Potato Leek soup with smoked salmon

Today, finally the promised soup recipe!

Leek and Potato soup with smoked salmon and a hint of orange

4 servings

Ingredients:

1 onion finely sliced

750 grams of creamy potato, cut into chunks

2 small leeks, courtly cut

1 cube of chicken stock

1 bayleaf

water

100 ml cream

75 gr of smoked salmon, cut into strips

the juice of 1 orange

Sweat the onion till soft in a large pan for soup. Add the leeks and potato and cook on a low heat for 5 minutes, stirring regularly.

Add the cube of stock and enough cold water to cover the vegetables well. add the bayleaf to add flavour to the soup. Cook on a low heat for 15 minutes, or until all vegetables are soft. Add the cream, take out the bayleaf and blend with a stick blender till smooth, leaving a bit of texture. Stir in the salmon and the orange juice and season with salt and pepper.

Serve with fresh bread, home made is always best of course :))

The secret to an easy and successful dinner...

Wow, that sounds so fifties, straight from a one of those great cooking books for housewives.

But it's true, I cooked a very successful dinner while feeling like the head of a broom or a wet teacloth, whichever you prefer.

- Bruscette alla Lisa

- Branzino al Forno con papate

- Insalata di Finocchio e arance

- Tarte-Tatin con panna montata e canella

First I'll give you the recipe for my special bruscette, I've fed them to quite a few Italian friends now and they all seem to love them.

You'll need: 1 ciabatta, 1 clove of garlic, 1 ripe avocado, 2 ripe tomatoes, 1 golden apple, a handful of basil, about three tablespoons of eco apple vinegar, a good slosh of delicious olive oil and salt and pepper. Maybe some very good balsamic vinegar to finish them off.

I always start by cutting the avocado, tomatoes and apple in cubes and mixing them with the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Leave that for about 20 minutes. In the meantime you can slice the bread about 1,5 cm thick and bake them in a good amount of baking olive oil on both sides. Make sure they are nice and golden. When they're cooled down a bit, rub them lightly with the garlic.

Then cut the basil in strips and mix in the bowl of avocado, apple and tomatoes. Taste it and season it as you like.

Fill the bruscette with the topping and drizzle a tiny thread of balsamic vinegar on top!

Then I had a Branzino each which I filled with some lemon slices, a bay-leaf and salt and pepper. I closed their bellies with a butchers thread and covered their skin with butter and sea salt. Put them in the oven on 200ºC for 30 minutes.

I served them with boiled potatoes in butter and parsley.

As a fresh 'contorno' I made a salad of finely sliced fennel, orange and dill, seasoned with olive oil and apple vinegar, salt and pepper.

And finally I made my first perfect Tarte-Tatin! I used more apples then the last time and let the caramel get slightly darker. Also I used only golden apples, they work fine for me.

I served a whipped cream with some sugar and cinnamon mixed in, Mmmm! What a great combination, apples, caramel, cream and cinnamon...

Bruscette alla Lisa

Branzini

Tarte-Tatin

Mmmm!