This recipe has been driven by flavour and colour. Jerusalem artichokes are in season and there is something about the bite of them I love. It reminds me of coconut. So perhaps I will add a little coconut milk to this soup for creaminess. Nobly blue potatoes are in the shops too so I thought they might look lovely as crisps aloft this delicate soup. The colour of pink pepper corns also sprang to mind, so too did lemon grass and ginger and before long I had the recipe for a very pretty soup which was lovely to eat and gorgeous to photograph. Just the thing for a cold winter day with a biting wind.
Ingredients
450g Jerusalem artichokes
juice from half a lemon
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp rapeseed oil or other light flavoured oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 litre weak vegetable or chicken stock
1 stick of lemon grass, bruised
a finger length of ginger, peeled and grated
1 tbsp dessicated coconut
165ml can coconut milk
salt and pepper
For the blue potato crisps
1 blue potato weighing 50g - 80g
1 tbsp
rapeseed oil or other light flavoured oil
Maldon sea salt
a spring of rosemary
1 tsp pink pepper corns
Method
Scrub, peel and roughly chop the Jerusalem artichokes and place them in a bowl of cold water into which the juice of half a lemon has been squeezed. This helps them to keep their colour. Place the onion and garlic in a saucepan with the oil and sweat for 5 minutes. Add the stock, drained Jerusalem artichokes, lemon grass, ginger and dessicated coconut. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the artichokes are tender. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Add the coconut milk and liquidise the soup until it is smooth. Season and add more stock or coconut milk if required.
To make blue potato crisps
Preheat oven to
200°C (gas mark 6).
Wash and dry the blue potato
and cut into wafer thin slices. Place the potato in a bowl with a dribble of oil, a pinch of salt, a few chopped rosemary leaves. Mix well and lay out on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Cook the potatoes for 15 minutes or until crisp. Keep an eye on them as they can burn quickly.
To serve:
warm the soup and scatter with blue potato crisps and a few crushed pink pepper corns.
