Leek and potato soup.

Leek and potato soup. To cheer you up and comfort you.


Here is another favourite down our way. It's hardly seasonal --reader, I write in late June-- but I felt I needed to cook it because I was feeling sad. This was for two -- so scale up, accordingly. So simple as to be embarrassing.

The photo above is by Adactio at www.flick'r.com Thank you!

Four big fat leeks -- trimmed, but don't waste the dark green bits. Slice and clean carefully under cold water. That thar mud is persistent.

Eight medium floury potatoes -- so King Edwards, Maris Piper -- or even those just sold as 'white potatoes'. Peel and quarter them.

These two vegetables just go into a big deep pot, cover with water and then a few centimetres more, bring to the boil, add salt and a little freshly ground pepper, simmer for twenty minutes, crush everything down a little with a fork - I don't want to liquidise this-- and check for seasoning. We would eat this with bread and butter and, latterly, a hunk of decent mature cheddar. Which you can drop into the soup to scoop up in strings. Does it for me. It does have to be piping hot to do the trick.