January 30, 2012 – Cream of Potato Soup

Soup month is almost over and today I decided I really needed to try to construct a new challenge, cream based soup.  The thought came after a week of making various excuses to not cook.  Good excuses I might add, such as “restaurant week”, “happy hour”, “I have popcorn”, and other more mediocre excuses.  

Anyway, my not cooking streak finally came to a head and the weather turned just a bit chilly again.  It was about time to enjoy my creamy soup.  I had a lone potato in the kitchen and thus I decided to make Cream of Potato Soup.  I’d done some research on creamy soups and decided to have a legitimate foodsperiment.

Cream of Potato Soup – from my brain

Ingredients:

• 1 large potato – check
• Handful of precut carrots – check
• 2 large garlic cloves – check
• Handful of precut celery – check
• ½ cup of chicken stock – check
• ½ cup milk – check
• 1 spoonful flour – check
• 1 tbs gorgonzola crumbles – check
• Splash of heavy cream – check
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce – check
• Pinch of salt – check

Step 1: Smash and roughly cut the garlic, put it into a pot with a splash of chicken stock to sauté.

Step 2: Peel and cut potato into cubes, throw into the pot to also sauté. Throw in the celery and carrots to sauté. Realize that THERES WAY TOO MANY POTATOES so take some of them and put them into a dish and into the oven; you can have them for lunch tomorrow.

Step 3: Mix the milk and chicken stock with a spoonful of flour.  Pour into the pot over the sautéd veggies.

Step 4: Mix the heavy cream and Worcestershire sauce into the soup. 

Step 5: Remember that you wanted to put some cheese in there and make it the gorgonzola.  Parm might have worked better.

Step 6: Allow to simmer for roughly 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.  Stir occasionally.  Salt to taste.  No really, taste it, you’ll want to put some salt in it and then go mm mmm good. 

Step 7: Heat up your bowl so it doesn’t make the soup cold and transfer the soup to your bowl and wash the soup pot.  I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do this sort of thing.  That way you aren’t scalding yourself when you eat your food and the kitchen is clean!

This foodsperiment had two reactions.  My first reaction was “OH MAN THIS IS GOOD, I WISH I HAD SOMEONE HERE WHO WOULD TRY THIS!” My second reaction upon biting into a potato chunk was “oh dear I should be more patient and simmered it longer. If I was on the show Chopped, I’d have gotten chopped.”  There you have it, it was a good soup and I enjoyed it but I know it would have been better with a smidge longer cooktime so the veggies would be softer.

Regardless, this foodsperiment gets a +5 for taste, a -1 for slight undercooking, +5 for using ingredients already in my kitchen, +5 for ease, +5 for using one pot, and +5 for easy cleanup.  Happy Sperimenting! 

Cream of Potato Soup