Chicken, Leek and Potato Soup in honor of my father

My dad used to make this incredibly delicious soup. Every pot was delightful, magical and soul satisfying. Tender shreds of chicken, soft potatoes and delicate leeks floating in a fantastically scented, slightly creamy broth.

There are a few foods that I think of as belonging to Dad. Barbecue and especially the sauce, chili, boiled dinner and spaghetti sauce that took three days to make.  I can oven roast some damn fine meat, fake a sauce that doesn't compare to his but is still good, make pretty darn good chili and my spaghetti sauce is awesome even if it doesn't take three days to make.

I've made the soup the way my dad did for years. Although I am always willing to explore new flavors and recipes, there are some foods that are hard wired in my brain. The way they are is the way they are and you just don't mess with them.

But one of the ingredients for the soup became increasingly difficult to find. I could never find it when I wanted it and when I did find it it was usually mid July and soup was not at all what I was craving.

So one winter day I became desperate enough to commit traditional recipe heresy. See, the secret to my dad's soup was Knorr Leek Soup Mix. Three stores and no luck so I just bought 3 large leeks and decided to fake it. (ha ha I faked the fake stuff)

By  the way it is considerably easier to find Knorr Leek Soup these days thanks to the interweb but I tend to stick to my newfangled version.

Chicken Leek and Potato Soup

3 large leeks, cleaned and diced
1 small onion finely diced
2 medium carrots finely diced
2 ribs celery finely diced
4 oz button mushrooms finely diced
3 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Large sprig of fresh rosemary or 1 1/2 teaspoon dried
Salt and Pepper to taste
3 quarts of chicken stock*
 *This can be homemade, or made by boiling a chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper in 3 quarts of water reserve the chicken for the soup, or canned or boxed low sodium chicken broth.
1 6 oz chicken breast boned or deboned (unless boiling a whole chicken to start)
2-3 or 4 or 5 or 12 pounds potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large cubes. Honestly, there never seems to be enough (You can peel them if you like, my dad did, but I am lazy and like the skins)
4 cups whole milk or 3 1/2 cups skim milk and 1/2 cup cream.
8 oz sour cream

In a large pot, over medium heat, sweat the vegetables with the rosemary in the butter and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the chicken broth, and chicken breast, bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Remove chicken and set aside to cool.

Add the potatoes to the pot with a generous amount of salt and  bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile, shred (and debone if on the bone) chicken breast. When the potatoes are tender add the chicken to the pot. Test for seasoning and adjust to taste.

Slowly whisk in the milk and sour cream and bring up to temperature. Do not boil.

Serve in large bowls with a spoon. You can have other stuff like bread and/or a salad too if you like.

Mimosa Jam or three trips to the store later...

 I'm not sure if it's obvious, but I REALLY like making jam. I love pretty much the whole process from picking out the fruit to giving it away to my family and friends and all the steps between.

 This particular adventure came about because at Christmas time Rowen couldn't find any store bought Mimosa Jam for Baked Brie. I was too tired/busy then to attempt it but thought while I'm on vacation...

 So on Friday I sent MHM to the store for a bottle of inexpensive champagne only to realise our debit card was not working. Fine. Saturday after going to see Star Wars The Force Awakens (sooooooooooo good!) we stopped off at another store and picked up a bottle of Roget Spumante. Alright! now we're cooki...damn. No low sugar pectin. MHM ran off to yet another  store and bought me a jar of it. (And yes, I make so much jam we buy it in the big jar.)

 By this time, I wasn't feeling so super. My legs were giving me fits so I decided to have a bit of a lie down. I finally have a diagnosis for all the problems I had at the end of the year last year, Erythema Nodosum. which is inflammation of the fatty layer of the skin. Not as scary as some other choices I had for diagnosis (Lupus) but slower to heal than I want.

 So this morning...

Mimosa Jam
2 oranges peeled, reserve the peel from 1 of the oranges.
4 1/2 cups of orange juice preferably not from concentrate. (I would not bother with fresh squeezed since you are going to cook it.)
2 cups of inexpensive sparkling wine
3 cups of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons Low Sugar Pectin.

 Set up for however you wish to store the jam. I use small plastic containers. You can preserve it in jars if you wish.

 Mix  the 2 Tablespoons of sugar with the 4 Tablespoons of pectin and set aside.

 Using a spoon, scrape off all of the white pith from the orange peel. Then slice into fine slivers. Place the oranges in the blender with 1 cup of the juice and process briefly. We're going for seriously pulpy orange juice here.

 Pour the orange mixture into a large wide pan add the remaining juice, sparkling wine, peel, sugar, salt and butter. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook for 7 minutes. Watch carefully as this really liked to boil over. Towards the end of the cooking time begin skimming the foam from the top. You can discard it or save it to top ice cream, yogurt, pancakes etc. Or mix with ice and soda water to make the best fruit soda EVER.

 Stir in the sugar/pectin mixture. Return to a boil and cook for two minutes. Process how you see fit.


Oh my yum...

Although I think I may make a slightly  different version with more orange pulp and peel because I have all the ingredients, so why not?. I'll let you know.

*****Update*****

This is more like marmalade... 

Mimosa Marmalade or...Marmosa?

4 oranges peeled, reserve the peel from 3 of the oranges.*
1 1/2 cups of orange juice preferably not from concentrate. Plus more maybe a further 1 1/2 cups
2 cups of inexpensive sparkling wine
3 cups of sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons Low Sugar Pectin


 Set up for however you wish to store the jam. I use small plastic containers. You can preserve it in jars if you wish.

 Mix  the 2 Tablespoons of sugar with the 4 Tablespoons of pectin and set aside.

  Using a spoon, scrape off all of the white pith from the orange peel. Then slice into fine slivers. *Why did I use three instead of all four? I got tired of scraping pith.

  Place the oranges in the blender with 1 cup of the juice and process briefly. We're going for seriously pulpy and slightly chunky orange juice here.


 Pour the orange mixture into a large wide pan add the remaining juice, sparkling wine, peel, sugar, salt and butter. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and cook for 7 minutes. For some reason this version did not try to boil over and there was absolutely no foam. I think I may have forgotten to add the butter to the first batch of jam.

 Stir in the sugar/pectin mixture. Return to a boil and cook for two minutes. Process how you see fit.

 Eat on toast.