Leicester Early Music: John's Page

Festival Events
¤ All Events
¤ Concerts
¤ Fringe Events
¤ Junior Events
¤ Workshops
¤ Breaking News

Information
¤ Booking Information
¤ Contact Us
¤ The Longslade Consort
¤ Join Our Mailing List
¤ Links
¤ John's Page

Personal thoughts from the Festival Director - not necessarily endorsed by the Festival Organisers.

Notes for the Month - March, 2010

Posh Watercress Soup

First make some vegetable stock by boiling together chopped carrots, onions, parsnips and any other spare vegetables you have. (I collect all the peelings, unusable ends, celery trimmings etc and freeze them untill I have enough to use for stock). You can add half a bottle of white wine if you like. You should boil for around 30 minutes and then leave overnight to infuse. Strain.

Now put a knob of butter (or butter and olive oil) into a large saucepan and sweat (off, as they say in the trade!) a finely chopped medium onion and about the same weight of diced potato. Do not colour the vegetables. Then add vegetable stock and boil gently for around 15 minutes. After about 5 minutes, add quite a lot of watercress. (I used 200g for 4 people). Leave to cool slightly and liquidise. (Make sure the lid is firmly on the liquidizer!) Season with salt and pepper.

Make some cylinders of potato. (About 1˝" in diameter and ž" high). Cook carefully, making sure they are soft, but not falling apart. Stop the cooking by putting them into cold water.

You will also need one large scollop per person. Take off the roe (the red stuff) and place it on baking paper. (Did you know the scollop was an hermaphrodite and the red part of the row is female and the creamy white the male?). Heat in a very low oven overnight, until dark red and hard. Grind to a powder. (This keeps well, so place any left over in a jar and safe for another dish).

All of this can be done in advance.

To assemble the dish:

Heat the soup and check seasoning.
Warm the potatoes. (I used a water and butter liason, but you could steam them).
Griddle the scollops. Not too long! I used a minute each side in a hot pan. Leave to rest for a coupld of minutes.
Place a potato cylinder in each soup bowl. Carefully pour soup around it. Place a scollop on top of the cylinder and sprinkle some of the dried row on top. Serve.