Dia dhuit!

How’d it go with the Dingle Pies? I hope you enjoyed preparing them and especially eating them. One of our readers baked them on a barbecue, and it looks like they came out amazing. Bravo!

Here is a second Irish recipe that we make quite often at home especially during the colder months: Leek and Potato Soup.

During our autumnal trip to Ireland, we had the opportunity to eat this soup on several occasions and it was always a delight. After a few hours on the road and several visits, a good soup like this leaves you as good as new.

Of course, autumn and winter are the seasons par excellence for soups and creams, but to be honest, a good soup is always a good option!

Well, I said just now that today we would propose you a recipe, but actually we are going to propose you two, as we cannot eat a Leek and Potato Soup without accompanying it with one of the classic Irish breads like the white Soda Bread.

For those of you who start shaking when thinking about making a bread at home, don’t worry. The Soda Bread is very easy to make and with almost no kneading. However, it is a bread that you have to eat the same day (it tastes great when still warm!) or, if you are lucky, the day after, because you cannot keep it for long.

So I hope you will become fans of soups like us with these two recipes.

Let us start with our white Soda Bread:

Ingredients for four individual breads:

• white flour: 450 g = 4 cups
• sodium bicarbonate (baking soda): 5 ml = 1 tsp
• cream of tartar: 7,5 ml = 1 ½ tsp. Cannot find cream of tartar? Don’t worry, you can replace it with lemon juice, but you will have to triple the amount. In our recipe it will thus be 22,5 ml = 4 ½ tsp of lemon juice.
• salt: a pinch
• butter at room temperature: 25 g = 2 tbsp
• egg: 1
• buttermilk: 300 ml = 1 ¼ cups. If you cannot find buttermilk, don’t panic! How to make buttermilk yourself? Add 15-20 ml lemon juice to 300 ml milk. Mix well and leave to stand for 10 minutes. You will see that the milk will change its texture. Ready!

Time for preparation: 15 – 20 minutes

Time in the oven: 30 minutes at 220 °C, preheat the oven

Let’s get to work!

Beat the egg and mix it with the buttermilk.

Take a big bowl and put in all the dry ingredients (flour, sodium bicarbonate, cream of tartar and salt). In case you replaced the cream of tartar by lemon juice, add the lemon juice later together with the buttermilk. Cut the butter into cubes and add it to the bowl. Now you have to crumble the butter with your fingers into the flour.

Form a volcano with the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk in the middle. Knead first directly in the bowl and finish by kneading for 2 – 3 minutes on the floured worktop.

Divide the dough into four and shape each of them into a ball. Lay out the baking paper on the baking tray and place the balls of dough on it. Make a not to deep cut in the shape of a cross in each loaf, this will help the loaves to raise in the oven. Sprinkle with a little flour and bake in the oven.

The breads will be ready in about 30 minutes, but how do you know whether your bread is properly baked? Your breads will take on a nice dark golden colour. To find out if a bread is properly baked, take it out of the oven for a moment and tap its base with your fingertips. If it sounds hollow, the bread is ready, otherwise leave it in the oven for 2 or 3 more minutes and then check again.

Once ready, let them cool on a rack outside the oven.

Have you ever heard of white Soda Bread? Have you ever made homemade bread before?

And now for our Leek and Potato Soup:

Ingredients for four people:

• butter: 50 g = ¼ cup
• leek: 3 medium ones
• potatoes: 2 large ones
• onions: 2 medium or 1 large one
• chicken broth: 1 l
• bay: 1-2 leaves, according to taste
• cream: 75 ml
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• bacon (optional): according to taste

Time for preparation: 15 minutes

Time for cooking: 30 – 40 minutes

Heat the chicken broth in a pot.

Cut the leek into rings, the onions into small pieces and the potatoes into cubes.

Heat the butter in a second pot on a medium heat, whereatthe pot should have a capacity of at least 3 l. When the butter is melted, add the leek. After about 5 minutes, add the onion. Stir from time to time so that it does not burn! After 5 more minutes, it is time to add the potatoes. Give it a few turns, add the bay leaf and the hot chicken broth.

Let it cook covered for about 10 minutes, i.e. until the potatoes and vegetables are cooked.

Then take the bay leaf out of the pot and puree the rest with a hand blender into a creamy texture. Put the pot back on the heat, this time at low heat, and add the cream. Finally, add salt and black pepper to taste.

Serve the soup very hot with a few pieces of fried bacon to give it a good final touch. And above all, do not forget to serve the soup with a good white Soda Bread!

Do you prefer hot or cold soups? What is your secret ingredient for leek soup?