—A STORM OF SWORDS
Medieval Leek Soup
Take funges and pare hem clere and dyce hem. Take leke and shrede hym small and do hym to seeþ in gode broth. Colour it with safron and do þer inne powdour fort.
—FORME OF CURY, 14TH CENTURY
Serves 2 to 3
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 5 minutes
Pairs well with White Beans and Bacon, Medieval Cheese-and-Onion Pie, dry white wine or cider
This recipe is quick to prepare, and the resulting broth has a bit of kick from the pepper and ginger. It’s wonderfully fresh-tasting; paired with a chunk of sourdough bread, it’s perfect for a spring evening’s dinner.
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups beef or chicken broth
6 threads saffron, or a pinch of ground saffron
1 leek (white and light green parts only), well washed and thinly sliced
1½ cups mushrooms, diced
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of Poudre Forte
COOKING PROCEDURE:
1) Place the broth in a medium saucepan.
2) Add the saffron and bring the liquid to a boil.
3) Add the leek, mushrooms, ginger, pepper, salt, and poudre forte to the broth, simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, then remove from the heat and serve.
What is Leek?
The leek is a vegetable that belongs, along with onion and garlic, to the genus Allium, currently placed in family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae. Historically many scientific names were used for leeks, which are now treated as cultivars of Allium ampeloprasum. Two related vegetables, elephant garlic and Kurrat, are also cultivars of A. ampeloprasum, although different in their uses as food.
The edible part of the leek plant is a bundle of leaf sheaths that is sometimes erroneously called a stem or stalk.
Leeks have a mild onion-like taste. In its raw state, the vegetable is crunchy and firm. The edible portions of the leek are the white base of the leaves (above the roots and stem base), the light green parts, and to a lesser extent the dark green parts of the leaves. One of the most popular uses is for adding flavor to stock. The dark green portion is usually discarded because it has a tough texture, but it can be sauteed or added to stock. A few leaves are sometimes tied with twine and other herbs to form a bouquet garni.
Leeks are typically chopped into slices 5–10 mm thick. The slices have a tendency to fall apart, due to the layered structure of the leek. The different ways of preparing the vegetable are:
1) Boiled, which turns it soft and mild in taste. (Care should be taken to chop the vegetable, or else the intact fibers that run the length of the vegetable will tangle into a ball while chewing.)
2) Fried, which leaves it crunchier and preserves the taste.
3) Raw, which can be used in salads, doing especially well when they are the prime ingredient.
In Turkish cuisine, leeks are chopped into thick slices, then boiled and separated into leaves and finally filled with a filling usually containing rice, herbs (generally parsley and dill), onion and black pepper. For sarma with olive oil, currants, pine nuts and cinnamon are added and for sarma with meat, minced meat is added to the filling. In Turkey, especially "Zeytinyağlı pırasa" (leek with olive oil), "Ekşili pırasa (sour leek), "Etli pırasa" (leek with meat), "Pırasa Musakka"(leek musakka), "Pırasalı börek (börek with leek) and "Pırasa köftesi" leek meatball are also cooked.
Leeks are an ingredient of cock-a-leekie soup, leek and potato soup, and vichyssoise, as well as plain leek soup.
Because of their symbolism in Wales, they have come to be used extensively in that country’s cuisine. Elsewhere in Britain, leeks have come back into favor only in the last 50 years or so, having been overlooked for several centuries.
Historical Consumption of Leek as Vegetable
Bible commentators attribute the חציר specimen - acclaimed by the Israelites to be of abundance in Egypt - as the leek.(Glantz, Animal and plant life in the Torah, חי וצומח בתורה .) Dried specimens from archaeological sites in ancient Egypt, as well as wall carvings and drawings, led Zohary and Hopf to conclude the leek was a part of the Egyptian diet from at least the second millennium BCE onwards. They also allude to surviving texts that show it had been also grown in Mesopotamia from the beginning of the second millennium BCE. The leek was the favorite vegetable of the Emperor Nero, who consumed it in soup or in oil, believing it beneficial to the quality of his voice.
Next time you should try Sister’s Stew from the Game of Thrones TV series.
References:
Have you tried Tyrion Lannister's favorite lamprey pie, or Daenerys Targaryen mouth-watering honeyfingers? Then you are missing a lot!
If you are a true fan of the critically acclaimed Game of Thrones HBO TV series. You should taste some of the food if not all in the TV Series.
Taste the food at the King's Landing. Buy the A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook at Amazon.com using this link and you get a 10% discount and FREE shipping if you order the hardcover version.
Brewster, James L. 2008. Onions and other vegetable alliums (2nd ed.). Wallingford, UK: CABI International. ISBN 978-1-84593-399-9.
Grigson, Jane. 1978. Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-046859-5.
Librarie Larousse, ed. 1984. Larousse Gastronomique: The World's Greatest Cooking Encyclopedia. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited.
Zohary, Daniel and Maria Hopf. 2000. Domestication of plants in the Old World, third edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Watch Cooking Video: Leek Soup Recipe- Prepare Leeks for Leek Soup
Learn how to prepare the leeks for this homemade Leek Soup recipe with expert cooking tips in this free video clip.
Have you tasted the Pulled Pork Parfait Original Recipe at Miller Park?
Are you interested in Culinary Physics? Watch the FREE video tutorials at Culinary Physics Lecture Series.
CALORIE COUNTER: Leek Soup
leek, leek soup
Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
|
Energy
|
255 kJ
(61 kcal)
|
|
Carbohydrates
|
14.15 g
|
|
Sugars
|
3.9 g
|
|
Dietary fiber
|
1.8 g
|
|
Fat
|
0.3 g
|
|
Protein
|
1.5 g
|
|
Vitamins
|
|
|
Vitamin A equiv.
beta-carotene
lutein zeaxanthin
|
(10%) 83 μg (9%) 1000
μg 1900 μg
|
|
Thiamine (B1)
|
(5%) 0.06 mg
|
|
Riboflavin (B2)
|
(3%) 0.03 mg
|
|
Niacin (B3)
|
(3%) 0.4 mg
|
|
Pantothenic
acid (B5)
|
(3%) 0.14 mg
|
|
Vitamin B6
|
(18%) 0.233 mg
|
|
Folate (B9)
|
(16%) 64 μg
|
|
Vitamin C
|
(14%) 12 mg
|
|
Vitamin E
|
(6%) 0.92 mg
|
|
Vitamin K
|
(45%) 47 μg
|
|
Trace metals
|
|
|
Calcium
|
(6%) 59 mg
|
|
Iron
|
(16%) 2.1 mg
|
|
Magnesium
|
(8%) 28 mg
|
|
Manganese
|
(23%) 0.481 mg
|
|
Phosphorus
|
(5%) 35 mg
|
|
Potassium
|
(4%) 180 mg
|
|
Other
constituents
|
|
|
Water
|
83 g
|
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