.
a quart of very good tasting chicken stock
two cups of water
salt + pepper

In a large pot, melt your knob of butter over medium high heat, and cook the leeks and onion until soft but not brown. Add the garlic, potatoes, bay leaves and thyme. Cover with a quart of your best chicken stock, and add a few extra cups of water if everything isn’t yet covered. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, and then turn down to a simmer, and let the pot go for about half an hour, until the potatoes are soft and the onions are meltingly tender. Turn off the heat and mash with a potato masher, or do as I do, and blend until the big pieces are broken down with an immersion blender. You can eat it right away, but it’s better after a night in the fridge.

Things to stir into your soup at the end: A little bit of cream or buttermilk, but it doesn’t really need it. To serve, swirl around a little slick of olive oil, and a sprinkle of thyme or chopped chive.

The Weekend Lunch

For most people, the weekend is a time for indulgence and excess, but for me, the weekend is about relaxation, rejuvenation, and making healthy choices. For the past few months, I’ve been settling into my work rhythm, trying to balance my new role and responsibilities with my passion for being active. I feel so lucky to be working for a fitness company that allows me to leave early once a week to head to the gym – as long as I’m getting my work done – but I do really miss my noon workouts from when I was working from home. So instead of sleeping in on weekends, I try to get in a double dose, heading in both Saturday and Sunday for what feels like adult recess.

This past five weeks, I’ve been competing in the CrossFit Open, pushing myself to the upper limit of my athletic ability. Week one we tackled dreaded burpees and snatches, week two had me pushing hard with the 75 pound shoulder to overheads, week three I got in more than a hundred wall balls at 20 pounds when I had previously been using an 8 pound ball in workouts. Week four was my absolute nemesis, fighting multiple days to get the *single* rep I needed to move on to round five. 95 pounds was 10 more than my PR for the clean and jerk, and my form (not the weight itself) was holding me back. It was a collective gym effort to get me to that rep – and after days of no success, Coach Steve helped me make magic happen and I got it done. This week was a deadly combo of thrusters and chest to bars. I’ve been able to muscle a handful of chest to bars this week, but couldn’t manage them after the first set of thrusters. But I’m getting there. And with each new PR, I feel stronger and more confident to keep pushing myself. Every single day I feel thankful for how far I’ve come, and for how it makes me feel as I set about conquering life.

Unlike my grandfather, who used to barter gym time for a donut and a cigarette – I like to reward myself for my workouts with a cup of black coffee, and a highly nutritious meal. (I do think that he’d have been amused and proud of my athletic achievements, given the turnaround from my sedentary teenage hood.)

I make sure I’m getting in lots of greenery – pounds of leafy greens, especially if I haven’t been the most attentive during the week. I’ll usually cook up a large bag of collards or what Trader Joe’s calls “power greens”, sometimes with a bit of bacon, or plain with a little bit of garlic, shallot, and cider vinegar, and use them as the base for the majority of my meals.

I’m particularly fond of making salmon salad (see above, with the heaping portion of broccoli raab and garlic), or opening up a tin of sardines, and making a dressing with the fish infused olive oil and some fresh lemon juice. The photo has them served over some steamed green cabbage, and sprinkled with some bourbon smoked paprika. I try to eat little fishes at least once a week, but sometimes I’m negligent. Really, you can’t go wrong with sardines.

On cloudy or cold days, I go with soup. This was a beef, tomato, and carrot soup I picked up from Formaggio Kitchen a few weeks ago, and savored it while simultaneously reading my Kindle, flicking through Twitter, and with my computer at arms reach. Some of my habits are less healthy than others.

And then, there’s my favorite lunch staple: the avocado. I went nearly three weeks without avocado last month, and it was a travesty. Here’s my new favorite – avocado halves with sherry vinegar, salt, and a sprinkle of black pepper. If you can find a nice ripe avocado, try eating it this way, you won’t be disappointed.

Minimalist Avgolemono (Greek-ish Egg Lemon Soup)

Everyone is getting sick around here. The mayor of Boston declared a health emergency for the flu epidemic, and you can’t go anywhere without seeing people out and about sniffling and spreading the plague. So I’ve been trying to stay in, limit my face time to critical meetings, and exercise outside without meeting up with anyone. Because I’m a hermit at heart, this is admittedly enjoyable.

One of the best ways you can fortify yourself is with soup, so I’ve been drinking copious amounts to ward off the sickness. I’ve now made this liquid health elixir twice this week, and thought finally that I should share it here. Egg Lemon Soup (or sauce) is common in Greek, Turkish, and Jewish cooking – all of which are part of my culinary heritage. Despite this, I have very few memories of my mom or grandmother making this soup, but I do fondly recall ordering it often as a child with my grandparents at the Putterham Deli, which later became Andrea’s and then shuttered before I moved back to New England. The soup was always the first part of a gleeful two part culinary adventure – usually followed by poppy seed hamantaschen and picking up a challah for the sabbath next door at Cheryl Ann’s – and thus is etched in my memory in a positive way. Unlike jello, another sick-person-food, which to this day revolts me.

If you are lazy, tired, or coming down with something, this soup comes together in mere minutes, with ingredients you are likely to have on hand. It’s rich and chicken-y if you use good stock, tart and lemon-y enough, and filling because of the egg. You could add a handful of orzo, rice, or pieces of chicken, but I don’t usually bother. Traditionally you are supposed to temper the eggs by pouring some of the hot chicken stock into the egg mixture first, and whisking vigorously. Then you pour it back into your soup for a silky smooth texture. But I like doing a bastardized version by just heating up my chicken stock, and slowly pouring in my egg mixture while stirring, so that the soup has some intrigue to it, like a finer egg drop soup. It’s seasoned simply with lemon juice and fish sauce rather than salt, which I like because it provides a bit more savory depth to the soup.

Not So Traditional Egg Lemon Soup for 1

2 eggs, whisked
juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon Red Boat Fish Sauce (more for salt and funk, less if your stock has salt already)
1 – 2 cups chicken stock, preferably home made
optional: a small handful of orzo, leftover roasted chicken, some dill, a sprinkling of lemon zest

In a small bowl, whisk together two eggs, the juice of half a lemon, and some fish sauce. I like using a few good glugs. It’ll smell funky, like fish sauce, but don’t worry. Set aside. In a small saucepan on medium high heat, bring your chicken stock to a simmer. (If you’d like to add some pieces of chicken, or a small handful of orzo, do so here, and cook until warmed or cooked through.) Turn down the heat to medium-low, and start slowly whisking in the egg mixture. It’ll look like egg drop soup, then suddenly fluff up. Take off the heat, pour into a bowl, and savor immediately. If you feel compelled to gussy it up, go ahead and sprinkle on some parsley or lemon zest. I rarely feel the need to.

Under the weather.

I woke up under the weather. It was grey and raining, and I had a headache and that thing where your body says “Hey there, you better rest and take care of yourself or I’m going to make you miserable. Oh yes, you think I’m teasing you, just you wait.” I’m really, really hoping that I can shrug this before it turns into something. I’ve been resting and taking hippy remedies (spoonful of cider vinegar here and there, and crossing my fingers). In lieu of a photo of myself unwell, here is my friend Oso. This is what the morning looked like.

Very little work, movement, or life happened in the morning.

In the afternoon, I went to my kitchen to fix myself lunch. But first I set about on a little project – Nom Nom Paleo’s Magic Mushroom Powder. It’s a wonderful salt mix with porcini mushrooms and special spices, that makes things taste… magical!

I ground up a bag of dried porcini mushrooms in my spice grinder (a.k.a. coffee grinder, I swear I wash it in between uses). Then I added the special spices, and salt.

Mixed it all up, and voila! This stuff is going right next to my salt collection, and I’ll be putting it on almost everything. Chicken, pork, fish, in stews – it’s the perfect spice mix to add that umami flavor to your dishes.

I won’t post the recipe because it’s not my own to post, but you can find it on her awesome iPad app! Highly recommend it.

For lunch, I made a bowl of pork, pumpkin, and greens soup. It seemed very Southern. You may have noticed that I like soups, and I try to make them as often as possible because soup is one of the best ways to get in your nutrients, and hydrate yourself. Rather than making a big pot of soup, I can put together quick soups nearly any day of the week at lunch using a basic method that usually works.

Super basic soup for 1 or 2:

1. Season 3-6 ounces of meat with salt and pepper. Cook in a little bit of fat on the stove, until the meat is cooked through. (Or heat up some leftover meat.) Chicken, pork, cubed meat or ground all work fine. (Today I used some fresh ham with marrow bone.)

2. Add 1-2 cups of vegetables of your choice. I’ll usually use some greens (even mixed frozen greens), leftover roasted vegetables, and whatever is seasonal. (Today was a combination of greens and cooked mashed pumpkin.)

3. Top with just enough liquid to cover. You can use chicken or beef stock, or even just water! (I used water.) Season with a pinch of salt and taste. I usually like it just slightly less salty than I’d like the finished soup to be. Bring to a boil, then down to a simmer for 20-40 minutes, until your vegetables are tender, and a little longer if the flavors need to meld more.

4. Take off the heat, and gild the lily. Swirl with a little olive oil, a squirt of lemon juice if it needs a little acid, a spoonful of pesto or a grating of cheese.

In the late afternoon, I had a snack: some cooked butternut squash topped with walnuts, cinnamon and coconut butter.

Before dinner, I decided to take a very short walk to air myself out. Just for half an hour, and it felt good being outside. By dinner time, I was exhausted, so I made my best last minute comfort food “Faux-Shakshuka”. Shakshuka is a wonderful Middle Eastern dish of eggs poached in tomato sauce, usually with peppers and onions. For this dinner I opened a can of Rao’s Marinara, dumped in three eggs, and that was it. No apologies, it’s pretty much the best quick meal on the planet.

After dinner I had about a cup of pineapple, and was asleep by 10pm. Because I’m an old lady. Crossing my fingers that this’ll go away soon!

Evening Walks

Today’s Happiness Booster: Evening Walks. I remember when I was a teenager spending the summer in France, we used to go for evening walks. Usually before dinner, or in between dinner and dessert, we’d head out as a group, sometimes just the kids, sometimes the whole lot of us, and stroll through the neighborhood. There was always a lot of smiling, laughing, waving to people eating in their gardens or doing the same as us.

This is a practice that I’ve been longing to make a habit of, but it hasn’t been until recently that I’ve been doing it. You get rewarded at that time of day, the blue hour*, when twilight hits and the sun has set and things all of a sudden become magical. (*Also, love this blue hour.)

I took these tonight, on my phone, as the light was fading on my evening walk.

Today was an odd sort of day, trying to fit a few different things into my schedule that I hadn’t planned for. I decided at the last minute to go to the gym because I’m committed twice a week, and although I usually go on Friday or Sunday, I wanted to give myself enough rest for my little road race this weekend.

I had half a cup of coffee, and headed to the gym on an empty stomach, because of my last minute judgement. Although having some food is better than none, if I don’t leave several hours between eating and my workout, it becomes uncomfortable and “an issue”. I’ll leave it at that.

Today’s workout was called “Tarpit“.

AMRAP 20 (As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes):

200m Run

16 Lunges

8 Push-ups

4 Pull-ups (Jumping pullups for me!)

If this looks painful, well, it was. I got in an honorable 5 rounds plus a run. (Three rock stars in my class got 9 + change. Crazy!) To reward ourselves, we did 8 sets of 20 seconds of situps + 10 seconds of rest in between. I did a less than honorable 52 situps. Eek!

Before heading home, I stretched for a good 15 minutes, and swung by the Needham library to flip through a cookbook of mine that is stuck in a box. They have this fantastic statue outside that I just love.

When I got home, I set about making a simple soup of leftovers that turned out better than expected. Butternut squash, roast beef, a few handfuls of baby spinach, and the last bit of homemade beef stock I made last week. I seasoned it simply with salt and pepper and a little bit of Turkish urfa biber (a deep oily red pepper flake).

Later in the afternoon, snack was an entire half pint of raspberries, and some iced tea with coconut milk. I had a heck of a time trying to photograph the milky tea, the camera just didn’t want to do it. It was good, I promise.

In the early evening I headed off to M.F. Dulock again in Somerville to pick up some pasture raised and freshly butchered meat for the next few days. Having a great source of high quality, humanely raised meat is so important to me – leaving my meat c.s.a. in the Bay was really hard, and I just can’t say enough about having access to this stuff. I picked up some beef shanks, beef stir fry meat, fresh pork sausages, lamb shoulder chops and goat! Variety is the spice of life!

After my evening walk, I set about making dinner. First I gathered vegetables to make my salad.

I chopped up the tomato and cucumber, and tossed them in a bowl with a little bit of salt and thyme, and let them sit while I prepped everything else. This allows the juices to puddle at the bottom, and all you really need is a little bit of vinegar and a spoonful of olive oil to finish it off.

The goat meat I had picked up at the butcher had already been seasoned – salt, pepper, garlic, onions and parsley – pretty much exactly what I do to my ground meat to make Turkish köfte – convenient!

I formed the meat into little balls, and fried it in some tasty lard in my cast iron. Goat is a very lean meat, so a little bit of extra fat was welcome here.

I was surprised at how much they really crisped up in the pan. I made Devon a salad with a little bit of Caesar dressing, sliced up an avocado to share, and made up our plates. This is his, mine had just cucumber and tomato salad without leafy greens for no good reason other than the fact that I had put away the greens before making my own plate and forgot.

And wait! Dessert! Before my walk, I managed to cut up a melon and put it in the fridge. I ate several cupfuls mindlessly while watching “Breaking Amish”. And to think I had seriously contemplated giving up fall TV…