Thick and luscious
Herbed Potato Soup is delicious morning, noon or night
Early Canadian settlers would breakfast on potato soup, writes Rose Murray in her new cookbook, Rose Murray’s Comfortable Kitchen Cookbook (Whitecap, $29.95).
Her recipe, beautifully photographed with a topping of crispcooked bacon, is tempting winter food at any time of day.
One of a dozen soups in the book, a revision of a 1991 publication, the cold weather assortment includes a chunky minestrone, a canned salmon chowder packed with vegetables, Hungarian goulash flavoured with caraway seeds, and an Italian bean and pasta combination.
Once warm weather returns, Rose, a veteran Ontario food writer, turns to an easy gazpacho and a chilled red pepper and mushroom bisque.
The book offers 230 recipes that range from snacks and starters right through to pickles. In only one page, she offers imaginative advice about stocking your pantry.
To speed up this recipe, instead of dicing the bacon raw, as Rose suggests, cook it until crisp and then crumble it.
HERBED POTATO SOUP
6 potatoes, peeled, diced
2 cups (500 mL) chicken broth
1 tsp (5 mL) dried marjoram
5 slices smoked
side bacon, diced
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp (30 mL) all-purpose flour 4 cups (1 L) hot milk
1/2 cup (125 mL) whipping cream Salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook the potatoes in the chicken broth with the marjoram for 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender. Without draining, mash potatoes coarsely in the pan. Set aside.
Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan over medium heat, fry bacon until crisp. Use a slotted spoon to transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.
Pour off all but 2 tablespoons
(30 mL) of the bacon fat and cook onions and garlic, covered, over low heat, until softened but not browned, about five minutes. Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Stir mixture into the potatoes. Gradually add the hot milk to the potato mixture, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly for about one minute.
Reduce heat to low and stir in the cream. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley and serve in heated bowls. Top each serving with bacon. Serves 6.