Tonight's supper was a soup I made Sunday afternoon and stashed in the refrigerator for later in the week. The recipe was from Sunday Soup by Betty Rosbottom. This wasn't my first soup from the book. Rosbottom's recipes for Russian Vegetable soup and Butternut Squash and Apple soup with Cider Cream were both very good. (I froze the Russian Vegetable and am just now finishing it up. It freezes very well.) I'm not sure what happened with tonight's soup, Cold Weather Potato Chowder with Caraway Cheese. I have a couple theories. But first the recipe.

Ingredients
4 slices bacon, cut in 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup diced celery
1 lb red-skin potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1/2 in. dice
1 Tb minced garlic
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups whole milk
1 cup (4 oz) Harvarti cheeese with caraway seed, coarsely grated
1 Tb unsalted butter @ room temp.
1 Tb all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tb chopped fresh chives for garnish

Saute bacon in large heavy pot, medium heat, until browned & crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towel to drain, save 2 Tb bacon grease & discard the rest.

Add onion & celery to the bacon drippings and cook until softened, about 5 mins. Stir frequently. Add diced potatoes & saute for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add chicken stock & milk to the pot & bring mixture to a simmer. Cook soup at a simmer until the potatoes are tender, for 10-15 mins. Do not boil soup. (Soup can be prepared to this point 1 day ahead. Cool, cover, & refrigerate. Reheat over low heat & proceed with recipe.)

When ready to serve, add the cheese, a little at a time, stirring until melted after each addition. In a small bow, mist the butter & flour with a fork to make a paste. Whisk into the soup, a little at a time, and cook until completely blended, for 1 to 2 minutes. Salt & pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and sprinkle each service chopped chives & bacon.

Sounds great, eh? Mine wasn't. Not even close. It had a bitter, sour taste to it. I think I went wrong when I didn't follow the recipes admonition to add the cheese and the flour paste just before serving. Instead, I shrugged, and added both on Sunday, then stuck the soup into the refrigerator. I think that somehow the cheese & potatoes weren't good together in the fridge. Alternatively, it could have been the cheese. I couldn't find Harvarti with carraway seeds at the store so I picked up some Havarti dill cheese. It's possible that dill was not the right herb to use in this soup. A third possibility is that the milk was just a little bit off. It'd been in the fridge for a while but it smelled ok. Normally, my nose doesn't go wrong. This time it might have.

I think I'll give this recipe another go sometime and correct all those things. Maybe next time, it'll be the tasty treat that it should be.

Right now, I'm heading back to the kitchen to find something a bit more satisfying than this soup.
 
 
Tonight's dinner came from The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern cookbook. This was our first recipe from their book and it was a resounding success. We paired the fish with a glass of Sutter Home Gewurtztraminer, which nicely balanced the acid from the lemon. Normally I'm not a big fan of wines made from this grape, but for our meal tonight it worked quite well. The trout were frozen and came from the Lansing City Market. Serves two. From start to finish this took about an hour. The book says 20 minutes, but that's very, very optimistic.

Ingredients:
2 Tbl all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
2 trout fillets (6-8 oz each)
4 Tbl unsalted butter (1/2 stick)
1 large lemon segmented
2 slices bread, toasted, crusts cut off, cut into fine dice
1/2 mixed fresh herbs such a dill, mint, & parsley
2 Tbl good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp white vinegar

In a small bow mix flour, salt & pepper. Sprinkle over both sides of the trout fillets.

Melt the butter in a medium saute pan, cast-iron preferred, over medium heat until the froth begins to subside. Place the fillets in the skillet, skin side down and cook until the skin is crispy, about 5 minutes. You'll see the sides of the fillet begin to turn brown when it's done. Turn over and cook for about 3 minutes

While the fish is cooking, toss the lemon segments, diced toast, and herbs in a bowl. Dress with the olive oil & vinegar, and set aside.

When the fillets are completely cooked, place the lemon-herb mixture on each plate, lay a fillet, skin side up, over it and serve immediately.

The fish was very tasty, and we rate this recipe a keeper. We thought we'd need a side dish so cooked up a bunch of jasmine rice, which was unneeded. The bread, lemon, and herb concoction was all we needed to accompany the fish. The rice was schlepped off to the refrigerator, to await another day. We have plans for it later this week.