Start with the basics...

Friday night I came home famished. I knew I needed some nourishment and warmth, and fast! I turned to CL's Soup chapter.

23. A basic potato soup - *Soup*
24. Potato and Dried Mushroom Soup - *Soup*

This was another case of having to make the basic before I could make the 'jazzed up' version of potato soup.
The stock got going when I added some onions and garlic to an oiled pan, and these sweated down for a few minutes while covered. Meanwhile, I soaked some dried shitake mushrooms for the 'jazzed up' version and then sliced them up reserving their mushroom 'liquor'.

Shitake mushrooms

Once the onions and garlic sweated down quite a lot, I added some peeled and chopped potatoes. To this I added the mushroom liquid; if I had continued on the basic route, I would have just added some water. At this point, the heat was increased to a simmer and then lowered again so that the pot could be covered and left to simmer for a few minutes. Tom suggested the consistency of the potatoes to be falling apart after simmering, and for it to be 'almost the colour of white chocolate'.

smooth potato soup - the basic version

The final part of this recipe was just to add enough water to desired soup consistency and then to add the mushrooms for the 'dried mushroom' variation of the potato soup. Tom suggested a garnish of thyme or rosemary, but as I had neither on hand I decided to fall back on my trusty oregano!

Ready to eat with a matzo roll

I liked the flavor of the potato soup but not so much of the additional mushrooms. They seemed to be quite chewy to me, and perhaps I should have left them to simmer with the soup for a bit longer... plus at this point, I was getting quite tired of all the potato variations I was eating this half of the week, so wasn't really in the mood for soup at this point. So it wasn't a hit for me, but I think it could definitely work with other mushrooms, or at a time when potatoes are not the only things that seem to show up on every menu one's eating!

I think for the rest of Passover I'll stop my whinging and make things that bear no relation to the potato at all!!! Hopefully the Potato Strike of 2006 starts tonight!