Scottish Cuisine: Making A Cock-a-Leekie Soup

Cock-a-Leekie Chicken Prunes Leeks For Starter Of Burns Supper Menu

Nov 2, 2008 Susan Morris

Cock-a-Leekie Soup is often served at St Andrew's Night November dinners and at the start of a Burns Supper. Here's a basic recipe for cooking up Cock-a-Leekie soup.

In this week’s Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live, broadcast in Britain on Friday October 31, 2008 and Saturday November 1, 2008 (repeat) on Channel 4, chef Gordon Ramsay wins a Cock-a-Leekie Soup challenge with writer, broadcaster and finalist on Celebrity Masterchef, Hardeep Singh Kohli.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup is a stalwart of a January Burns Supper Menu served at the beginning as the starter and frequently features on St Andrew’s Night dinners held in November each year. So Cock-a-Leekie Soup has Scottish credentials.

Paul Harris claims that “Cock-a-Leekie .. is probably Scotland’s most famous soup… from the humblest crofts to the grandest of royal palaces this was an established favourite” in The Lomond Pocket Book of Scottish Cooking: A feast of Scottish Traditional fare, from breakfast porridge to liqueur coffee (Lomond Books, 1998).

A Cock-a-Leekie Soup Recipe

There are many variations in published recipes for making a cock-a-leekie soup. Some versions include rice, carrots and bacon lardons. The following cock-a-leekie soup is a version for the home-cook using in season leeks, organic chicken breasts and stewed sweet prunes.

Ingredients:

• 75g organic chicken breast
• 1 litre home-made chicken stock or liquid chicken stock
• 8 leeks
• 12 stoned prunes soaked in prune juice
• Bay leaf
• Handful of fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Cook the chicken breast by either over roasting in butter or boiling depending on personal preferences. Once cooked allow to cool slightly.
2. While the chicken is cooking, heat the liquid chicken stock in a saucepan.
3. Wash the leeks and the parsley.
4. Thinly slice the leeks and chop the parsley before adding to the chicken stock in the saucepan with a bay leaf.
5. Turn down the heat and simmer the leeks for 40 minutes on a low heat. The liquid will reduce over this time.
6. Cut the cooked organic chicken breast into bite-size pieces and add to the saucepan.
7. Add the prunes and heat the soup for three to five minutes.
8. Season the Cock-a-Leekie soup with cracked black pepper and salt as desired.

Scottish Cuisine Recipes For Cock-a-Leekie Soup

Alternative recipes for making a Cock-A-Leekie Soup, for a home-based St Andrew’s Night dinner in November or Burns Supper celebrations in January, can be found in many culinary resources including:

• The special recipe for Cock-a-Leekie of Rosa Mattravers, cook to Theodora, Lady Forbes, on Donside in Aberdeenshire featured in The Lomond Pocket Book of Scottish Cooking: A feast of Scottish Traditional fare, from breakfast porridge to liqueur coffee (Lomond Books, 1998, first published by The AppleTree Press 1988) by Paul Harris.
• In Teach the Bairns to Cook: Traditional Scottish Recipes for Beginners by Liz Ashworth (Scottish Children’s Press, 1996) published in association with Baxters of Speyside.
• Debbie Dalrymple’s Cock-a-leekie soup published in Eat Yourself Healthy (Scottish Consumer Council, 1997). Debbie Dalrymple writes “this is a traditional Scottish soup made with leeks and chicken…Traditionally a whole chicken is boiled and this will feed up to ten people. You can also use the left-over carcass and meat from a roast chicken, if available”.

The copyright of the article Scottish Cuisine: Making A Cock-a-Leekie Soup in Seasonal Cooking is owned by Susan Morris. Permission to republish Scottish Cuisine: Making A Cock-a-Leekie Soup in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Scottish Cuisine Cock-a-Leekie Soup Recipe

Comments

Jan 22, 2009 3:38 AM

Guest :

good simple recipe with graet result

1 Comment: