daddy's girl

My dad and I share several common loves: driving around on back country roads, my mom, sleeping, and potatoes. Fried, mashed, baked, or in chip form, my dad loves potatoes. So I was thinking about him today while I was cooking Potato and Leek soup and making mashed potatoes. We were also visiting my dad's family in California when I first had Potato and Leek soup and we made mashed potatoes the same way his mom did by using a food mill or ricer.

The Potato and Leek soup was simple and absolutely delicious. First, the onions and leeks were sweated (the moisture drawn out over a med/low heat) in clarified butter. Then diced potatoes, chicken stock, and a sachet d'epice ( "bag of spices":a little pocket of cloth with thyme, parsley stems, crushed black pepper, bay leaf, and a clove of garlic... all for flavor) were added to the pot and cooked until the potatoes were tender. I forgot to add my sachet d'epice when I added my stock and I didn't realize it until I was ready to puree my soup and remembered it was important to remove my sachet from the soup---when oops! I couldn't find it because I had never put it in. Luckily, I had 50 more minutes until my soup had to be ready, so I added the sachet and turned the heat way down to low and let the flavors infuse. After pureeing the soup in a blender, I added hot cream and chopped chives. It was smooth, full flavored, and so, so easy. The next time you are looking to make something wonderful, look no further than this soup. Here is the recipe:

1 oz clarified butter
6 oz leeks
1.5 oz onion
10 oz chef's potato
1 qt chicken stock
1 sachet d'epice (1 bay leaf, 5-6 crushed black peppercorns, 1 clove garlic, 2-3 parsley stems, and 1 good sprig of thyme)
6 oz cream (hot)
few chives chopped
salt and white pepper to taste

Heat the butter, then add the onions and leeks. Let the onions and leeks sweat for a few minutes, being careful not brown them, and keeping the heat about med/low. Add the potatoes, stock, and sachet. Simmer gently until the potatoes are tender. Blend in a blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer blended soup back to cooking pot, and add hot cream. Season. Stir in chives immediately before serving.

It is important that the cream is hot because when the hot starchy potato molecules are exposed to cold, they'll seize up and get very gluey. It is part of a process called gelation.

Also, when making mashed potatoes, we dried out the potatoes after cooking them to remove excess moisture. We did this by draining the potatoes from their cooking water and returning the potatoes back to their pot and then letting them sit a hot oven (400°F) until they get little white spots all over them and are very dry. Chef said this makes them fluffier.

p.s. Day 6 is a good day for food-- Banh Mi sandwich for lunch and fried pork cutlet with spaetzle for dinner.