Rosie Makes Potato Soup

 

 

 

 Rosie Makes Potato Soup

 

 

With the weather being the way it's been - COLD - my culinary tastes have turned to comfort food.  And what can be more comforting than potato soup? A good hot soup warms the body from the inside out, providing physical warmth, nourishment, perhaps emotional nostalgia from a sense of tradition and care (from yo' Mama!), plus soup just soothes your body, your emotions, your digestion, and your mental health.  It's a symbol of care and mindful nourishment.  Soup is the original comfort food, reducing stress and offering warmth, reassurance, and routine by evoking memories and traditions.  So, in that vein, here's some warm, soothing, and calming Potato Soup, made with love, by Rosie.

 

 

Rosie’s Potato Soup

6 strips bacon

5 potatoes (about 2 1/2 pounds), washed, peeled, and diced and SAVE the skins

1 onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 TB butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups vegetable broth

2 cups chicken broth

Rosie Note:  You could use all chicken broth.  I just happened to have a carton of vegetable broth leftover in fridge so I used that up.

1 1/2 cups 2% milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Rosie Note:  2% is what I had on hand.  If you have whole milk, then cut back on the cream. Use maybe 

2 1/4 cups of whole with 3/4 cup cream.  Or if you want it richer, go with 2:1.

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Rosie Note:  Taste test later and adjust seasonings, if needed.

Accoutrements:

Potato skin cracklin’s 

Crumbled bacon

Grated cheddar cheese

Chopped parsley

Sliced green onions

Smoked paprika

Sour cream

Garlic/parsley toasts

NOW, about those skins.  I don’t like to waste anything, so I’m making potato skin cracklings while the soup cooks.  I’ll use them as a topping for my soup if I don’t eat ‘em all up beforehand.  Place the skins in a single layer on a foil-lined tray.  Drizzle a little oil over the skins, not much, and put in a few pats of butter.  Bake in a 325° oven, tonging around every so often, until golden brown and crisp, 30-45 minutes.  Sprinkle with kosher salt.  Drain on paper towels.

In soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.  Remove from pot and drain on paper towels.  Leave grease in pot and add the butter.  When butter melts, add in the chopped onion and celery and cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping up the bacon bits on the bottom of the pan, about 3-4 minutes, until it starts smelling good.  Add in the garlic and cook, stirring, about 30 seconds.  Never burn garlic.  It turns bitter and will ruin whatever you’re cooking.  Sprinkle in the flour and cook, whisking, about 90 seconds, coating the onions and celery.  Add in potatoes along with broths, milk, and cream.  Cook over medium low heat until it reaches a low simmer, scraping up from the bottom occasionally to keep anything from sticking.  Add in salt and pepper and continue cooking at bare simmer until potatoes are tender, 30-45 minutes.

Ladle soup into bowls and top with reserved bacon, crumbled up, grated cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, potato skin cracklin’s, chopped parsley, a spoonful of sour cream, and a few shakes of smoked paprika.

I also like to serve this with my homemade breadsticks which I slice in half lengthwise, sauté in butter, garlic, and chopped parsley, then bake until golden and crisp and toasty  Or use a good sliced bread loaf, Italian or French, from the deli.

Now, for the step-by-steps: 

 

5 good sized potatoes gives you around 2 1/2 pounds.  Doesn’t have to be exact.

1 onion

2 stalks celery

3 garlic cloves

Slice celery.
Chop onions.
Mince garlic.

Dice peeled potatoes.

Got my celery onions, garlic, and butter top left, 

my tater skins top right, 

and my diced taters bottom center.

 

 

Take the skins, spread 'em out on a pan, add some butter pats, drizzle some oil.  Bake until crisp. 

 

 

 

I've already cooked my bacon and set it aside for later.  Leave the bacon grease in the pot, then add the butter to melt and sizzle.  Onions and celery go in.

Cook a few minutes, stirring. 

Toss in the garlic for a quick stir.

Next the flour.

Potatoes in.

Broth in.

Milk and cream in.

 

Measure out a teaspoon of ground pepper.  I'm writing the recipe down as I go along.

Potato skins are ready.  Drain on paper towels and salt.

 

After about 30-40 minutes over low heat, potatoes are tender and soup has thickened.  If you want, you could take an immersion blender to this or put a little bit at a time in a blender, but I prefer chunks.

I had some homemade breadsticks that I'm going to make garlic/parsley toast out of.

Melt butter in a skillet, add in the chopped parsley and minced garlic, then coat the bread. Place in oven to get nice and toasty.

And here are my toppings: sour cream, crumbled bacon, potato skin cracklin's, grated cheddar cheese, chopped parsley, sliced green onions, and smoked paprika.

And SOUP'S ON!

Enjoy.

Rosie Makes Chicken Sandwiches.

 

 

 Let's make some chicken sandwiches.

 

Ingredients: 

 Dinner rolls or you can use a nice loaf of bread  (Please do not use Wonderbread or anything like it.)

 Chicken tender strips

kosher salt

Lawry's seasoned pepper or freshly ground pepper

thyme

 oil

unsalted butter pats

pesto

roasted red peppers

a nice melting cheese - Mozzarella, Swiss, or in my case, a nice Gruyère

 

 

 

Just in case you want to know what part of the bird you're eating, chicken tender strips are like tenderloins.  They're the pectoralis minor muscles located under the chicken breast near the rib cage area.  Smaller and thinner than chicken breast,they're usually described as chicken strips and they tend to be more tender and moist if cooked properly, which of course, I did. Season the chicken tenders with a little kosher salt, pepper, and a few shakes of thyme.

 Pour a film of oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add in a pat of butter, let it spit, sizzle, and melt.

You want the temperature around 350°.

Lay in the chicken and cook about 3 minutes on first side, turn over, and cook about 2 minutes second side.  Remove chicken from pan and let rest and cool a bit.

 

Spread a little butter on split dinner rolls and lightly toast. 

I always have homemade pesto in the freezer from last fall's Hurricane Harvest, so I thawed out one of my little baggies of pesto.

 

I also had a jar of roasted red peppers in the fridge which I'd opened up to use for pimiento cheese spread (The big jars of roasted peppers are cheaper than those little jars of pimiento peppers.) and I've found out that those large jars do not last long in the fridge once they've been opened.  The peppers needed to be used, so this is another way, besides making pimiento cheese, to use up the peppers.

 

Spread a layer of pesto on the toasted dinner rolls. 

Slice the chicken tenders lengthwise into 3 or 4 strips and lay on top of the pesto. 

Top with roasted red pepper strips, then slices of your cheese.

Run under the broiler until cheese is melted.

And serve. 

I've made this sandwich several times and each time I find something else to add to it.  You might consider some stemmed spinach leaves, bacon, sliced red onion, sliced pickled peperoncini, and/or sliced avocado doused with lime juice. 

 

 

 Now for the step-by-steps:

I started out with a hot pan, poured an thin film of oil in it, then added a plop of unsalted butter and let it spit, sizzle, and melt.  Temp around 375°.  Season your chicken tenders and lay them in the pan.

Let it brown on the first side maybe 3 minutes.

 

Turn, and brown the flip side (1-2 minutes).

Remove from pan.

 

 

 

 

Let the meat sit for a while so the juices can get reabsorbed.  If you cut right out of the cooking pan, you'll lose that juicy goodness.

  

When cooled down a bit, slice into thin pieces.

 

Thusly.

For the bread, I used those little dinner rolls since I had them on hand,

but you could go with a nice slice of whole wheat, pumpernickle, or even rye if you're so inclined.

Just butter and lightly toast the bread.

 

 

After toasting, I slathered on some pesto I had thawed out.  Every year, my basil in the garden comes up all over the place.   I love my volunteers.  I pick and top throughout the growing season, well into the fall.  And that's when I usually make a big batch of pesto.  I wait for a hurricane to come and hustle out the day before, strip my basil plants of all its leaves because they're gonna be gone anyway, and make a huge batch of pesto.  For instructions for my Hurricane Harvest Pesto, please CLICK HERE.  Just pare down for non-institutional amounts of pesto.  And FYI, I prefer pecans to pine nuts any day.  Also, the type of olive oil you use will greatly affect the taste.  For pesto, I want the basil flavor to shine, so I use a neutral flavored olive oil - Bertolli Extra Light.  And good grief!  Have you checked the price of that stuff lately?

Also, be sure to use a good quality Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. I mean the real thing.  Not Parmesan cheese from Wisconsin which is counterfeit. But Parmigiano Reggiano, which under Italian law, can only be produced in certain Italian provinces and is governed by laws meant to preserve the integrity, flavor, and quality of the product.  For the real deal, look for DOP on the label, meaning Protected Designation of Origin, or in Italian, Denominazione di Origine Protetta.  This is an exclusive certification assigned by the European Union that guarantees that the cheese was made in specific region of Italy according to traditional standards.  It indicates that the product owes its characteristics to its place of origin and that its production and processing occurs within that designated geographical area.  In other words, when making pesto, do not use Kraft Krap In a Kan.  Really, one shouldn't have it in one's kitchen.

 

Start with the layers on lightly toasted bread.

Spread on the pesto, then add some chicken slices. 

Some roasted red peppers.

Top with cheese and run it all under the broiler.

Enjoy.