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Sweet Potato and Leek Champ - Organic Box News 9th November, 2010

by Matt, 2 yr, 7 m ago in Blog
Comments | Tags: sweet potatoes, Box News, Autumn

This week's box features locally grown kale, leeks and 'Sante' potatoes.  This is a good tasty all-rounder but I have a feeling that this year, along with one or two other varieties, they're a little more 'floury' in texture than usual.  this means they make really good mash and crisp roast potatoes but are trickier to boil as they tend to break up in water.  The texture and starch content of potatoes does tend to vary with growing conditions and it was a little drier lst summer.  The peppers are from Spain along with the sweet potatoes making a rare appearance.  They tend to be expensive and we grow plenty of our own root vegetables in this country, but they're a big seller in the shop.  In the no-potatoes boxes we have our last batch of Yorkshire grown tomatoes, and the larger boxes have French lettuces.  We've had a bit of a carrot crisis thi8s week, so apologies if they're absent from your box today, you'll have extra peppers instead.

Sweet Potato and Leek Champ

A rich creamy dish to go with sausages, fried tomatoes and finely shredded boiled kale.

For 4

• 500-600g sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 300g leeks, finely chopped
• 30g butter
• 2 tbsps cream
• salt and pepper
• 1tsp finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary if you have some to hand

1. Boil the sweet potatoes until tender and drain.
2. Meanwhile put the leeks in a pan with a dash of water the cream and the herbs and simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes.
3. Sweet potatoes can be a little fibrous so it's a good idea to pass them through a mouli or sieve, but mashing will do!
4. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and stir in the leek mixture.
5. Cut the butter into small pieces, scatter them over the champ and give it a stir before serving.

This week's apples are Red Pippin (also known as Fiesta).  The chestnuts in the large boxes are French.  Split the skins with a sharp knife and, if you don't have an open fire, try 25 mins at 200C. We now have our supplies of ready cooked and vacuum packed chestnuts for wintry dishes (£1.79 250g) as well as chestnut flour, dried chestnuts, chestnut puree and a superb dark chestnut honey from Spain.

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