I said when I posted the recipe for my summer pickles that I am not much of a creative cook on my own. I do best when I follow or (occasionally) improvise on other people’s recipes.

I ordered Andrew some Crimson Fire cheese from Ferdinand’s Dairy at WSU. I also ordered us a wheel of their dill garlic cheese since I’d never tried it and it sounded too good. The package came the other day and packed with it was a recipe for potato soup made with Cougar Gold cheese (a barnburner of a white cheddar). I thought the recipe sounded interesting so I put it up on the fridge with every intent to give it a try when I got my hands on some Cougar Gold.

But Sunday the 9th (okay, this is a few weeks after the fact, gimme a break, I work long hours) I was looking for something to cook for dinner and I figured, what the hey, the dill garlic cheese would be an equally good option for this soup so I started improvising. And improvising. And improvising.

The product was a FANTASTIC soup that lasted exactly two nights (unlike my usual insane attempts at soup that last anywhere from weeks to, as is the case with my last batch of split pea part of which still resides in our chest feezer, months) and wasn’t anywhere close to the original recipe. I’m so proud of it I wanted to share.

Sunday’s Remarkable Potato Soup

Saute one large chopped onion in 1/2 cup butter (a cholesterol purist could try 2 tblsp olive oil, I suppose).
When the onion is soft add 1/2 cup flour and stir constantly for 3-5 minutes or until the flour is browned.
Add 3 cups of chicken stock, stirring/whisking until smooth.

This is where I really started deviating from the printed recipe. Mostly because I wanted to make more soup than just the four servings that the recipe called for, but also because it sounded good.

To the stock, butter, flour and onion add three cups of white wine (I used a fabulous Covey Run Reisling) and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of mustard powder.
Bung in lots of potatoes cut into about 1 inch cubes. For the record I used approximately 4 cups (i.e. all of them that were left) of red baby potatoes.
Salt (minimal), fresh black pepper (plenty), basil (a generous handful), and tarragon (?), marjoram (?), thyme (?)…………. Hang on a mo’ while I go look.

It was oregano.

Let simmer until the potatoes are cooked then stir in about 1 cup of milk and 1 (small) package of frozen corn.

While the potatoes are cooking and the frozen corn is unfreezing, frizzle up about half a package of bacon cut into small pieces. Pour off the bacon fat (or add it if you please, but the soup holds up fine on its own and remember you did start with 1/2 cup butter… says my inner cholesterol purist) and throw the bacon pieces in. Some nice dense smoked salmon might be good instead of the bacon at this juncture. Allow to simmer on VERY low heat for about 10 minutes.

Now this is where the recipe called for adding the cheese. I’d tasted the soup and decided that it was precisely right without cheese so I didn’t. The next time I might because I still think it’d be good, but there wasn’t any real need for it. You’re supposed to add in about 1/2 to 1 cup of cheese, stir until the cheese is completely melted and then serve with celery leaves on top.

We had no fresh celery and I’m none so fond of the leaves anyway so I didn’t. I served mine with yummy dense multigrain toast.
Andrew did melt some of the dill/garlic cheese into his soup on Monday night, but I kept mine virgin. It was one of my better efforts.

This is a very thick chowder like soup with almost a gravy consistency. Andrew noted that it would also be good over noodles but I’m thinking noodles and potatoes would be a lot of starch…….maybe over a hunk of cow. I’ll have to think on that