The fleecy socks and the lined flannel shirt are in heavy rotation. Everything’s coming up pumpkin spice. Leaves blush and dangle, almost ready to fall.
That’s right, it’s soup season. While I enjoy soup whatever the weather, I’m much more in the mood to make it in cooler weather. Here’s a soup recipe (from Food Network guru Alton Brown) that we’ve been eating at my house (I’ve included some of my MacGyver-esque cooking notes):
Leek and potato soup
Ingredients
1 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed, approximately 4 to 5 medium (Contrary to Alton’s advice, I’ve used some of the dark green leek-parts, and it didn’t turn the pureed soup an unappetizing color. The leeks cook for so long, that they don’t have enough energy left to tint the soup green.)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
14 ounces, approximately 3 small, Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced small (I tend to use whatever kinds of potatoes hide in the cabinet.)
1 quart vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream (I’ve used a mix of skim milk and half & half, which is what I usually have on hand)
1 cup buttermilk (I haven’t included this in my versions so far, and it seems plenty creamy without. I am curious about the buttermilk tang).
1/2 teaspoon white pepper (Fear not! Black pepper works OK, too.)
1 tablespoon snipped chives
Directions
Chop the leeks into small pieces.
In a 6-quart saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the leeks and a heavy pinch of salt and sweat for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, approximately 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the potatoes and the vegetable broth, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, approximately 45 minutes.
Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream, buttermilk, and white pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately, or chill and serve cold.
It’s only recently that I’ve befriended the leek. It showed up in a box of organic produce, and I’ve been trying to figure out what, exactly, to do with it. The vegetables of my youth were limp green beans, canned corn, cooked carrots, and mashed potatoes. A salad was strictly iceberg lettuce. Broccoli was possible only with an orange boa of Velveeta. Yams showed up at holidays, wearing browned marshmallow hats.
This is not to disparage my childhood. Rather, I wonder if any of the supermarkets in my town even sold leeks when I was a kid. This was before the rise of things like the Food Network. There wasn’t a foodie culture to speak of, certainly not in my town in southern West Virginia. People didn’t obsessively photograph their food (or if they did, they’d have to wait for the canisters of film to come back).
Anyway, lately the leek and I are getting along quite well. Alton Brown’s soup doesn’t involve much prep time, and the results are both hearty and soothing. It’s potato soup with some personality.
WanderMan and I received an immersion blender as a wedding gift. I’ve tried to function without a lot of kitchen gadgets. In my last few apartments, there just hasn’t been a place to put them. This blender, much like the ones pictured above, is a magic wand. I don’t know what I did without it.
Remember the dark ages of scooping soup into a blender and pureeing it in batches? You had to use a glass or metal measuring cup, trying not to burn yourself with soup splashes? You needed a mixing bowl to separate the already-pureed from the to-be-pureed?
No more.
We also received a few lushly photographed cookbooks, so you may be in for a series of soup-er blog posts (see what I did there?).
Photo credits
Leek photo is from slowfood.uk
Immersion blender rainbow is from amazon.com