Potato Soup

So I’m back, as promised.  One thing I strongly feel about cooking is that you need to get the point.  This is a recipe I made up over a year ago, based upon what I thought would make a good flavor combo.  A large portion of the time invested is in softening the potatoes with heat.  At the same time all of the added flavors will mix in the heated broth.  How you do this is up to your own ingenuity.

I tried something new this time around.  I tried a new way to accomplish the timely portion.  Before I had always used a slow cooker and let the mixture cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.  For Christmas I received an instant pot style cooker.  The hope was this would shorten a lengthy process with first world invention.  I had made a chili with it previously and that turned out.  As with any experiment based on hypothesis, it might not work the first try.  I learned you want a liquid buffer on the bottom of the pan because anything viscous will burn.  I also had an inordinate amount of steam.  I was going to google to see if maybe I should wait before releasing the steam.  In the end I had about a cup of water on the counter and the top of the cooker to mop up.

Potato Soup

• 28 oz. Cottage Cheese
• 16 oz. Plain Greek Yogurt
• 10-11 medium Gold Potatoes
• 28 oz. Skim Milk
• 1 lb. ham or bacon
• 1 lb. fresh mushrooms
• 1 cubic in. fresh ginger
• 5 large clove garlic
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Get a 6 qt. pot.  Add potatoes sliced small so they will cook faster, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and skim milk.
2. Grate ginger and peel garlic.  Add both to the pot.
3. Cook mixture until potatoes are soft and flavors have melded, stirring occasionally if your situation isn’t a black box like the instant pot.
4. While potato mixture is cooking, prepare ham or bacon along with the mushrooms so that they are fully cooked, will fit on a spoon, and are to your liking.
5. When potatoes are soft, take a stick blender and blend everything thoroughly.
6. Add desired amount of ham or bacon  to your serving.  Add cooked mushrooms.  Fill serving with blended mixture.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Stir serving to receive mushrooms and ham or bacon in almost every bite.

I fried my ham in a little olive oil until the water cooked out of it and there was slight browning.  I sautéed my mushrooms in olive oil.  First try at a new thing had me cleaning burned cottage cheese off the bottom of the pan, and dealing with a watery mess.  First world problems, what can I say?  The food is tasty and that’s all that matters in the end.  This activity is novel at the moment, so on to the next idea.

Have a good, or possibly a better,

Joshua Kooiman