Potato and Leek Soup - Reloaded

Hello everyone, in this Instructable I am going to show you how to boost a tasty yet simple soup into something that can be the starter of a festive meal with just a few alterations. As a matter of fact, this is the way I cook, thinking about recipes as inspiration, guidelines rather than rules.

The starting point was a recipe that had been an entry in the Comfort Food Contest:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Quick-Potato-and-...

Here, a decent Saturday or Sunday lunch is unimaginable without a soup so I have a wide range of them on my repertoire. Still, a new idea always comes in handy, thanks mattaw. It’s become a family favorite so much that everyone insisted that I should make this when we had guests coming over for lunch ...

So, I added a little this and that.

500 g potatoes

1 big or 2 small leeks

60 g butter

150 ml dry white wine

600 ml chicken stock

2 teaspoons of salt

freshly ground pepper

quail eggs

bacon or speck

3-4 green onions

tools:

cutting board

knife

vegetable peeler

1 big, 1 small saucepan

frying pan

Start with the leek, cut the top, harsh green part, cut it lengthwise 3-4 cm from where the white part starts down to the green part. Wash thoroughly with the top of the leek pointing downwards so that dirt won't get washed inside. Then chop.

Peel the potatoes and dice them. Size does not really matter, we're going to puree it anyway.

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the leek and the salt. Adding the salt will help the leek not to get burnt. Add the wine, boil it until it seems to have disappeared. Most of the alcohol (some say all) will be gone, but the taste stays. Remove about 1/3 of the leek to put on top of the soup.

Add the potatoes and the stock, season, cook until the potatoes are tender.

While your soup is cooking, let's get done with the little this and that mentioned in the intro.

1. The sauteed leek is ready.

2. Cook the quail eggs. I put them in cold water and cooked them for 1 minute after boiling, then I put them under ice cold water. They are actually quite small, the easiest way to clean them is to roll them why gently pressing on the cutting board, then remove the shell with the handle of a spoon. Cut the eggs in half.

3. Cut the speck into slices, fry them in a pan.

4. Chop the green onions.

Once the potatoes are nice and tender, blend the soup, taste it and add a more salt if needed. You also have your toppings ready.

I put the soup in a big bowl in the middle of the table with the toppings close by and let everyone help themselves.