Celebrating National Eat Your Vegetables Day with Founder Ethan Flack.
Ethan & Wife Josie provide in house dining. A chance to Savour the flavours of the south in your choice of venue, Celebrate your special occasion in the comfort of your own home.
“Create food that celebrates the abundance of products on offer from the passionate farmers, butchers, growers, brewers and other producers. It’s a celebration and recognition of the community through the plate of food.” - Ethan Flack
Who better to help us celebration National Eat Your Vegetables Day than Southland Founder & Chef Ethan Flack.
Ethan has a passion for locally grown and produced foods. His plates tell the full story of the local growers themselves and the connections the produce has to the soil & garden.
Below is a page out of chefs own notebook. A wintery Potato & Leek Soup which Ethan creates using Southland grown vegetables from Wilsons Veggies & Milk from How Good Milk.
Potato and Leek Soup
Serves 4.
Start this recipe 2-3 hours before you plan on making your soup as first you need to make a leek oil.
“Right now, leeks are super tasty and freshly dug potatoes are fantastic. As winter sets in, the warmth of a soup really hits the spot. I love this Potato and Leek soup as it’s healthy, warm and flavorsome.”
Ingredients
3 Large Agria Potatoes
1 Leek
1 Onion - Medium
250g Vegetable Oil
50g Butter
1 L Milk
Salt
Pepper
Lemon Juice/Apple Cider Vinegar
Method
Leek Oil
1. Cut off the darker green part of the leek, keeping her rest for the soup later.
2. Roughly chop the leek top then wash well.
3. Warm 200g of the vegetable oil in a small pan until it is around 70°C (hot but not burning hot)
4. Using a blender, blend leek top for around 30seconds until it starts to break down.
5. Squeeze the leek pulp with your hands to remove most of the water.
6. Place the drained pulp and warmed oil together in the blender and blend for two minutes until smooth (ish). 7. Allow to infuse for 2 hours. 8. After two hours strain oil through a sieve to get your fresh leek to oil (Keep this chilled until required)
Soup
1. Firstly, halve leeks lengthways and wash, then slice finely.
2. Peel and finely dice onion.
3. Place leek and onion in a medium pan with the remaining oil then cook over a medium heat until soft.
4. While this is cooking, wash and dice potatoes to approximately 2cm.
5. Keep 100g aside covered in water for later then add the remaining to the pan of leeks and onions and cook for a further 5 minutes before adding the milk.
6. Bring to the simmer and slowly cook until potatoes are tender.
7. While this is cooking, place the remaining potatoes into a small pan, cover with water, add a pinch of salt and cook over a medium heat until tender. Once these are cooked drain straight away and allow to cool slightly.
8. When soup is ready, blend until smooth. (I put mine through a sieve, but this is not essential)
9. Taste the soup, adjust seasoning to your preference using Salt, Pepper and Lemon Juice/Vinegar. To Serve
Place a spoon of the cooked potato dice into the base of a bowl, pour the warm potato and leek soup over top and finish with a drizzle of leek oil on top.