Let me tell you now, this was an utter Lobster. I found the recipe, serving size 1, on a BBC site after I’d already sent out a mass text message to local friends promising potato brie soup at HG’s (this place). As the original recipe only served one, I decided to up-size it to feed eight, and add some special dipping bread to the mix.
Now, when it came to actually making the soup, I fudged a bit on some of the originalx8 amounts– I used less water and brie, for example, because the first seemed to be enough, and the latter was too damned expensive.
Soup:
16 tbsp (8 oz) olive oil
4 sweet potatoes, diced
green trimmings from 1 leek, cut into small pieces
400ml white wine (Roughly half a bottle– a bit more)
64 oz hot water
24 oz brie (three cheap 8 oz wheels, Kroger brand)
Bread:
3 or 4 ciabatta buns, cut into 1.5-2″ squares
olive oil (splash some in according to taste)
3 tbsp butter (or more, to taste)
3 small cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Heat the oil in a large pot, and add the sweet potatoes. Cook until soft and mushy. Stir in the wine, water, and leek. Keep at a low boil until tender.
Use the in-between times to cut the rind off of your brie, and cut it into chunks. Stir it into the soup until melted. Continually stir at this point to make sure the cheese fully blends. It will start smelling AMAZING.
But first you must prepare the bread. Heat oil, butter and garlic in a separate small skillet. Dip both sides of bread pieces, and then grill or bake them for three to four minutes (we used a George Foreman Grill), until just crisp on the outside, but still chewy.
After the bread’s ready, start ladling the soup and dive in!
My primary recommendation for the future would be to use less olive oil in the soup. I typed the recipe as we used it, but I think 6 oz of oil would be sufficient. Otherwise, when ladling the soup you may want to use a 1:3 ratio of ladle to slotted spoon– that way you get the nummy juiciness, more tasty potato-and-leek, and less flavour-inhibiting oil. Alternately, use the bread to sop up the extra oil, and save it for last.
Enjoy!
I could actually smell this in my imagination when I started reading it! Is that weird? If it is, I don’t care…and I am going to try this on my next payday!
It is right and just that you could smell this, because it did smell mighty indeed. Also, we used a really cheap Chardonnay (Bay Bridge, $3.33 at Kroger), I’d be interested in seeing what a nicer, or perhaps a sweeter wine might have done. Then again, the starchy potatoes may not have gone well…
Anyway, try it! Or do the serving-size-one version, since you could swing it for cheaper, just to try it. And thanks for dropping by!