Today I scrubbed my kitchen. It was a beautiful thing. I worked for two hours and when I was done the floor was so shiny that you could see your reflection. Look, here’s a picture.
There’s only one problem with a kitchen that clean. You don’t want to mess it up. So now I had to find something to cook that would preserve my work at least until tomorrow. Luckily I had a surplus of russet potatoes and two leeks in the fridge. Potato soup!
Here’s what you need:
2 lbs of russet or Yukon gold potatoes (These are the best varieties because they break down well. Red potatoes hold their shape and won’t give you that creamy texture)
2-3 leeks
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 quart of light broth (I use Imagine No Chicken broth, you can use real chicken broth if you are a meat eater)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp dried rosemary
½ tsp dried thyme
Tabasco sauce
Black pepper to taste
So let’s take a minute to talk about leeks. They are not the same as onions, they have a milder, sweeter taste and they are really hard to clean. They grow in sandy soil and tend to carry a lot of grit, so you need clean them carefully. Here’s how. First rinse them under running water to remove all visible dirt. Then cut off the tough green parts. You get extra Martha points if you wash them carefully and put them in the freezer in a freezer bag so you can use them to make stock. But no pressure. Anyway, slice the remaining portion lengthwise and rinse them again, working really hard to get all the dirt you can see. Then slice them. For this recipe use ¼ inch slices. Put those slices in a large bowl of cold water and agitate them with your hands. The slices will separate which is fine. Then use a sieve or slotted spoon to scoop out the leeks and transfer them to another bowl. You will see a lot of grit in the bottom of the wash bowl when you empty the water. If you are worried, you can repeat this process.
So now your leeks are clean. Melt the butter in the bottom of a soup pot. (I like to use a heavy enamel cast iron pot. I use this for almost all my soups and stews. It holds heat well and cleans up easily. ) Add the leeks to melted butter and stir to coat. Turn the heat down to low, cover the pot and let the leeks cook down for 10 minutes or so. They should be translucent but not caramelized. While the leeks are cooking, wash and peel the potatoes and dice them up fairly small. When the leeks are ready, add the potatoes, broth and spices to the pot. Bring the heat up to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Let the soup simmer for 20 minutes or so.
While the soup simmers you can do the cleanup and find your blender. If you have an immersion blender this is when you will feel justified in buying it. Once the potatoes are soft, whip out that immersion blender and puree them. If you don’t have an immersion blender, use a stand blender to puree the soup in batches. If you like chunky soup only puree half, but I like creamy potato soup. If you let the soup cook down too much you might end up with mashed potatoes. That’s fine, just add more water or broth to thin it out. Add some black pepper and a few drops of Tabasco or any other red pepper sauce, like Louisiana hot sauce. If you happen to have some parsley sprinkle it in there. If not, don’t worry about it.
Here’s the end result.
So that I could keep my crown as head Domestic Goddess, I cut the last half of a green cabbage in wedges, poured some olive oil over it, added a few flakes of red pepper, some salt and paprika and roasted it with some onions. That was pretty good too. Here’s the table. Not very exciting to look at, but really tasty. And my kitchen stayed beautiful because I was not in there flinging flour and grease. Tomorrow it’s on, though. I am out of cake, so….
Everybody take care and stay safe, and until next time: Keep Cooking!