Leek

Potato and leek soup with beef short rib

Posted by Gary

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

Chocolate custard Cannoli for lunch at The Ekka
Strawberry Sundae at The Ekka | One reason why The Ekka is the best show in Australia
The Loaded Nugget from the Nugg Shack at The Ekka. Battered chicken nuggets with hot chips, cheese, bacon, and spring onions.
An extra long Dagwood dog from The Ekka
Food from The Ekka

Recipe

Equipment

  • Pressure cooker [1]
  • Stick blender

Ingredients

  • Potatoes
  • Leek [2]
  • Beef short rib [3, 4]
  • Bouquet garni
  • Vegetable stock
  • Chillies
  • Parsley
  • Garlic

Instructions

  1. 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.
  2. Go grocery shopping to plan what to cook while in the meat section.
  3. Choose a couple of beef short ribs to be the meal’s centrepiece.
  4. Heat the oven to about 200 °C.
  5. Cut a couple of potatoes into large chunks.
  6. 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.
  7. Peel a few garlic cloves.
  8. Spread the ribs, potato, leek, and garlic onto a baking sheet and put it into the oven.
  9. Keep an eye on the tray and remove the tray when the food starts to change colour and caramelise.
  10. Put the chillies, garlic, leek, and potato into the pressure cooker.
  11. Add the bouquet garni and the ribs on top.
  12. Pour in some vegetable stock.
  13. Seal the lid to the pressure cooker and set the timer to one hour.
  14. Cook the contents.
  15. Remove the lid when the pressure has equalised.
  16. Lift out the ribs, the meat, and the bouquet garni.
  17. Put the meat into a bowl, and with forks, pull the meat.
  18. Process the soup with a stick blender.
  19. Place some of the meat into the centre of a soup bowl.
  20. Ladle the soup around the meat.
  21. Garnish the soup with parsley.
  22. Give thanks to the Lord.
  23. 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

Pulled beef short rib meat
Potato and leek soup with beef short rib
Potato and leek soup with beef short rib
Potato and leek soup with beef short rib
Potato and leek soup with beef short rib

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.

 

Pulled pork and leek pie with four cheeses sauce

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

I was chatting with a friend last night and mentioned I was thinking of making a pulled pork sausage roll tonight. As the idea developed, the cylinder of joy grew into a pie to accommodate all the extra ingredients I wanted to add.

I’m using the pork leftover from a slab of belly pork I cooked last weekend. I’m also using the adjective “pulled” euphemistically. The pork is so soft and friable, all I need to do to separate the muscle bundles is gently heat the pork in a skillet and, with a wooden spoon, poke and jab at my meat to break it up.

Ordinarily, to “pull” your meat, you’d use your fingers to prise apart the muscle bundles gently. While it’s fun to finger pull your pork, it can get tedious.

Pork belly
Female pork belly naked and ready for heat

Ingredients

  • Cooked pork belly (“pulled”) and cooked black peppercorns
  • Udder delight blue cheese (crumbled)
  • Gruyèye cheese (grated)
  • Gouda cheese (grated)
  • Swiss cheese (grated)
  • Plain flour
  • Butter
  • Full cream milk
  • Leek (sliced)
  • Fennel (diced)
  • Red onion (finely sliced)
  • Celery (thick-cut slices)
  • Puff pastry (bought and not homemade because I’m too lazy)

Instructions

  1. Remove the pork belly and peppercorns from the refrigerator. You may remember this was cooked in a pressure cooker for an hour with master stock. The peppercorns will give every mouthful a bit of a kick.
  2. Place the pork into a skillet and gently heat the meat on low heat. Wait until the pork softens to the consistency of an overripe banana.
  3. With a wooden spoon, gently poke and prod the pork to break up the muscle bundles and, with a twisting motion, flatten out the meat in the skillet.
  4. Set aside the “pulled” pork and keep it warm.
  5. Make a roux with equal parts (by weight) of flour and butter. The easiest way is to gently melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook for three minutes. Add in the milk slowly until you have a smooth slurry consistency.
  6. While the white sauce is on a gentle heat, begin to add in the cheeses and stir until you have a thick gooey sauce.
  7. Turn off the heat and mix in the meat, celery, leeks, red onion, and fennel. I like adding the raw vegetables at this stage, so in the finished pie, I can feel the texture of the vegetables rather than the vegetables being cooked mush.
  8. Take some butter and wipe it over the inside surface of an oven-proof dish. I like to use the tips of my fingers for this because it’s nice feeling the slipperiness of the butter on my fingers, and then I can lick the butter off. 
  9. Layer a sheet of the thawed puff pastry into the pie dish and then gently spoon in the pie mixture. Add some spinach leaves for some extra vegetation and iron.
  10. With another sheet of puff pastry, make a lid to the pie.
  11. Melt a little butter with microwave radiation and brush over the surface of the pie.
  12. Cook the pie in a moderately hot oven until the pie crust is golden and flaky.
  13. Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool a little to avoid palatial blistering. The last thing I want is my buccal mucosa being scalded and lifting off the basement membrane.
  14. Slice through the pastry with a large metal spoon, penetrate the pie, scoop out a large portion, and put it in a shallow bowl.
  15. Next to the pie, add a large spoonful of steamed baby green peas and corn.
  16. Drown the peas and corn with some instant gravy.
  17. There is no need for a knife when eating this meal. I think the best utensil might be a splade. 
  18. Give thanks to God for His blessings, and then tuck in.

This week in review

It’s been a fabulous week. Work has been crazy busy, and we achieved some extraordinary things. Apart from work, though, I feel thrilled with life. 

This morning my friends from bible study had a brunch. I brought some vanilla slices from Dobinsons, and when I left, look what I received? A gift of some lovely Three Mills Bakery mince pies, luscious strawberries, and fresh cherries. 

  • Dobinsons Vanilla Slice
  • Dobinsons Vanilla Slice
  • Strawberries and cCherries, and a Three Mills Bakery mince pie

Final thoughts

  1. How do you usually pull your meat?
  2. How many cheeses are too many for a pie?
  3. Is mouthfeel necessary for your oral enjoyment?
  4. Do you lick your fingers?
  • Pork belly
    Female pork belly naked and ready for heat
  • Celery, leek, fennel, and red onion
  • Gruyère, Gouda, Swiss, and Udder Delight Blue cheeses
  • Pulled pork pie filling
  • Pulled pork pie filling and puff pastry
  • Pulled pork pie with cheese sauce out of the oven
  • Pulled pork and cheese sauce pie with peas and corn drowned in gravy
  • Pulled pork and cheese sauce pie with peas and corn drowned in gravy
  • Strawberries and cCherries, and a Three Mills Bakery mince pie
  • Dobinsons Vanilla Slice
  • Dobinsons Vanilla Slice

Chicken and leek pot pie

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Hi there 😊 How are you? 

Canberra emerged out of lockdown on Friday (2021-10-15), well, technically, it was Thursday evening, but the functional changes took effect on Friday.

Not much has changed for me. Given I have no one to visit and no one comes to my place, no change there. I’m not that interested at this stage in eating out; as much as I’d like to see small business people keep earning an income, my contribution will effectively be nil. Not because I don’t want to, but because my interest is not contributing to any crowding anywhere. Crowding increases the risk of infectious disease transmission, and it’s not limited to COVID-19. 

I know some immunologically vulnerable people, and the thought of contributing to spreading infection is enough to stay at home as much as possible.

Capsicum, Celery, Cucumber, Fennel, Lemon zest, Parsley, Radish, Red onion

Ingredients

  • Chicken thigh meat
  • Leek
  • Mushrooms
  • Thyme
  • White wine or cooking sherry
  • Cream
  • Cheese
  • Puff pastry
  • Egg
  • Radish
  • Fennel
  • Red onion
  • Parsley
  • Celery
  • Lemon zest
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive oil

Instructions

  1. Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
  2. Slice all the vegetables
  3. The choice of chicken can be a supermarket purchases roast chook or chicken meat you’ve previously cooked, or you can cook some chicken meat specifically for this meal. I had cooked some chicken thighs in a pressure cooker last week, and I used that meat for this dish. 
  4. Heat a skillet with some neutral oil. I use Queensland nut oil.
  5. Sauté the leeks and mushrooms and then add in the chicken meat and heat it through. Add in the thyme leaves too.
  6. Depending on how much chicken, leek, and mushrooms you used, you may find you have too much for your pie dish. Please remove what you won’t need and aliquot it to a container for refrigeration and use at another time.
  7. Turn off the heat and allow the filling to cool a little. 
  8. Place the filling into your pie dish. If you’re a wise cook, you’ll lubricate the inside surfaces of your pie dish with some butter or oil. While I make no claims to any wisdom, I used butter because I’ll use any excuse to use some butter.
  9. Add a little cream and some grated cheese and mix it through the filling.
  10. As an optional step, add a layer of basil leaves for a pleasant surprise when you cut through the pie.
  11. If you’re a keen and competent cook, you can make your puff pastry. Given that Yummy Lummy (i.e., me) is all about convenience cooking for singletons, I buy puff pastry from a supermarket brand.
  12. Thaw a sheet of puff pastry while that is happening, turn on the oven to about 180 °C. 
  13. Cover the pie dish with the pastry and crimp the edges.
  14. Beat the egg and, with a brush, ‘paint’ the pastry.
  15. Place the pie dish into the oven and cook until the pastry is a golden brown colour.
  16. While the pie is cooking, prepare the salad and dress with lemon juice and olive oil.
  17. Remove the pie from the oven and admire your handiwork.
  18. Take a portion of the pie and place it on a plate and add some of the salad.
  19. Praise God for the day and thank Him for the food.
  20. Eat and enjoy.

A word about love

It’s been a pretty good week. Work has been great. While it is busy, I have fantastic workmates who make everything we do enjoyable.

I’ve been enjoying listening to some audiobooks by Sam Allberry and sermons by Tim Keller on podcasts. I was also excited by last Sunday’s zoom church service. We’ve started a series on Peter’s letters. Coincidentally, the sermon series I’m listening to by Tim Keller is on Galatians and has a bit to say about Peter.

In one of the books this week, Sam mentioned a well-known passage of scripture commonly quoted at weddings.

‘If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ‘

1 Corinthians 13:1–7.

He suggested comparing if we measure up to God’s standard, we should replace the word “love” with our name. I tried it, and let’s say it wasn’t good. 😳

The thing I did which did make sense was to replace “love” with “Jesus”. 

Final thoughts

  1. How do you feel about the combination of chicken and leeks in a pie?
  2. Do you make puff pastry from scratch?
  3. Would you immediately get out and about after lockdown ends?

Feel free to leave a comment 😊

  • Leek Mushroom
  • Leek Mushroom Chicken
  • Chicken Leek Mushroom Pot pie
  • Chicken Leek Mushroom Pot pie
  • Capsicum, Celery, Cucumber, Fennel, Lemon zest, Parsley, Radish, Red onion
  • Chicken Leek Mushroom Pot pie
  • Saturday dinner. Chicken Pot pie with Capsicum, Celery, Cucumber, Fennel, Lemon zest, Parsley, Radish, and Red onion salad.