Not long ago I read an interview with Dame Judi Dench in Time Out New York, in which she admitted that while she still loved the excitement of working in theater, she still felt a small compulsion to announce at the beginning of every performance: "Now, does anyone need to have a cough? Let's all do it now, let's get it out of the way...all together now!" It is in the spirit of Dame Judi's words that I say to everyone, "Now, does anyone need to have a snicker? Anyone want to let their inner 14-year-old boy come out to play? Any Beavis and Butt-head impulses? Let's all do it now, on one...two...three..."
Dear friends, it is time to share the recipe for cock-a-leekie.
Cock-a-leekie soup
(makes 1 gallon of soup; feeds at least a dozen)
1 capon, approximately 8-12 pounds
2 pieces beef shin (approximately 1 pound total)
6 leeks, white and light green parts only
1 pound unpitted prunes
water to cover (about 16 cups)
salt and pepper to taste
Clean and slice half the leeks and tie them up in cheesecloth. Place the bundle of leeks, the beef and the capon (try to keep the bird in one piece if you can, but if it won't fit into your stockpot, then remove the wings and legs from the rest of the bird) into a 20-cup stockpot. Carefully put the pot over a medium flame and bring slowly to the boil. Skim the foam from the surface of the broth and cook slowly for three hours, skimming foam and fat as necessary. After the first 90 minutes of cooking, add the prunes and continue to cook.
When the meat is done, remove it from the stock. Remove the chicken and beef from their bones and remove any visible fat. Chop the beef and slice the chicken; set aside. Strain the stock, discard the leek bundle and the prunes (you can save the prunes to serve with the soup, but they will have given up their best flavor to the broth, so I never bother with serving them), and skim as much fat from the surface as you can.
Pour the broth to a clean pot and return it to the fire. Add salt and pepper to taste. Clean the rest of the leeks and chop finely. When the broth comes to a boil, add the leeks and let cook until soft. Return the chicken and beef to the pot and heat through.
You can eat this right now, or you can consign it to the fridge and eat it tomorrow, when it will taste even better. You can hold back the chicken and make chicken salad with it, and have the broth separately, like a consomme. You can add gnocchi, or pastina, or spaetzle, or barley, which would probably be the most correct grain to add. Myself, I'm a fan of a starchless cock-a-leekie, and so I keep the gnocchi in the freezer and the pastina in the pantry. Any way you eat it, you will be reminded that sometimes simpler really is better, and that any soup that evokes so much flavor from so few ingredients is the food of geniuses and kings.