Mom/Chef…Comforting soup for the winter doldrums

 

We are still having some cold, snowy days here in Northern Montana, but the majority of the time it is just cold and brown. Mud is everywhere since it warms up enough for the snow to start to melt, then freezes again. For the first time in my life I truly understand and appreciate having a mud room. An entrance to the house where people can take off muddy, wet boots and coats before it gets tracked all over the kitchen and living room. Our mud room also includes the laundry room and has an entrance straight into the bathroom, for those days when Tim comes home covered in hydraulic fluid or something equally messy.

It was cold when we moved here in November and it is still cold, the weather varying between snowy, windy and just cold and wet. Needless to say, I am ready for spring. When looking through the fridge last week, wondering aloud what to do with all the potatoes I had lying around, not to mention a bag of snap peas I’d bought for snacking but hadn’t finished, Tim reminisced about a soup from his childhood. When I think potato soup, I immediately think of a thick, hearty puree, smooth and white. Tim’s childhood soup involved picking new potatoes and peas fresh from the garden, lightly cooking them and creaming the soup out for a chunky, fresh tasting soup. As soon as he described it I was sold. Here is my version of Tim’s garden potato and pea soup. It is quick, easy and very delicious. Potatoes and peas add a little bit of spring to an otherwise windy, cold and muddy brown March.

Leek, potato and pea soup

 

Leek, Potato and Pea Soup.

1 ½ pounds small yellow potatoes, scrubbed clean and cut into roughly 1/2'’ dice.

1 large leek, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced into half moons.

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1-2 cups snap peas, trimmed and cut into 1” pieces. (Frozen green peas would work fine too)

1 quart chicken or vegetable stock or water

1 cup heavy cream or dairy of your choice

Butter, salt and Pepper

Your choice of fresh or dried herbs, good choices are: Thyme, dill, tarragon. (Optional)

Slice leek in half, thinly slice into half moons and place in a large bowl full of cold water. Let the Leeks sit and soak for 10 minutes, gently swishing them occasionally to get all the grit out of the layers. Scoop the leeks from the bowl and drain, leaving the gritty water in the bowl.

 

Wash and dice potatoes, if you are doing this ahead of time, you can put the potato pieces in a bowl covered with cold water until ready to use.

 

Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add drained leeks and add a pinch of salt. Cook the leeks slowly until they get very soft and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. When leeks are soft add garlic and cook 1 minute. Then add the potatoes, herbs if you are using them, and stock. Bring to a simmer and let cook until the potatoes are cooked through but not too mushy. 15 or more minutes, depending on the size of your potato chunks. If you are using snap peas then throw them in halfway through the potato cooking time, frozen green peas can go in at the very end. Once potatoes and peas are cooked through, add the dairy and taste for salt and pepper. Potatoes tend to soak up a lot of salt, so don’t be afraid to add plenty. Let the soup warm (but don’t let it boil) for about 5 minutes and serve. Eat and think of spring.

 

Mom/Gardener: Think Spring

So it's official, according to the news April 2011 was the coldest April on record for our state. When you live at roughly 2200 ft elevation, that translates to a lot of 20 degree nights and barely 40 degree days. Needless to say I have been feeling like Spring is some far off, unreachable thing that will never, ever happen. Just like when you're a kid waiting for Christmas, only I've had enough of snow, thank you very much. Last week we had the miracle of a beautiful, sunny 52 degree day and I said "enough is enough" and I went to the garden store. One bag of potting soil later and I have officially started my herbs and lettuces in pots on the porch.

porch garden

It doesn't look like much now, but give it a couple of weeks, it will soon be beautiful and edible. Which is pretty much my criteria for growing anything. If I have to choose between edible and ornimental, I choose edible, which totally explains why the only flowers growing around my house are day lillies that some previous owner planted, they keep coming back no matter how much I ignore them.
Anyway, it felt so good to be out in the sunshine, the dogs sunning themselves on the porch, the baby playing in the grass, me filling pots with rich dark soil and sprinkling on seeds. It gave me the spring fix I needed.
There are other signs of spring around here too. For instance, in our back yard, six big green leafy mounds of rhubarb are getting bigger day by day.

rhubarb!

I did not plant these, these giant rhubarbs were a very happy surprise the first spring we lived in this house. Some previous owner planted them and they come back strong, year after year. Last year I canned some awesome strawberry-rhubarb jam, not nearly enough of it though. I am looking forward to getting a big batch or three of it going in a couple of weeks. Not only is it delicious, but no one I have met gets sad if presented with homemade strawberry-rhubarb jam as a present.
One of my husband's favorite signs of Spring poked their little heads up this week too. While walking along a trail near our house my son and I came upon a big patch of morels. We live in good mushroom country up here, and even though I tend to be a little unadventurous of a mushroom hunter, there are a few obvious ones I enjoy hunting for, morels and chanterells mostly, both of which grow really well in the forests up here and more importantly are really hard to mistake for anything else.

mushroomy goodness

This particular patch, this early in the season, was of small mushrooms, but I think they are better the smaller they are. They are less likely to be buggy or too wet, and they are easy to cook, nice little two bite morsels. When cooking morels you need to forget the conventional wisdom of grocery store mushrooms that says "don't get them wet." you want to soak morels in several inches of water to get all the dirt and things out of all those little crags and furrows. After a nice long soak, drain them in a colander then place them on a towel to soak up the last of the water. Then you can dredge them in seasoned flour and give them a quick fry, or saute them with asparagus and peas for an all-things-spring vegetable medly.
The final, for now, important Spring development is that the chickens finally have their new home. My industrious husband spent two days converting an old outbuilding into a chicken coop.They love it in there, there is space to move around, some of the Rhode Island Reds are already checking out the nesting boxes, now all they need is their outdoor run. We have to transplant a few of the aforementioned rhubarb plants in order to build their run, but hopefully the rhubarb will survive the move, I have lots of family members who will be dissapointed come the holidays if I run out of strawberry-rhubarb jam.

Hey Mom, its sunny outside!