Poh-tat-O Leek Soup (With New Indie Rock Pairings!)

First, let me say I'm sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. My camera was dead. However, I promise to bombard you with excellent descriptions!

Today's issue of williameatseverything is called Poh-tat-O Leek Soup; or Why southerner's think a little pork makes everything taste better.

This recipe is modified from two stellar recipes from Mr. Alton Brown and Mr. Emeril Lagasse. As it is bitterly cold here in Bloomington, I made a LOT of this stuff. Feel free to cut the recipe in half. My recipe yields like 10 good sized servings I think.

Ingredients

• 2 pound leeks, cleaned and dark green sections removed
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 slices thinly diced bacon
  
• Heavy pinch kosher salt, plus additional for seasoning
• 2 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced small
• 7 cups chicken broth
• 1 and 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon white pepper (or black pepper but white looks prettier I suppose)
  
• 2 tablespoon snipped chives (garnish; optional but yummy)
  

How you does it:

Chop the leeks into small pieces. (Often I wash, bag, and freeze the tough green leaves to add when I make chicken or veggie stock like once a month. I assume you do make your own stock. Right?? Maybe I need an entry on that next time around.)

In a 6-quart pot (I used a big dutch oven. Basically use the biggest pot you have. That way you will be certain to avoid splashing.) over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the bacon and render fat (5 minutes?). Add the leeks and a heavy pinch of salt and sweat for 5 minutes. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook until the leeks are tender, approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the potatoes and the chicken broth, increase the heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and gently simmer until the potatoes are soft, approximately 45 minutes.

Turn off the heat and puree the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. ( I used a food processor. Just ladle the stuff into the food processor, and then put the pureed soup into a different pot as you go until you have it all pureed.) This step is important because you can choose here how you want your soup to look. Personally totally pureed soup looks like baby food to me. I like some chunks. If you are like me, you can just process 2/3 of the soup and let the other 1/3 stay as is. I think it looks more rustic, which I like, but to each his own.

Stir in the heavy cream, and white pepper (And don't accidentally drop the pepper mill into the soup and have to find and fish it out...Not that that happened to me or anything). Taste and adjust seasoning. You will almost invariably need more salt, but it is important to wait until this point to salt. A lot of canned stock has sodium in it, so if you are using store bought stock you need to wait until you are close to the end to finish salting. If it has been off the heat a while during the food processing part you my need to reheat it for just a minute or two. Sprinkle with chives and serve immediately.

Some recipes suggest serving it cold, but who the hell eats cold soup when its 19º outside? Just reheat the leftovers for a few minutes over low heat in a sauce pot.

This recipe goes particularly well with a side of cheddar cheese toast and the new Vampire Weekend album Contra. You can listen for free at http://www.vampireweekend.com/.

Enjoy!

w