Leek and potato soup

I make no apology for posting something so similar to the last entry.  I made this soup for yesterday when I knew a friend was coming round for lunch and it was wonderful, just the thing for the cold, dismal day it turned out to be, real winter warming food.  I didn't follow anyone's recipe, just made it up as I went along (it is a fairly bog-standard recipe really, isn't it?) and amounts are flexible.

Ingredients:

• Some butter and/or goose dripping
• Half a fairly large onion, peeled and chopped
• One large leek, trimmed, washed and sliced. To prepare a leek for soup I do this: remove just the outer layer and cut off the root section, slice up until the outer part is getting a bit tough, then strip that off and continue to slice up.  The greener outer leaves have a wonderful flavour but can be tough so it's finding a compromise there but without wasting anything.  I don't like to see the greener top discarded just because it is green and, being a soup, it's going to be pureed  in one way or another anyway!
• Some potatoes, full flavoured, floury spuds, peeled, chopped and left in water.  I used four but they weren't very big.  You need enough leeks for the flavour but enough spuds for the soft, floury texture
• A squidge of garlic puree
• Some stock.  I used marigold vegetable bouillon
• A bay leaf (from the garden)
• Seasonings.

That's it, nothing special in the ingredients line, nothing hard to find or even expensive in any way.  Soup can be so economical.  I love soup.

Method
Melt the fat and gently fry the onions and leeks, covered, until softened and fragrant (for want of a better word).
Add some garlic puree and fry, stirring, for a short time.  The stir in the vegetable bouillon powder
Rinse the potatoes and add them, then add enough boiling water to just cover the potatoes.  Add a little salt, some pepper and the bay leaf, bring to a simmer, cover and let it all cook gently until the potatoes are breaking up.
Finally, push the lot through a mouli or zizz with a stick blender, taste, adjust seasonings as needed and adjust the thickness, if necessary.  I didn't, but it is nice if you slacken it off with some milk and even nicer if you use single cream.

Bring back to just under boiling and serve.  I had grated cheddar, croutons and creme fraiche available on the table to add as wanted.
It was scrummy and extremely filling.  There was enough to serve four generously so I have some for the freezer and school lunches next week!