Souped Up

Sunday night I made homemade soup for the very first time. The missus had hung onto a recipe from a recent Life Magazine (which now comes with my Friday Philadelphia Inquirer as a Parade-like insert). She was hoping I could replicate the Baked Potato soup she used to get at Houlihans. I think I did pretty well. The two-year-old wouldn't touch it, but he's been extra finicky lately. The seven-year-old liked it, and he's not normally a soup eater. The missus desire to go back to Houligans (which I try to avoid) seems to be satisfied - for now.

Everyone was happy with my dessert - homemade Chocolate Chip Marshmallow ice cream.

The soup recipe comes from Pat Solley, described by Life as the chief of online/print media operations for FBI public affairs and author of An Exaltation of Soups. She also runs the website Soupsong.

BAKED POTATO SOUP (serves 4-6)

For the soup:
4 large russet potatoes (the floury, mealy kind for baking)*
½ cup butter
6 cups milk
Concentrated chicken stock or bouillon cubes (enough that would make 2 cups of stock)
1 small onion, grated
Salt and white pepper, to taste
½ cup to 1 cup freshly grated Cheddar cheese

For the garnish:
6 slices bacon, crisp
¼ cup fresh chives, sliced into 2-inch lengths
½ cup sour cream

1. Bake well-scrubbed potatoes in a 400-degree oven until fork tender, about an hour. No foil wrap and no microwaving - the potato skins should stay dry.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the milk and butter; stir in stock or bouillon (undiluted) until it dissolves.

3. Stir in the grated onion, salt, and white pepper; simmer the mixture over low heat.

4. When potatoes are finished baking, cut them in half lengthwise, scoop out the potato meat, reserving skins, and stir the potato meat into the hot milk mixture, mashing it as you go; the soup should look thick and creamy. Simmer over low heat for another 10 to 15 minutes.

5. Put potato skins back into oven to crisp (for 5 more minutes). Stir grated Cheddar cheese into milk-and-potato mixture**. While cheese is melting, chop up the crispy potato skins***. Toss chopped skins into soup, and ladle portions into individual bowls.

6. Swirl a dollop of sour cream into each serving****, then sprinkle chives and crumble bacon on top – just as you would a real baked potato. Serve immediately.

My notes:

* I couldn’t judge what a “large” russet potato was (nothing in my bag looked large), so I added what I thought was 8 mediums. These smaller spuds didn't take the full hour to cook - closer to 45 minutes. I think the soup ended up a little too thick so I’m going to cut back to 6 mediums next time.

**I held out some cheese for a garnish.

***Kitchen shears worked well.

****We didn’t have sour cream so I skipped this. Still tasted good and was healthier for me.

Comments

[Dee]

That soup was totally awesome! You rock in the soup department!

[Donna]

Glad it turned out well, it smelled great. Probably a few adjustments and I could make New England clam chowder. Even though she only had that taste, Jess thought your ice cream was the best. She told everyone about it when we got home.