potato leek soup of doom
Dec. 3rd, 2009 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solipsistnationSomebody asked for the recipe for this soup I made the other day, so here you go. It's pretty vague because I make it up as I go along, but it's flexible and hard to get wrong, so here you go.
Acquire:
- some leeks. I got a couple of nice big specimens, about the circumference of a baseball bat and with a good 12-14 inches of white part. If you can't find big ones, get 3 or 4.
- some onions. I had 3 giant onions. YMMV.
- some potatoes. I used a bunch of little red ones. Figure, um, a smallish bag. Maybe 3 or 4 pounds? I should take notes.
- some garlic. To taste. For me this means lots.
- some kind of cream-like thing. I used this soy cream business, but you don't have to.
- spices! thyme, rosemary, sage, basil, cumin, salt and pepper
- some kind of sausagey thing. I used 2 tubes of Gimme Lean Sausage Style.
- some broth if you like. I keep using crappy broth and the soup still comes out okay.
- a bottle of red wine. You're going to cook with, like, a third to half of it, so don't splurge too much unless you're feeling especially fancy.
- other useful food things like butter and oil and stuff.
- a giant soup pot
- a pan in which you can fry sausagey things.
- a good knife, a measuring cup, a couple of bowls for holding things, a cutting board, the usual stuff.
So here we go.
Put the soup pot on medium heat. Start chopping those onions into little pieces. When they're all cut, throw some butter in the soup pot and when it's melted (don't burn it!) throw in the onions and stir 'em around. You want them nice and clear but not caramelized, so don't crank up the heat here.
While the onions are heating up and getting nice and tasty, clean those leeks. Cut off the green bits and the roots, wash them and make sure they're clean and not full of dirt, and then slice them into very thin (1/8" or thinner) rounds.
When the leeks are sliced up, check the onions. Are the onions clear and soft? If not, take a break! Crack the bottle of wine and make sure it's acceptable for your purposes. When the onions are ready, throw in the leeks, turn the heat up a little, and stir them around a bit. You still don't want to caramelize anything, just to cook the leeks down some. Chop up the garlic into little tiny bits and add it here too.
While the leeks are sweating in the soup pot, wash the potatoes and cut them into 1/2" bits. Leave the skin on. That's where all the nutrients are, you know.
When the leeks are cooked down, throw in the potatoes and, say, 5 or 6 cups of water-- enough to cover everything and let the potatoes float around some. If you like your soup thin, use more water. If you like it thick, use less. This also is where you'd add broth if you feel like it.
Turn the heat up to medium-high-- you need to cook those potatoes until they're soft.
While the soupy parts are heating up, take the sausagey substance, form it into little round patties (not more than an inch or two across) and fry them until they're ready to eat. Set them aside. (If you're using real meat, make sure you don't give yourself trichinosis or whatever.) When you're done with the sausage, pour some wine in the pan, let it sizzle a bit, and then pour it into the soup. This may be cargo cult cooking, but it seems to work pretty well, and it makes the pan easier to clean, so everyone's a winner!
Check the soup. How's it doing? If the potatoes are soft enough, scoop out some pieces and squish them up and put them back in in order to release the starch to thicken the soup a bit. Give it a taste. It'll probably need some salt and pepper. I also added, let's see... A couple of teaspoons of cumin, and maybe a tablespoon of dried rosemary and sage. If you're using better (fresh) spices, well, you probably know what to do here already. This is definitely a "to taste" sort of thing, but without the salt and pepper at least it'll be pretty bland. You can also pour in about a third of the wine here. Stir it all up and let it simmer some more.
When it's thickened up a bit (squish more potato bits if it doesn't), taste it and see if it needs more spices.
When it seems like soup, throw in the sausagey bits and let them simmer in there until they warm back up and are nice and hot. Add half a cup or a cup of the cream or cream-like liquid.
Taste it, add salt and pepper if it needs it, and there you go. Serve with buttered toast.
The basic bit (onion, leeks, potatoes) can be used to make all kinds of tasty soups. This isn't particularly complicated or fancy, but it's not hard to make and comes out well with a minimum of effort, so it's a good thing to know how to do...
Acquire:
- some leeks. I got a couple of nice big specimens, about the circumference of a baseball bat and with a good 12-14 inches of white part. If you can't find big ones, get 3 or 4.
- some onions. I had 3 giant onions. YMMV.
- some potatoes. I used a bunch of little red ones. Figure, um, a smallish bag. Maybe 3 or 4 pounds? I should take notes.
- some garlic. To taste. For me this means lots.
- some kind of cream-like thing. I used this soy cream business, but you don't have to.
- spices! thyme, rosemary, sage, basil, cumin, salt and pepper
- some kind of sausagey thing. I used 2 tubes of Gimme Lean Sausage Style.
- some broth if you like. I keep using crappy broth and the soup still comes out okay.
- a bottle of red wine. You're going to cook with, like, a third to half of it, so don't splurge too much unless you're feeling especially fancy.
- other useful food things like butter and oil and stuff.
- a giant soup pot
- a pan in which you can fry sausagey things.
- a good knife, a measuring cup, a couple of bowls for holding things, a cutting board, the usual stuff.
So here we go.
Put the soup pot on medium heat. Start chopping those onions into little pieces. When they're all cut, throw some butter in the soup pot and when it's melted (don't burn it!) throw in the onions and stir 'em around. You want them nice and clear but not caramelized, so don't crank up the heat here.
While the onions are heating up and getting nice and tasty, clean those leeks. Cut off the green bits and the roots, wash them and make sure they're clean and not full of dirt, and then slice them into very thin (1/8" or thinner) rounds.
When the leeks are sliced up, check the onions. Are the onions clear and soft? If not, take a break! Crack the bottle of wine and make sure it's acceptable for your purposes. When the onions are ready, throw in the leeks, turn the heat up a little, and stir them around a bit. You still don't want to caramelize anything, just to cook the leeks down some. Chop up the garlic into little tiny bits and add it here too.
While the leeks are sweating in the soup pot, wash the potatoes and cut them into 1/2" bits. Leave the skin on. That's where all the nutrients are, you know.
When the leeks are cooked down, throw in the potatoes and, say, 5 or 6 cups of water-- enough to cover everything and let the potatoes float around some. If you like your soup thin, use more water. If you like it thick, use less. This also is where you'd add broth if you feel like it.
Turn the heat up to medium-high-- you need to cook those potatoes until they're soft.
While the soupy parts are heating up, take the sausagey substance, form it into little round patties (not more than an inch or two across) and fry them until they're ready to eat. Set them aside. (If you're using real meat, make sure you don't give yourself trichinosis or whatever.) When you're done with the sausage, pour some wine in the pan, let it sizzle a bit, and then pour it into the soup. This may be cargo cult cooking, but it seems to work pretty well, and it makes the pan easier to clean, so everyone's a winner!
Check the soup. How's it doing? If the potatoes are soft enough, scoop out some pieces and squish them up and put them back in in order to release the starch to thicken the soup a bit. Give it a taste. It'll probably need some salt and pepper. I also added, let's see... A couple of teaspoons of cumin, and maybe a tablespoon of dried rosemary and sage. If you're using better (fresh) spices, well, you probably know what to do here already. This is definitely a "to taste" sort of thing, but without the salt and pepper at least it'll be pretty bland. You can also pour in about a third of the wine here. Stir it all up and let it simmer some more.
When it's thickened up a bit (squish more potato bits if it doesn't), taste it and see if it needs more spices.
When it seems like soup, throw in the sausagey bits and let them simmer in there until they warm back up and are nice and hot. Add half a cup or a cup of the cream or cream-like liquid.
Taste it, add salt and pepper if it needs it, and there you go. Serve with buttered toast.
The basic bit (onion, leeks, potatoes) can be used to make all kinds of tasty soups. This isn't particularly complicated or fancy, but it's not hard to make and comes out well with a minimum of effort, so it's a good thing to know how to do...