The Romsey Show



Some of our goodies from the Romsey Show.



 



































Our family enjoyed a fantastic day out at the Romsey Show held at the Broadlands Estate.   It's kind of like a county fair.  There were animals to see.  The girls loved seeing the cows, especially since many of them had their little calves with them.  We also enjoyed seeing horses, sheep, goats, peacocks, quail, rabbits, and more.  There were plenty of children's activities, and the girls were very excited to go on some of the rides like the spinning teacups.  I particularly enjoyed the large food area with countless stalls of local food.  It would have been easy to spend a fortune, and we did buy a few things. 

Although we stopped and got some delicious treats during the day (including goodies from a local bakery and fresh strawberries), we were all starving when we got home in the evening.  So we used some of the things that we had boughten to make a delicious watercress, leek, and potato soup.  It was easy to do and based on the recipe that the farmer gave us when we bought the fresh local bunches of watercress.


Romsey Show Soup:

Ingredients:
big bunch of watercress
knob butter
1 leek
2 potatoes
vegetable stock
salt & pepper
creme fraiche
good cheese

Instructions:

1. Chop all of the vegetables and put them  in a pan with the butter and a splash of olive oil.  Just put it on a medium or low heat.  When the butter is melted and coating the veggies evenly, put the lid on the pan and let it cook until the vegetables are soft.  Stir every few minutes so that it doesn't stick to the pan.

2. Add the vegetable stock.  Leaving the pan uncovered, bring it up to the boil and let it cook for several minutes. 

3. Puree the soup.  (I use my hand-held mixture for this, but if you don't have one you could pour it into a blender or food processer and then return to the pan.)

4. Add a few spoonfuls of the creme fraiche and season to taste.

5. Serve with grated cheese on top (we used a delicious local mature cheddar).  Enjoy.

(This recipe is just a foundation to work from.  You could always add slightly different vegetables depending on what you have on hand, for example, or substitute cream cheese for creme fraiche--or just leave it out entirely.  To make it vegan, just leave out the butter and cook with slightly more oil and a little stock, and then use vegan cheese or omit cheese at the end.)

It was a simple and delicious meal made with all local ingredients.  A delicious end to a fantastic family day.

The vegetables cooking in butter.

A delicious bowl of watercress soup.