Puréed Sweet Potato Soup
Credit: Arthur Meehan
SERVES 10 – 12
The Ahwahnee kitchen estimates that it serves about 45 gallons of soup at every seating of the annual Bracebridge Dinner.
5 medium orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
Salt
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 large leek, white part only, trimmed, cleaned, and chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled, trimmed, and chopped
1 rib celery, trimmed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup dry white wine
10 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
Freshly ground white pepper
1/4 cup Cranberry Oil, optional
1. Put sweet potatoes into a large pot and cover with cold water. Add 2 large pinches salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until soft when pierced with the tip of a knife, 30–40 minutes. Drain and set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel and quarter sweet potatoes, then set aside.
2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add wine, scraping any browned bits stuck to bottom of pot, and cook until alcohol has evaporated, about 2 minutes.
3. Add stock and reserved sweet potatoes to pot, increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until vegetables are very soft, about 30 minutes.
4. Working in batches, put vegetables and stock into a food processor or blender and purée until smooth, then return soup to pot. Stir in cream, season to taste with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Drizzle some of the cranberry oil, if using, over each serving.
First off, I only added 8 cups of stock, and even then, I thought this was way too much liquid.
I decided to drain allot of the cooking liquid before I pureed it, and I am glad I did.
then, I tasted it, and thought it was super bland. It may have had to do with the sweet potatoes that I used were tasteless themselves. (I tasted them after I boiled them..)
I tried to gussy it up by adding nutmeg, cinnamon, butter and more wine..
I haven't tasted it, myself, but it has goten RAVE reviews from my co-workers.
I did save the reserved cooking liquid for today in case it thickened up overnight, and it did, so I mixed a bit of it in before re-heating.
Also, the cranberry oil really didnt work out for me.
I made it 2 days ago, and it hasn't turned red at all like in the photo, and the oil is pretty tasteless.