If only they had potato soup with some cheese on it.
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I make good soup. Probably better than anything you have ever eaten.
My training in cooking was not to be like the mother. She was a horrid lazy cook. You can't cook nice things if you are a horrid lazy cook, meaning if you are a corner cutter........your food tastes like shit.
In order to make good soup, you need a good base. Just like you can't make a good Christian without the 10 Commandments, you have to have something to build the soup on.
This is about Potato Soup, a soup I do not really like as I got a bad batch which made my allergies react and have not been kosher with it ever since. Had the same bad experience with bean soup, which is a soup any moron can make The mother could make you wince it at, not for flavor, but because she left the big ham bone and fat globs floating around in it. You can not eat soup if you got to watch out for shit you do not want to eat.
I always grate my potatoes. Wash off the starch and then cover with just enough water to simmer. They cook fast, but you can scorch them which is what is the problem with potato soup, you have to be there or it will scorch, and that means to the end.
Ok so I got the shreds simmering. I add a teaspoon of pepper and salt. I add a big tablespoon of chicken bouillon. This is the catch with Potato Soup. If you try using that chicken stock in a box, you are going to get it too wet, and that is runny soup. The secret to all soups is concentration of flavors. That is your base. Use worthless shit and your soup will be lackluster. Use concentrated flavors and you will get impressive soups.
Next up, a yellow onion, medium size. Most in the Brier are so toxic that you get a good onion flavor. That is what you need......two cloves of chopped garlic.
Now that you got that going until the potatoes are done, you will find in testing that you got a creamy soup even without cream. Here is the thing though, you can not use Russet potatoes. They belong in two places, baked potatoes and fries. They are a very dry potato. You do not want dry. I used Yukon Gold and a red potato that I found out of North Dakota. I forget if it was LaSoda or what the hell that thing was, but they love growing in a drought. Amazingly big potatoes in not watering enough.
Potatoes absorb flavors. Russets will absorb all your flavors. Waxy and boiling potatoes will not absorb flavors as much. I prefer waxy which are higher sugar potatoes for hash browns. These mid season potatoes are kind of watery, not the greatest of flavor, but they do well across the board in cooking.
Now comes the hard part.
TL always trims the fat off our bacon ends. We render that into lard. Great in sourdough bread. Also if you microwave it up, it makes a good flavored fat and cracklings which you dump into the potato soup. You got salt, meat and smoke in one dump of flavors. You will notice this in your soup. Remember the good base.
Lastly, I put in whatever the store has for sale. Sometimes it is condensed milk....it as this time too, but they had a farmer dairy half and half for 2 bucks, so about a pint of that went into the soup to give it a nice rich color. Was quite pretty in a yellow taint from the chicken.
Again lastly, I get cheap sliced ham which has butts. I take those little pieces and chop them up into nice meat pieces for potato soup.
That is it. Yes I scorched mine while chopping up the ham, but I get busy doing things and distracted. It was ok as the scorch did not scrape off into the soup.
This was really good soup as I make really good soup. This was waste potatoes I had speared while digging them, and it all turned my odds and ends into about 10 servings of soup, which is two cups each. It sits like a rock and is lovely on cold days.
You could always add some shredded carrot for colour or parsley. I was to lazy to get my parsley out of the fridge as we had been fighting off a blizzard.
I do like our cooking though, leftovers are very good. In most cases we have to freeze part of what we make now, as we can not get it ate before it starts to mold or go bad. That leaves a few portions in the freezer which pop out from time to time as a change. Like broc cauliflower and chicken noodle soup.......I really make good chicken noodle soup.
My 3 least favorite soups are clam chowder the white stuff, potato, barley and beef and beans. TL loves squash soup. It is ok, but I really do not like squash anything. We will be having that though too later in the season as it is pretty orange in dreary weather.
Ok, that is it. Be a good 10 Commandment Christian and go to Heaven by trusting Jesus and make good soup with a good base.
Oh, top with some shredded or grated cheese. Whatever you like. Just do not put cheese in the soup as you have a time of it sticking to the bottom of the pan or spoons as it cools.
Nuff Said
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