Wednesday, November 12, 2008

More Soup?!!??

Hey, its getting cold in Atlanta—we need all the soup we can get!

When I made the stew for Tavo, I got the enormous bag of potatoes, envisioning roasted potatoes, french fries, and of course—potato soup! Now, I broached the idea of “grilled cheese and potato soup” to a friend, and he said, “meh.”

So, let this now be referred to as Creamy Potato Soup with Dill—accompanied by everyone’s favorite, Toasted Sourdough! (really, guys—I’m getting about as sick of sourdough as you are) Well, just kidding. I just can’t seem to let this bread go! I do mix it with wheat, so it’s not completely white flour…well, I don’t know. Give me a call if you ever want to chat Sourdough. I have strong opinions on the subject!


Creamy Potato Soup with Dill:

3 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 chopped onion

Go ahead and throw these in your heavy bottomed pot with a big ol’ chunk of butter and cook it down. Meanwhile, start peeling your potatoes. When all is cooked to your preference--I dig the almost carmelized--deglaze the pot with white wine.

Add:
4 cups vegetable broth
6-8 small/medium potatoes, peeled and diced

Cook until potatoes are tender, then mash it with a potato masher. If you have an immersion blender, that would be good. You can food process it all, but I’ve always liked a chunky soup.

Start a roux with butter and flour, add to potato soup base.
Also, add:
3 cups milk-or cream if you're feeling naughty (non-dairy is fine too--just make sure it isn't sweetened!)
Ground Pepper
Dill
Cayenne Pepper
*any other herb combo you prefer

....I like to add hot sauce, too--but Tavo doesn't. To each his own!

Don’t let it boil again after you’ve added the milk.



Honestly, every time I make a huge pot of soup, I think of Donna at this small restaurant I worked at in Myrtle Beach in 2000-2001, after the whole, "living out of my car" stint ended (kind of). Until then, I'd spent high school and college waiting tables. My major cooking experience was slapping together sandwiches and iceberg lettuce salads as part of the waiting gig. And I still have a scar from burning my wrist grabbing bread from the pizza oven at 15.

Myrtle Beach was my first "real" cook job. Okay, I started out washing dishes, but eventually I covered the prep cook and sometimes they'd let me take a stab at the grill (beyond just cleaning the damn thing) At any rate, besides the two soups we had on the menu, we'd make a special every day. And these excited me more than anything you could imagine. Donna and Gayle were both ridiculously patient with my pompous self. But it was Donna who taught me how to cook these soups, while singing along with Billie Holliday, Outkast, Sam Cooke...and I made the kitchen listen to as much Prince as they could handle!

I'm throwing the Outkast on here, because Prince has an issue with youtube. Also, I find it ironic that after leaving Myrtle Beach and spending 4 years in Detroit, I ended up back South again. This song was the jam in late 2000!

Outkast has a ban on embedding, so here's the link:
So Fresh So Clean

On a side note, I received a letter back from the job I applied for in Germany!

I didn't get the job. I did get a signed letter saying I was one of the "best qualified." Oh well, I'll keep trying.

12 comments:

The Blonde Duck said...

If they didn't hire you, they're stupid. Morons! You deserve better.

Christo Gonzales said...

oh bummer - I need to cancel my germany plans now - soup looks good - I bet goat cheese and sour dough crostinis would be great on the side - why not meld our obsessions!

tavolini said...

Blonde Duck--agreed. They are definitely morons!

Doggy--You are a food genius! I bet goat cheese crostini would be FANTASTIC! Now I need to find a log of chevre...

buffalodick said...

My wife would eat more than a share of the soup! Loves her potatoes...

Anette said...

Soup, I just love soup! I'm on a soup obsession too these days, it must be the season! Since I read about your stew, I had to make it today, but we ate it before I remembered my camera! It was so yummy! Potato-soup, its a long time since I've made that, but I love it! I used to sneak in other same color looking vegetables when my kids was young (and naive). After a trip in the food prosessor, no one could tell the onions, celery etc, from the potatoes!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Sounds like those college rejection letter :o/

Oh well, at least you have soup!

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

You're WAY too good for them!

Can you hear my printer humming? I'm definitely gonna try THIS.

Anonymous said...

Does it seriously get cold in Atlanta? Is it humid there like in Houston?

tavolini said...

Buffalo--Tavo is nuts about potatoes, too. Luckily, you can make about a million things with them!

Anette--yes, its definitely the soup time of year! I also throw in about every vegetable I have in my cupboard :) Luckily, Tavo doesn't mind them.

CCV--it does! I've got a few more out there, and I'm not in any hurry, so its all good.

Mama--awesome! Thank you :)

HG--yeah, it gets cold. We're on the edge of the foothills. Nothing like the north, but I think the averages are in the 40's in the winter. The summers sure are humid!

Darius T. Williams said...

Aww - sorry about the job. But you can totally get over this with that pot of good looking soup - and I do mean good looking!

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

tommie said...

I made a potato soup this week too. It had broccoli in it! Surprisingly it was good.

BTW, is your wall a deep orange? It looks like the pumpkin color in my bathrooms. LOVE it!

Chef E said...

The soup looks good, I would have made it while my dill was still looking good, but I had to throw it into the compost pile...keep trying for that job!