Please a crowd with this mushroom and ham hock soup

Ingredients (serves 8)

• 1 ham hock

• 3 tbsp butter

• 2 leeks, halved and sliced

• 1kg chestnut mushrooms, sliced

• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• A small bunch of tarragon, chopped

• 300ml double cream

Method

1 Put the ham hock in a large saucepan and add enough cold water to cover. Bring the pan to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer as gently as possible for 2 – 3 hours or until the ham is starting to come away from the bone.

2 Heat 2 tbsp of butter in a large saucepan and fry the leeks over a gentle heat for 5 minutes to soften. Add 850g of the mushrooms to the pan and fry for 15 minutes or until all the liquid that comes out has evaporated.

3 Add 3 of the chopped garlic cloves and fry for 2 more minutes, then ladle in 1 litre of the ham stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat a little and simmer for 5 minutes, then stir in 2 tbsp of chopped tarragon and 200ml of cream.

4 Blend the soup until smooth in a liquidiser and taste for seasoning – it’s unlikely to need any salt, but a bit of black pepper will make it sing.

5 To make the garnish, heat 1 tbsp of butter in a frying pan and fry the rest of the mushrooms for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Add the final chopped garlic clove and 1 tbsp of chopped tarragon and sauté for 1 minute. Pull the ham from the bone with two forks and stir it in.

6 Ladle the soup into warm bowls and top each one with a dollop of cream and some of the mushrooms and ham.

Find it in Hampshire

• Ham hock - Newlyns Farm Shop, Odiham, 01256 704128; newlyns-farmshop.co.uk

• Mushrooms - New Forest Mushrooms, Landford, 01794 399884; newforestmushrooms.co.uk

• Double cream - Blackburn & Haynes, Headley, 01428 712155

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