leeks | Chef Doru's Blog

I don’t know if it’s because of the winter or is just me, but I decided to go for another soup. This time I choose a soup from one of the blogs I follow and admire, Sara Makes Soup. I change few things in the recipe since all my family is on some sort of diet. My ingredients are as follows:

2 tbsp bacon bits
1/2 red onion, diced
3 green onions, diced
1 giant round garlic clove, minced
4 stalks celery, diced
1 parsley root
3 leeks, white and light green parts only, sliced
1/3 cup dry white wine
1.5 L Chicken Stock
1 pound Yukon gold potatoes, chopped into 1″ cubes
1 sweet potato, chopped into 1″ cubes
1 sprig of thyme, washed
1 cup of 2% milk
meat from 2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into cubs
salt and pepper to taste
some parsley, chopped.

Potato and leeks soup

Just Make Soup! (liveatx.wordpress.com)
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Misococo potato leek soup (ediblecommunity.wordpress.com)

First of all, I will need to apologize to all my readers, fans and followers for not posting for 23 days, but I was on a 3 weeks diet wich included raw vegetables and other “good” stuff so I didn’t cook anything or anything interesting.

Last weekend we had very special guests for dinner, so I started to cook again. The chicken breast with orange sauce was one of the main courses we had along with: all kind of fancy cheeses, fruits, roasted beets salad, Romanian style devil eggs, endives with cream cheese and smoked salmon, olives, butternut squash soup, Chateaubriand and a delicious chocolate-mouse cake.

Another interesting thing happened this week – my one year anniversary as a blogger. Wow!!! Time flies!!!

Happy Anniversary Chef Doru

Let get to this recipes of the chicken breast with orange sauce:

Ingredients:

30 ml (1 fl oz) 1/8 cup rapeseed oil
3 tbsp olive oil
4 x 225 g (8 oz) chicken supreme (I used regular breasts)
150-200 ml (1/4 pint) 2/3 cup orange brandy (I used Grand Marnier as has more flavour than the regular brandy)
15 g (1/2 oz) 2 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
150 ml (1/4 pint) 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
25 g (1 oz) courgette (zucchini), cut into matchstick strips (I used 1/2 medium size zucchini)
25 g (1 oz) red (bell) pepper, cut into matchstick strips (I used 1/2 medium size red, green and yellow pepper)
25 g (1 oz) leek, cut into matchstick strips
400 g (14 oz) dried wholemeal (whole-wheat) spaghetti
3 large oranges, peeled and cut into segments
rind of 1 orange, cut into very fine strips
3 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
150 ml (1/4 pint) 2/3 cup fromage frais or ricotta cheese (I didn’t use any cheese)
salt and pepper
fresh tarragon leaves, to garnish

Directions:

Heat the rapeseed oil and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan (skillet).
Add the chicken and cook quickly until golden brown.
Add the orange brandy and cook for 3 minutes.
Sprinkle over the flour and cook for 2 minutes.
Lower the heat and add the orange juice, zucchini, all the peppers and leek and season.
Simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened.
Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil; add the spaghetti and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and cook for 10 minutes.
Drain the spaghetti, transfer to a serving dish and drizzle over the remaining oil.
Add half of the orange segments, half of the orange rind, the tarragon and fromage frais or ricotta cheese to the sauce in the pan and cook for 3 minutes.
Place the chicken on top of the pasta, pour over a little sauce, garnish with orange segments, rind and tarragon.