Cream of Potato Soup with Sausage and Scallops

Pretty thrown-together, but a huge success.

Ingredients

• Four medium or two large potatoes, diced small (1/4" cubes)
• 5-6 oz. scallops, diced small (1/2" cubes)
• 8-10 oz. sausage (either loose or liberated from its casings)
• 6 oz. milk
• 6 oz. heavy cream 
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• butter

Procedure

1. Warm butter over medium heat in heavy, deep-sided cast iron skillet with cover
2. Put potatoes in skillet, and mix around in butter
3. Add salt and pepper
4. Making sure to mix the potatoes to keep from sticking, sautée for 15 min. until soft
5. Add sausage and mix well; cover, and cook for another 15-20 min.
6. Add milk and raise heat to medium high; cook for 5 min.
7. Add scallops and cook for 5 min.
8. Add heavy cream, raise to a low boil, and cook for 5 min.
9. Serve hot or lower temperature to lowest setting, and keep warm on stove until serving
10. Enjoy!

Verdict

Just fantastic - good blend of flavors and textures, and a great way to start a meal.

Russian Mushroom-Potato Soup

I, also, was feeling in the mood for mushroom soup but wanted some potato in the mix. Bittman came through as he so often does; I modified the recipe slightly based on not having the called-for porcini mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 4 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and roughly chopped [I also chopped and used the stems]
• 6 oz. baby bella mushrooms, sliced
  
• 2 medium carrots, sliced
• 6 small potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
  
• 6 c. stock [your choice; I used homemade chicken stock but you could use veggie or mushroom water if you're reconstituting]
  
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• salt to taste

Procedure

1. Pour olive oil into medium saucepan and turn heat to medium-high
2. Add mushrooms, onion and carrots, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown – about 10 min.
3. Add the potatoes and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown [add a bit of stock to keep from sticking to the pan]
4. Add bay leaves, pepper and remainder of stock
5. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until potato is very tender, 20-30 min., adding salt and pepper to taste
6. Serve hot or cover and refrigerate for up to a day before reheating, adding more water to thin soup
7. Enjoy!
   

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

• 8 oz. fish [something on the meatier side], chopped into 1" cubes
  
• 3 medium-large potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/4" cubes
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 6 c. stock [I used chicken; use what moves ya]
• 1 c. milk or cream
  
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 tbs. butter
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
• 2-3 oz. preserved pork of your choice, finely chopped [optional; I used 2 slices of Canadian bacon and a few slices of salami]

Procedure

1. Melt butter in large stewpot with a cover over low heat
2. Add garlic and cook until fragrant
3. Add pork product if using; cook for 3-4 min.
4. Add onions and mix thoroughly; raise heat to low-medium and cook until onions begin to soften
5. Cover with stock, 1/4 c. milk/cream and some salt and raise to low boil
6. When at low boil, add potatoes and mix thoroughly. Cover again with stock and raise again to low boil
7. Add fish, mix thoroughly, and add remainder of stock and milk/cream. Cover and cook.
8. Cook the soup on a medium boil, stirring periodically to avoid sticking to pot, and mashing as fish and potatoes become softer. Variously cover and uncover until soup has cooked down to desired consistency, adding salt and pepper to taste.
9. Serve and enjoy!

Verdict

Fishy, savory, tasty!

Sunday is Food Day: Vichyssoise

I recently had the good fortune to happen upon a used copy of Mark Bittman's "The Best Recipes in the World", and it has already been a great resource; if you come across a used copy be sure to pick one up. For Bittman fans, it's a good approach to a cookbook: an enormous hardbacked monster of a book, 1000 recipes from everywhere, and especially useful if you've got ingredients but no specific direction you want to go. Yesterday at the market, there were leeks. I was contemplating buying only one at $0.50, but the hawker successfully upsold me to 5/$2. And a good thing, as almost immediately I realized that I needed to make some cold leek and (also market-purchased) potato soup. Which would be vichyssoise.

Ingredients:

• 5 baby leeks, white bits only, well-rinsed and sliced
• 3 medium potatoes (Yukon Gold in this case), diced
• 5 cups veggie stock (this one derived from collard stems, Swiss Chard chaff, fresh garlic bits)
• 3 tbs. butter
• 1 c. whole milk (calls for 1/2 c. cream, so just upping for more fat)
• salt
• pepper

Procedure:

1. Melt butter in large saucepan over medium-low heat; add leeks and stir occasionally for 5-8 min. Keep heat moderate and cook until leeks are soft
2. Season with salt and pepper, and add the potatoes. Mix thoroughly, and cook for one minute
3. Add the stock and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 30 min.
4. Pour into large bowl and let cool to room temp, either in fridge or not.
5. Pour from bowl into blender, and blend until smooth, adding milk now.
6. Return to fridge and cool; serve cold and enjoy!

Verdict:

TBD – still in process as of this writing.

Best. Dinner. Ever.

Well, not the best dinner I've ever had, but definitely one of the best all-elements dinners I've ever cooked. I had a hankering for MEAT today, and lamb happened to be on sale at WSM. So I headed home with a 6.4 oz. Niman Ranch lamb sirloin and got to thinking. After briefly considering warming up rice that I had already made, I said to myself,

Self, are you stupid or something?

and so proceeded as I should've,

• slicing up half an onion and
• three small Yukon Gold potatoes,
• drizzling with olive oil and
• coating in pepper and salt,
• for roasting.

The

• other half of the onion, sliced, along with a
• large clove of garlic, and combined with
• dry red wine,
  
• olive oil, and a
• bunch of dijon mustard.
• Lamb was placed in said mixture, and from there to the
• fridge for half an hour.

In the interim, I popped open a bottle of the Best Beer Evar (aka Bell's Special Double Cream Stout) and mixed up some of the ol' KD family salad dressing and a baby-spinach and romaine salad.

Then, to the grilling.

• After putting the taters and onions in the oven for a bit,
  
• I broke out the large cast iron enamel skillet, heated to medium
  
• and threw on the lamb along with onions and all the sauce.
  
• Turning intermittently, I added more wine as the sauce cooked down,
  
• took the lamb off at medium-rare and
  
• let the onions and sauce reduce some more.
  
• The potatoes and onions came out and joined the lamb on the plate,
• and all were then covered in the astonishingly tasty gravy and onions

The stout was a perfect complement, but really, every single thing was perfect in this meal. I don't even know if I dare try to replicate it. Just perfect, on a cool fall evening.

Potato-Watercress-Basil Soup

With a bag full of potatoes a few weeks old, and hosting Soup Collective today, there was a fairly obvious course of action: potato soup. I called JD and asked if she had any particular favorites; she found one that wasn't quite what she was thinking, but still sounded pretty good. I modified slightly onnacounta lack of leeks.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
  
• 6 potatoes unpeeled and diced
• 2 small yellow onions, diced
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, fresh
• large bunch of spring onions
  
• 8 tbsp butter
• 1 cup watercress, chopped
  
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice or cloves
• 1/4 cup white wine
  
• 2 cups milk

Procedure:

• Combine stock, potatoes, onions and cook over medium heat for 15-20 min. until potatoes begin to soften
• Dice spring onions; melt butter and sauteé spring onions w/allspice; add 1/2 cup white wine and cook off partially; add watercress and sauteé 5 more minutes; set aside
  
• Add basil to potato soup mixture and cook 5 minutes
• Add spring onions to soup; simmer
  
• Stir in milk; do not reboil

Potatoes, Spinach, Peas

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. potatoes
• bag o'spinach
• can o'peas
• lotsa garlic
• ginger
• cumin
• butter
• milk
• yogurt

Directions:

• Heat water to boiling in pot; boil potatoes for ~10 min., and set aside
  
• Chop garlic and ginger
• Heat skillet to medium-high with butter; add garlic and ginger and sauté for a minute or two
• Add spinach, turning and covering in butter, ginger, garlic; cook until spinach is sauteéd down, and set aside
• Chop boiled potatoes into 1/2" sections
• Add more butter to same pan, then potatoes
• Cook potatoes for several minutes over medium-high heat, adding cumin and some milk
• Add peas, adding milk, yogurt, cumin to desired consistency
• When potatoes are softening, add spinach back, lower heat to medium-low and again add milk and yogurt to desired consistency.
• Enjoy!

Verdict: While loosely based on a fairly traditional Indian potatoes'n'peas dish, this was a total ad-lib of a recipe, taking only a small amount of inspiration (essentially, boiling the potatoes and the prep of garlic and ginger) from my other favorite potato dish. As it happens, it worked out really, really well, so I think this is both a keeper and a distinct recipe from the other potato dish, which is much spicier.