Cooking Up a Storm

Lately, I've been dabbling with cooking. My style of cooking is born like this: find an ingredient and make something with it. I'm starting a webpage that will essentially follow that same format. I'm hoping others will join the page and post their recipes and experiences with the ingredient of that particular month.

Aside from that, I was watching a Julia Child cooking show and she was preparing a Vichychoise. An easier way to refer to it is "potato-leek soup" (often served cold). The beautiful thing about this recipe is the amazing flexibility of it.  A little tweak here and a little embelishment there and you have a completely different dish.

POTATO-LEEK SOUP:

Ingredients 
1/2  cup butter

2     leeks, sliced (3 if small)   

       salt and pepper to taste

1     quart chicken broth

1     tablespoon cornstarch  

4     cups Yukon Gold potatoes, diced

2     cups half/half (fat-free preferred)

 Prep Time:    15 Min

 Cook Time:  1 Hr

 Ready In:      1 Hr 15 Min

 Recipe Yield 8 servings

Prep:

1. Remove the dark green portion then slice leeks lengthwise and into 2" lengths. Rinse/wash thoroughly.

2. Chop potatoes into 0.5" cubes. (I prefer skin-on though original recipe suggests no skin)

3. Combine cornstarch and broth in seperate bowl.

Cooking Directions:
1.  In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper until tender, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes.

2.  Stir cornstarch into broth and pour broth into pot. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the half and half, reduce heat and simmer at least 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender.

I suggest serving warm in a shallow bowl with a variety of toppings available on the table.  Anything you think you or whoever you share with would like atop a baked potato should be on the table.  For example: chopped chive, cool sour cream, grated cheeses (cheddar, parmesan) bacon pieces, etc.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Afterthoughts:

I have used this recipe as a base for more than one dish.  The basic recipe is good and I find it to be very satisfying on a cool evening.  When just my wife and I are eating this dish, we are less extravagant with the extra toppings.  When we have guests, I like to put out a lot of toppings.

*The dish as explained above, is a chunky potato soup. 

*If you are fond of clam chowder but find yourself living with a vegetarian, try this variation: use "no-chicken broth" (it tastes like chicken but uses no chicken and is organic, usually) and add fresh oyster mushrooms.  Viola', you have a vegatarian clam-chowder-like soup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_mushrooms#External_links

*If you want something a little more elegant, try this variation: after cooking, blend the entire soup until thick and somewhat-even.  It doesn't need to be completely smooth.  With my blender, this only takes less than 15 seconds.  Served warm or cooled, this variation seems creamier and the flavor is uniform. The 8 serving recipe fills my blender twice with extra.  I have a hard time transferring the soup from the pot to blender to serving bowl.  It's doable, but you may want an extra pair of hands... Be warned!

*If you want something with a more exotic appeal, try this variation: use 2 cups yukon potatoes and 2 cups of sweet potatoes.  Add eight pieces of bacon cut into 1/2 inch or shorter segments during the boiling step.  (Don't like bacon, substitute quality sausage crumbles or spicy sausage pieces.)  One red jalepeno cut into very small pieces adds a pop of color and a warm that satisfies on a particular cold night. (I always remove the seed and pith from the jalepeno so the jalepeno doesn't offend the more timid eaters of the house)

Just for shits and giggles: watch a blue oyster mushroom grow...
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot35sh7cVq4&feature=related

STP Ride

Just to follow up on my bike tour post; I loaded up my gear on the bike and set out for Portland. I didn't get the early start I had hoped for. However, I did ride about 60 miles before the day was out. The first day's ride was great and I enjoyed it a lot. However, the mapping that I printed out was nearly useless. I rode the Interurban Trail most the first day and was able to follow STP markers the whole way. If I hadn't been stopping every 10 miles to check my iPhone's GPS, I would have made better time and saved valuable phone battery. I saw a lot of interesting things on the ride and the easiest thing to note is the connection to your environment as you ride. I could smell BBQ's, bark mulch, flowering trees and plants. Smell is something you seldom have in a car ride. I engaged in some low grade guerilla camping and didn't sleep well. It turns out my bivy was rather sodden and cold for my tastes.

The next morning, I popped out of my bedroll and set out. Actually, I creeped out of bed and sat and drank a latte first thing. It was a typical drizzly-cool morning in the NW. I eventually got back onto a trail and followed it into a town for a breakfast burrito stop. I was having SIGNIFICANT discomfort in my saddle. I couldn't get the saddle adjusted properly. Due to the weather being what it was, I couldn't regulate my attire and comfort together either. Parts of the second day's ride were good and bad. On the trail was great. On the 6 inch shoulder of the highway was bad. There was a nice 2 mile incline that hurt me bad when I was already saddle sore. I called in the reinforcements and ordered a pick-up. 40 miles got logged on Day 2 and I sat at Starbucks in Centralia for 4 hours waiting for my wife to pick me up.  I know that I could have "toughed" it out, but the weather was turning pretty bad and I didn't have the provisions I thought I would need to go on.  I really believed I would put in two 100 mile days.  I sorely underestimated the effort involved with a century. I finished building up my road bike and will try another STP attempt with it.  This is the bike, but the picture was before the front derailleur and brakes went on...