Thursday, September 6, 2007

Potato, stilton soup

"What's tater's?" - Gollum

Well, I finally found a little inspiration and I brought my A game. I happened to be in a different part of town and on a whim I decided to stop in on small boutique grocery store, a sort of Whole Foods, only smaller.

It was really a pretty neat place because it had lots of premium produce and beef without the carnival-like atmosphere you find in Whole Foods from all of the posers being in the same place at once.

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, other than just scouting out some potential ingredients for paella in the near future. But I spied some good looking bacon and bought a pound of that. I then happened across some nice looking potatoes. Then I knew I had to find some Roquefort.

After an interesting chat with the lady at the cheese counter about mozzarella, I came away with a good sized chunk of Stilton instead. It was half the price of the Roquefort.

I diced four pieces of the bacon and let them crisp up in a soup pot with a little olive oil.

I sliced up one white onion very thin and added that into the bacon after about 5 minutes.

One clove of minced garlic after the onions caramelize.

I cut the potatoes into small chunks. They were called "white creamers". I threw them in with the browning bacon and onions. Add a bay leaf and a pinch of cayenne pepper. One tablespoon of butter, as well.

Sauté these together for about 3 more minutes then add two cans of chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf.

Pour the soup into a food processor and pulse it 6-8 times until the potatoes are fairly well creamed. (I am about to buy one of the hand held devices to avoid having to transfer stuff.Use that if you've got it.)

Return the soup to the pot.

Add 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. Bring up slowly to a simmer, not a boil. Add in the Stilton and stir. Make sure the cheese is thoroughly melted.
I served this with a little crispy bacon and some crumbled Stilton on top.

Off the hook, as they say...

Cooking music: Calexico






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