Leek and potato soup in Thermione

I love leek and potato soup, especially home made.  Wonderful stuff.  I always make soups in my Thermomix but always have a bit of a problem with this one because to zizz it to the smoothness I like brings out the starchiness of the potatoes which makes the soup 'gloopy'. 

So I had a think and this is what I came up with
It makes enough for two very hungry people or four if you just want a smaller portion

Ingredients
one starchy potato (I used a 'jacket' potato), about 350g - ish
half a leek.  I used the top half as I think the greener leaves have more flavour than the whiter leaves in a soup.
half a medium onion
a chicken stock cube (or make it veg if you want a vegetarian friendly soup)
about 750 mls water, more or less - I'm afraid this is the one thing I failed to remember the measurement of.
a bay leaf (from the garden)
a good grating of black pepper
a sprinkle of salt
a heaped tsp marigold bouillon powder
about an eighth of a pack of lower fat soft cheese with garlic and herbs (Morrisons do it)

What I did
I peeled and chopped the potato and put it in the simmering basket
I cut the leek in half and ran it under the tap to clean, peeled and chopped the onion and placed both in the bowl with the water, the stock cube, bay leaf, black pepper and a sprinkle of salt.  I placed the simmering basket on top and boiled the lot at 100 for 20 mins, reverse speed 3 (because I didn't want to chop the bay leaf to pieces) until the potato was cooked.

Then I removed the potato cubes and mashed them really well using my ricer.  This was instead of a thermo-zizz which makes it gloopy.

Then I did something very stupid.  I forgot the bay leaf and gave the bowl contents a good zizz to puree the onion and leek.  Doh!

After that, I added the smoothly mashed potato and the soft cheese and mixed it in before tasting.  It just seemed to be lacking a little something so I added the marigold powder, mixed it in and tasted again and it was lovely.  Then I remembered the bay leaf so I poured the lot into a sieve and pushed it all through and I'm glad I did because I think the bay leaf did add to the flavour in a way that it wouldn't have done had I removed it after the boiling.

That was it really - I just reheated to 95C, served and enjoyed.  I shall do it just like that again, mistake and all.  Great, spicy flavour, lovely smooth and 'creamy' texture without a hint of gloop and really low in fat.

Smoked salmon pate

The idea came from a Readers Digest book, Low Fat: No Fat and I adapted it.  It's jolly nice and a great way to use up bits and bobs.


a few 'white beans' (e.g. cannelloni, haricot)
a bit of smoked salmon
lemon juice (from a bottle is fine)
titchy bit of light mayo - as little as you can get away with to get the texture
pepper and a bit of salt (maybe)

It also helps to have a mini chopper/blender

In the bowl put the beans, smoked salmon and some lemon juice.  Zizz it up together.  Add just a little bit of light mayo as it helps the texture.  Zizz and taste, adding more lemon juice if you like and a bit of pepper and, possibly, salt.  It depends on how salty the salmon is really.

If you have some fennel fronds or similar, that would be nice but I didn't.

Heap into a bowl and serve.  I had it with watercress and a couple of small slices of bread I baked in a coolish oven until crisp and crunchy.  It was delicious!

Apple meringue

Not a pie, nothing so complicated, but I had an egg white to use up.

I stewed apple with just enough sugar until it was soft.  This can be done earlier.

I whisked up the egg white with a hand held electric whisk until it was white and soft peak-ish.  I added two tbsp caster sugar in small amounts while continuing to whisk.  Last of all I whisked in half tsp cornflour.  It took almost no time at all.

I put the apple in an ovenproof dish and spooned over the meringue, teasing it into peaks.
I baked it at 180C for about 30 mins-ish, turning the oven right down after about 20 mins.

Lovely!  Low fat (not low sugar though) and one of my five a day.