Monday 5 November 2012

How far can you stretch ... Part 3

Welcome to my new follower Janey Johnson. You are most welcome.

Yesterday, I made soup from the chicken stock (which was thick and gelatinous). One of my all time favourite recipes is Leek and potato soup, with added bacon, or ham, pearl barley and anything else you might have that you can substitute which won't alter the flavour too much.

For example, it works well with no bacon and butter beans added at the end. If you don't have leeks, double the onion then add some chopped light tasting greens such as green lettuce or spinach.

"In a large pan, warm 2 tablespoons oil and gently fry 1 large diced onion. When beginning to soften add 3 - 4 rashers of diced streaky bacon and fry until just beginning to turn golden (but not brown). Add 1.4 litres of stock (use 2 -3 stock cubes of your choice) and 3 oz pearly barley. Bring to the boil, then simmer with the lid on for 20 minutes.

Add 3/4 lb diced potatoes and 1/4 pint milk. Boil then simmer for 15 minutes.

Add 3 diced leeks and simmer for 15 minutes or until everything is cooked. I only had 2 small leeks but had a bag of lettuce going brown at its cut ends, so put that in as well. Add salt and pepper to taste plus fresh or dried tarragon (1/2 tsp dried). Thicken with cornflour to desired thickness. If using ham, add it now and warm through."

It is lovely on the day it is made but even better the next day. We usually serve out our bowls then measure and get one or two bags for freezing.

The total cost for this (using none of the chicken meat and 2 home grown leeks) was £1.30 for the entire saucepan. This gave us a total of 15 ladles which equates to 6 bowls.



We had a bowl each for lunch. Another 2 bowls worth were frozen, and the other two will be eaten for tea on Tuesday after our walk.

14 comments:

  1. Yum! We've had leek and potato soup for lunch - desperately needed as it is verrry chilly here today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Likewise here, around 1.1 Celsius when we woke up. Have you calmed down now, I feel I should be fanning you with lavender and mint fronds! :o)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I scraped a thick frost off the car at 7.50am, and when I went back out at 8.15am it had frozen again! I was quite calm when I wrote it- I needed to be to construct a logical argument, at least I hope it's logical! Much too cold for fanning - maybe a nice cup of mint tea though ( except a crown has come off again, so I'm having to steer clear of anything too hot or cold - dentist can't fix it until Thursday).

      Delete
    2. I have had a sensitive tooth/teeth for around 2 years now but the dentist can't find a hole so reckons it is a mini fracture. However the last couple of weeks it has grown a lot more sensitive so maybe on my next visit (if I last that long) he will be able to detect a hole and fill it.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Thank you Dan, it was lovely and filling.

      Delete
  4. hi
    your soup looks delicious!!!!
    have a nice evening,
    regina

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Regina, hope you had a nice evening as well.

      Delete
  5. I rarely use chicken wings, but I sort of do the same process with whole chickens..especially when I can find them at reduced cost.

    The soup looks wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Normally, I would use a whole chicken as well but I was curious how much I could get from the wings.

      Delete
  6. Well done you. All in all how many meals did you make from the chicken pieces? How much extra overall did you have to add to get the meals? Id say not a lot at all. Good skills! Am impressed!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Eeek. My final posting shows the breakdown of how many meals I made and what extras (plus costs) I used.

      Delete
  7. Tasty looking soup just right for a chilly Bonfire night methinks.
    Patricia x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We are finishing off the 2nd lot of soup for tea tonight.

      Delete

I love hearing from you, will read all your comments and try and answer any questions you leave. Please leave comments in English. Don't forget to come back and read my reply! All comments are moderated so if you try to link it to a commercial web site, it will not be published.