MasterChef
EASY
SERVES 6-8 PREP 25 mins COOK 30 mins
4 large leeks 1 stick celery 4 large shallots 3 medium potatoes (I use King Edward) 2 tbsp olive oil 50g butter 1.5 litres vegetable stock 100ml double cream, plus extra for
garnish 100g Stilton, crumbled chopped parsley, to garnish
1 Cut the leeks in half length-ways then chop into fne slices, carefully washing them to remove any grit. Next, fnely chop the celery and shallots, then peel and dice the potatoes. Pour the olive oil into a large saucepan and set over a medium heat. Add the shallots and celery, and start to soften. After a couple of mins, add your butter and continue to soften for another 3 mins, then add the leeks and season well. 2 Give everything a good stir as you add the potatoes, then pour in the stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently for 20 mins or until the potatoes are soft. Remove half of the soup from the pan, leave it to cool for about 10 mins, then blitz with a stick blender until smooth. 3 Return the soup to the saucepan with unblended soup and stir in the cream. Reheat gently, stirring frequently as you add 75g of the crumbled stilton. When this has melted, taste for seasoning. 4 To serve, ladle into bowls and top each with a swirl of cream, a sprinkling of parsley and the remaining stilton. Serve with warm crusty bread. The long-running quiz panel show returns later this year with new host Sandi Toksvig The dishwasher wasn’t invented to clean dishes faster, just more carefully – find out more fascinating facts in the new book from the writing team behind BBC Two’s
Patents for dishwashers exist from before the 1880s, but none worked as well as that designed by Josephine Garis Cochran of Illinois, in 1886. A wealthy socialite, she had so much time on her hands that she spent it fretting about the state of her china.
One night, she got so irritated by the clumsiness of her maids that she did the washing up herself. She found out how diffcult it was to avoid chipping cups and plates, and vowed to invent a machine that could do the job better.
Her invention was crude and cumbersome, but effective. There was a small foot-pedal-driven version and a larger steam-powered one. The latter, which could wash and dry 200 dishes in just two minutes, was the sensation of the 1892 World’s Fair in Chicago.
The washing machine won frst prize in its category, but at $250 each (about £4,350 today), they were too expensive for home use. Cochran targeted hotels and restaurants, and sold enough to keep her Crescent Washing Machine Company in business until her death in 1913. The company later became part of the Whirlpool Corporation.
Dishwashers were revolutionary for hoteliers, and also for revolutionaries. The Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) was excited by their potential to free workers from oppression. Americans were less enthusiastic – servants complained it would take away their jobs; clergymen considered them immoral as they would allow women to shirk their God-given labour.
The machines are still a luxury in the UK today. Fewer than half of households own one – many believe they use more water than washing up by hand. In fact, they use less than a sixth as much. But a recent survey in America found people who think dishwashers an unnecessary luxury may well be right: more than threequarters of people who owned one admitted to restarting the cycle just to avoid unloading it.
Adapted from
by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin and Andrew Hunter Murray (Faber & Faber, £14.99), is out now.