Posts
So we all know that the potato is a pretty popular comfort food these days. Baked potatoes, french fries, potato au gratin, potato soup and everything in between. Potatoes seem to be also normally associated with us Irish with the whole potato famine thing. But these wondrous tubers didn't originate in Ireland.
As history goes, potatoes were being cultivated in Peru as early as 3000 B.C. They didn't come to Ireland until somewhere between 1665 and 1685 (there are some conflicting stories there). And as with many of the fruits and vegetables we eat today, potatoes were something to fear by those silly Europeans who thought that the potato could cause leprosy, syphillis and was even a dangerous aphrodisiac.
Sir Walter Raleigh is often credited with bringing potatoes to Ireland when he was given land there by the queen to grow tobacco and potatoes. One story said that when Sir Walter Raleigh presented potatoes to the Queen as a gift, the Queens cook didn't know what to do with them and threw them out and cooked the leaves instead!
All history aside, I'm a fan of soups during the cold weather months. Earlier this week as a snow storm moved into the northeast, I decided it was a good time to make a soup. So I rummaged around the kitchen and came up with the recipe below. Hope you enjoy it!
Ingredients
6 cups water
5 stalks of celery cut in half
6 carrots peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 onion diced
8 - 10 medium yukon gold potatoes (cut into 1 or 2 inch cubes)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 stick of butter
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
Salt
Black Pepper
Dried Sage
Additions:
1 package of butter & herb instant mashed potatoes
additional sour cream for garnish
cilantro leaves for garnish
Broth Preparation
Add the six cups of water to a large pot over high heat and season generously with salt and pepper. The amount of salt and pepper you use is up to your desired taste. I put in a couple of large pinches of each and added some more as I went along with the soup until I got the taste I was looking for. Add the carrots, celery and onion. Bring to a rolling boil and then back the heat off until it is simmering. Let simmer about 20 minutes, or until all ingredients are soft. When complete, remove the celery with a pair of tongs or a slotted spoon and discard. I find that celery can end up being a bit stringy when making a cream soup, so I only add them to the broth to extract flavor and then remove them.
Soup Preparation
Once the celery has been removed, add the potatoes and garlic and a few pinches of the dried sage. Bring back to a boil for a minute or two and then reduce heat and let simmer until the potatoes are soft (about 15 minutes).
Turn off the heat and add your soup mixture to your blender or food processor in batches. For this part I have a hand blender (that I call my motorboat). I added my mixture to a large plastic pitcher and ground it all at once with the hand blender. Blend until it is a smooth consistency.
Pour the blended mixture back into your pot and add the sour cream, butter and milk. Stir until all is combined and heated through. It was here that I found that my mixture was thinner than I wanted. At the suggestion of my girlfriend I added about a quarter package of the butter and herb mashed potato mix to thicken it some. If you use this technique, don't add very much, just a little at a time until you get your desired consistency, otherwise you will just end up with some well seasoned mash potatoes.
This soup is creamy and has a nice buttered yellow color with bits of orange from the carrot. Topped with a dollop of sour cream and cilantro leaves and a side of crusty bread and you will have some serious comfort food. Enjoy!
