First, take the potatoes,
scrub them under cold running water with a vegetable brush, pat them dry with paper
towels, and wrap them individually with aluminum foil. Then place them into a preheated
400 degree oven on the center rack and bake them for about an hour or so, or until a
toothpick easily pierces the potato through and through. When they’re cooked, remove
them from the oven and allow them to cool to room temperature for at least a couple of
hours (actually, potatoes that are allowed to set in the refrigerator overnight provide
the best texture for baked potato soup).
In the meantime, take a heavy, porcelain-coated cast
iron or Teflon-coated aluminum, 8-quart Dutch oven or oval roaster and place it on the
stove over medium heat. Now drop in the butter and when it fully melts and begins to
sizzle begin whisking in the flour - technically, you want to make a true French roux,
which is nothing more than flour and butter combined together over low heat so that it
cooks but does not brown.
After about 5 minutes or so, drop in the onions and the
garlic. Then begin stirring in the milk a little at a time, dissolving the French roux and
converting it into a smooth milk-base gravy. Now lower the flame and simmer the contents
of the pot until you get the potatoes peeled and shredded.
To do this, take a sharp paring knife and gently “scrape the peel” off the baked
potatoes (don’t try to peel them as you would peel an apple - you remove too much
potato this way and you eliminate the top layer of starch, which you need in the soup).
When all the potatoes are ready, run them through a cheese grater or shredder one by one
to transform them into what is commonly referred to as “shoestring cut.” Then
add the potatoes to the pot, pour in the Half-N-Half, and stir everything together
completely.
Now once again cook the mixture over medium heat, this time
for about 10 minutes - but be really careful that the milk doesn’t stick to the
bottom of the pot and scorch! The end objective is to cause the baked potato chunks to
soften further (which tends to sweeten them and make them richer).
At this point, it’s time to season the soup. Whisk in all the vegetable seasoning but
just enough salt and white pepper to suit your taste. I recommend
“over-stirring” as the seasonings are added to ensure that they blend in
uniformly. This is also the time when you want to drop in the green onions and the
parsley. Then once more, reduce the fire to low and simmer the soup for about 20 minutes
this time, again stirring occasionally to ensure that the potatoes and the creamy stock
don't stick to the bottom and scorch.
Then after the allotted cooking time, test the soup for thickness. If it is too thick to
your liking, simply thin it out with a little extra water or whole milk. If it's too thin,
sprinkle in as much of the instant potato flakes as necessary to adjust the consistency to
your taste. The best approach here is to spoon on the flakes a couple of tablespoons at
the time and stir them in completely, thickening the base a little at a time as you go.
Finally, when you're happy with the texture, ladle out the
piping hot, creamy mixture into oversize soup bowls and top them with everything
you’d put on a baked potato - a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of ham or bacon or
both, a pile of shredded cheddar, maybe a little extra parsley or green onions, and even a
dash or two of paprika. All that’s left then is to bring out a stack of crispy
multi-grain crackers and pig out! Especially if it’s cold out!! |
1. For a creamy
smooth potato soup, be sure to use only fresh, hard russet potatoes which have been baked
to perfection then chilled in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours (this keeps
them from crumbling).
2. Good rich homemade chicken stock can also be added to the soup base in place of some of
the whole milk. In fact, for a richer more intense flavor, you can make the French roux
with the bacon drippings instead of the margarine and cook the bacon and ham right along
with the milk-base instead of adding them at the end of the preparation. Of course, if you
decide to use canned broth, be sure to taste the blend for salt before you add any extra
salt. You may find that there is already enough in the canned broth (to say nothing of how
much sodium might be in the bacon).
3. Be sure to watch the pot as the soup simmers - you don’t want the potato pieces to
disintegrate. And overcooking will certainly do that and ruin the texture of the dish. |
