Leek Soup of Suggestively Large Proportions

[hrj]

(A descriptive, rather than prescriptive, recipe)

Take 3 leeks of suggestively large proportions (ca. 1 lb each, trimmed weight). Trim, clean, and slice thinly crosswise.

Take a goodly amount of mushrooms (maybe nearly a pound?), wash and slice thinly.

Ask your butcher for chicken parts for making soup: backs, necks, whatever they have. When asked for an amount, gesture an approximate volume with your hands. Receive about the equivalent of a whole chicken in weight but comprised of backs and necks.

Put the chicken in a crockpot with as much water as it will contain along with a couple stalks of celery, chopped, and a handful of bay leaves. Simmer until bedtime then let cool overnight and refrigerate until you get home from work.

Meanwhile, skim some of the chicken fat off the top of the crockpot and saute the leeks until cooked and slightly browned. Repeat separately with the mushrooms. Pop these into the fridge until the next day.

Get home from work. Strain the chunky bits out of the broth and put said chunky bits back in the crockpot with more water, because the pot wasn't really large enough for the right chicken-to-water ratio and the chicken still has lots of good stuff in it. Mash up the chicken chunky bits into a bit of a slurry, add another handful of bay leaves, and simmer for an hour. Meanwhile put the broth, leeks, and mushrooms into the BIG cookpot (the one you should have used for making the broth except that you would have forgotten to keep checking on it and it would have scorched and you've learned to do all your long-simmering in the crock pot) and set it to simmer.

When the other pot (the one with the chunky chickeny bits) has simmered enough to extract more chickeny goodness, strain it and discard the chunky bits. Add this broth to the BIG pot. Simmer a little more until too hungry to wait.

Serve up a bowl full, salt to taste, then finish with a pinch of that truffle salt that j_i_m_r convinced you to buy. Yum. Try to make it last for three dinners even though you could really drink the whole gallon or so in a single sitting.

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

suggestively large proportions

Is nearly 3 feet suggestively large enough? We can get enormous leeks here.

This recipe reminds me of a leeks'n'mushrooms one I culled from somewhere in my early days in the society. Very tasty. I haven't made it in years.

[albionwood.livejournal.com]

So you sauteed the leeks in the chicken fat? I've never tried that, but it sounds delicious. I'm guessing you do that on fairly low heat so the fat doesn't spatter and the leeks don't scorch. I don't usually brown leeks - too easy to scorch, and they are plenty sweet already.

This sounds great, and I think I'll do something similar this week, adding in some of the last carrots and parsnips - gotta use them up, they are regrowing and will soon become woody.

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

Evil Enablers R Us :-)

[countess-e.livejournal.com]

Truffle salt, she queried, salivating discreetly? Oh, I must try this.

[j-i-m-r.livejournal.com]

Far West Fungi in the Ferry Building carries it. I could bring you some in July ... brain like sieve, remind me closer to the date :-)

[cellio]

That sounds tasty! Surely it would be deficient if one used leeks of suggestively normal proportions, but that's all I can get right now.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I always saute onion-family things on a very low heat -- about as low as the stove gets. For one thing, it takes a lot less fat that way.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, if I came up visiting I could bring some as a house-present ....