If you are keen to go straight to the recipe, click here.
Hello Reader,
I hope you have enjoyed the last week. I shared a scheduled post last weekend because I was away in Brisbane to see my daughters and parents.
A few of us went to The Ekka. It was so good.
Ekka photos
Recipe
Equipment
- Pressure cooker [1]
- Stick blender
Ingredients
Instructions
- Wake up wondering what to cook on a wet winter day in Canberra. Do you wake up and immediately think of food? Sometimes I do. This morning I did not. I slept poorly, and when my eyes opened, my first thought was craving more sleep.
- Go grocery shopping to plan what to cook while in the meat section.
- Choose a couple of beef short ribs to be the meal’s centrepiece.
- Heat the oven to about 200 °C.
- Cut a couple of potatoes into large chunks.
- Cut the white part of a large leek from the green part and then separate the leaves under running water to wash out the dirt.
- Peel a few garlic cloves.
- Spread the ribs, potato, leek, and garlic onto a baking sheet and put it into the oven.
- Keep an eye on the tray and remove the tray when the food starts to change colour and caramelise.
- Put the chillies, garlic, leek, and potato into the pressure cooker.
- Add the bouquet garni and the ribs on top.
- Pour in some vegetable stock.
- Seal the lid to the pressure cooker and set the timer to one hour.
- Cook the contents.
- Remove the lid when the pressure has equalised.
- Lift out the ribs, the meat, and the bouquet garni.
- Put the meat into a bowl, and with forks, pull the meat.
- Process the soup with a stick blender.
- Place some of the meat into the centre of a soup bowl.
- Ladle the soup around the meat.
- Garnish the soup with parsley.
- Give thanks to the Lord.
- Eat with a spoon.
Thoughts on the meal
I could have made this soup more decadent with cream and perhaps some butter. However, cream and butter were unnecessary for flavour. There’s also enough fat in the beef.
I have enough soup leftover for a few more meals. I’ve aliquoted the soup into vacuum bags, and the bags are in the freezer.
Photographs
Final thoughts
How do you feel about carnival food? Do you like deep-fried sausages covered in the batter? Do you like battered chicken nuggets with hot chips, bacon pieces, cheese, and spring onion?
Would you add cream and butter to potato and leek soup?
References
1. Cook, R.K., et al., Use of a Pressure Cooker to Achieve Sterilization for an Expeditionary Environment. J Spec Oper Med, 2021. 21(1): p. 37-39.
2. Biernacka, B., D. Dziki, and U. Gawlik-Dziki, Pasta Enriched with Dried and Powdered Leek: Physicochemical Properties and Changes during Cooking.Molecules, 2022. 27(14).
3. Stopforth, J.D., et al., Microbiological status of fresh beef cuts. J Food Prot, 2006. 69(6): p. 1456-9.
4. Jeremiah, L.E., et al., Assessment of palatability attributes of the major beef muscles. Meat Sci, 2003. 65(3): p. 949-58.
Love this. It reminds me of the article I wrote about the potato! So cool!
Thanks, potatoes are amongst my favourite foods.
Im with you. I think you would enjoy my post. Title is Totally Tubular if your interested. Have a great day! 😄
Thanks, that’s a great name for a post about spuds. Have a good one.
I have a feeling that I agree with you, that the short ribs would add enough substance to the soup that you wouldn’t need cream or butter.
Thanks, Jeff. Beef short rib meat is so rich in flavours. 😊
The potato and leek soup looks great–and so does the food from The Ekka. I do like carnival foods–deep fried everything–but I can’t eat as much of these foods as I did when I was younger. A little bit goes a long way. Cheers!
Oh to be younger again and have the ability to eat an entire day’s worth of fried food 😊
Wonderful you had a trip away and went to The Ekka. All the carnival food looks amazing. I’m sure you were tempted to eat even more there. I feel you on sleeping poorly – you really just want another round of sleep when you wake up. The potato leek and beef looks amazing, perfect for winter.
Though overpriced in my opinion, I like carnival food. So tasty. Chicken nuggets are amazing. I generally don’t add cream or butter to my meals, preferring the meat and seasonings to stand out.
Thanks, Mabel 😊
If only I was young again to eat all the ice cream I could 🤤🤤🤤
Love the look of that cannoli Gary. Friend and I went to the Farmers Market at EPIC yesterday and she bought one which was marscapone and strawberries. And the strawberries and ice cream looks pretty good too.
Thanks, Sue. I don’t think I ever had a cannoli until arriving in Canberra. What a great treat and a strawberry and mascarpone one would be delicious.
I adore the summer version of this, ie Vichyssoise, throughout the warner months but do prepare Potage Parmentier ie what you have composed on occasion ! In its healthier versions 🙂 !!! Am so glad you had a chance to be a few hours with both your parents and your daughters . . . and I would not have minded a few hours at the EKKA either . . . have been great fun ! As you know I would run a country mile ere I touched one mouthful of what you term ‘carnival food’ . . . I may commit a few nutritional sins but would not touch one bite of one of the offerings on show ! Have too much respect for what I put inside my body . . . . . . best . . .
Thanks, Eha. The weekend away was just what I needed. It was rejuvenating.
Hi Gaz, sounds like you had a lovely time. Cream and butter in any soup is delicious. I’m a little bit lost for words at that picture of the battered hot dog…
Thanks, Emma. Those Dagwood dogs are certainly not an everyday food. Not even an annual food. They contain so much fat and grease.