Le Mercury / Potato and leek soup / Chicken Chasseur

Went to Angel to meet M's friends for lunch. Quite a nice place, commercialised but still with a slight hippie edge to it. Had lunch at this French restaurant called Le Mercury. For 10 pounds, you get a starter and a main. Its alright, nothing spectacular, something that comes with the price I guess. I had a crab tian and a rib eye steak with shallot sauce for lunch. I have been craving red meat for some time as I don't cook it at home. Actually, what I really crave is a huge burger not the fast food kind, the gourmet kind but I haven't had the chance to get something like tt. So a steak will do for now at least. The steak was not bad, quite juicy, the shallot sauce went quite well with it. As I didn't feel thristy after the meal, i guess there was no MSG in the sauce, hopefully the beef stock was made from scratch and not from a stock cube. The crab tian wasn't fantastic, but for 3 pounds, you can't really expect real crab meat, instead its just crab sticks. M had roast pumpkin soup and fish cakes. She wasn't particularly happy with it too.

http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/334.html

Subsequently, M's friends came over to our place for dinner and I cooked potato and leek soup as a starter and chicken chasseur as the main for them. For dessert, we had the Gu chocolate souffles.





I think I really expanded my knowledge of soup, not from recipe books, the internet or even restaurants. Its from the cafe at my faculty. Everyday, there's a different soup and I have actually learnt to make most of them. I particularly liked this soup for lunch as its filling, perfect when I am starving after the gym. I love its natural flavours too, potato and leeks. For this soup, bring to the boil and simmer, diced potatoes in chicken stock for 20 minutes. Add diced leeks and simmer for another 15 minutes. Puree the vegetables, return to the soup, mix well, add some creme fraiche and serve.



I really started cooking when I went to New York and bought this cook book, The Best Ever French Cooking Course. Chicken chasseur was one of the first recipes I used from it and after it, I was really hooked on this dish, i must have cooked this on average once every month. I didn't used to like food with tomatoes but after this, i kept buying tomatoes in bulk to use in my cooking. Dredge chicken portions in flour, salt and pepper and pan fry them till they are brown on both sides. Remove on pan. Saute onions, garlic and mushrooms till they are golden. Return chicken to the pan with the juices and add white wine. Bring to the boil. Add chicken stock and a can of tomatoes and simmer till the chicken is cooked. Serve with pasta and rice.