Ham and Potato Soup, Part II

Sorry for my delay.  I made this dish last week, and now I'm finally finding time to sit at the computer and write.  I do have blogger for my phone, but it is just not the same as typing away at the computer. 

So, after having a wonderful meal at Seasons in Williamsburg, I decided to try to make the potato and ham soup at home.  I've been working on cleaning the house, making it look all pretty pretty, so I decided I would make it in a crock pot (or slow cooker... depending on your naming preferences).  I found a recipe on-line.  I found this website: www.allrecipes.com to be very useful.  It was pretty easy to make.  It took about five hours to make, an hour of prep time and four hours of cook time.  To make the "broth" you actually use a can of condensed cream of chicken.  Add in some red potatoes and ham (both cubed to bite sized pieces), diced yellow onion, a cup of corn kernels and some herbage.  This one calls for parsley, dill and celery seed.  Then salt and pepper to taste.  I did not add any salt, and found the recipe to be pretty salty in the end.

So, how did it turn out?  Well, not as good as what I had at the restaurant.  I think using the short cut of condensed cream of chicken took away from what I was hoping for.  I have a different recipe that is more of a potato cream than the chicken cream.  Although the chicken added another layer of flavor, the soup tasted more like a chicken soup than anything else.  Also, because you add some water to reconstitute the condensed soup, the broth was not creamy.  I had to thicken it up with some corn starch before serving. 

How did it taste?  Over all, I enjoyed it.  Like I said above, it tasted more like chicken soup than a potato soup.  The potatoes were perfectly creamy.  I think the red potatoes were the right choice for this soup.  In the past I've used Russet potatoes because they are a bit cheaper and they are larger... but it was worth the switch.  The ham absorbed the flavor of the soup broth.  I think, if I make this again, I'll add the soup in towards the end.  It is already cooked, so really the ham just needs to reheat.  I really liked the flavor that the parsley, dill and celery seed added.  I've used the parsley and dill before.  This was my first time using celery seed (I even had to open the spice container, which reminds me, I should probably start replacing some of the spices in my spice rack... the rack is just over five years old and seasonings should be replaced every six months or so).

The recipe I used made about six servings, so we have left overs.  The soup is great as a left over.  It made for a very easy meal yesterday while I was cleaning the house.  It also went nicely with some home made french bread.  The bread is really easy to make, just a bit time consuming because of the "rise" time involved.  The other great thing about the bread... it costs me just a few cents to make it, where the same loaf would cost $3 in the store.

I have so many ideas for my next blogs.  I may be venturing into the world of frozen yogurt... I have become addicted to this new place by my house (walking distance), called Sweet Frog.  I made Darryl walk there with me last Friday night, and yesterday when I said I was craving ice cream he said "If you only said that before we started drinking our wine, we could have walked over.  How about we walk there this Friday."  I think it's true love!  (For both the frozen yogurt and my husband).

Potato and Ham Soup... Part I

I had some of the best potato and ham soup last weekend!  We ventured out to my favorite place on earth for Drummer's Call Weekend at Williamsburg, VA.  We decided to have an early dinner/late lunch at Season's restaurant (where we seem to eat just about every time we are up there).  Since it was still a lunch menu, I decided to try the soup special... the potato and ham soup.  How do I describe how wonderful it was?  It was nice and filling.  The broth was creamy, but not so thick that it stuck to the spoon.  The ham and potatoes were cut into nice bite size pieces.  The potatoes were a red skinned potato, with the skin still attached.  They were soft and creamy.  There was a lot of flavor.  I think the broth was made with chicken stock, and it tasted like it had been simmered for quite a while with the celery and onions.  There was a kick of pepper and the salt seemed perfect.  The bowl of soup was a perfect portion.  I was a little worried when I ordered it, we both got a bit of color in the bright sun watching the Fifes and Drummers do their thing.  It was probably around 84 degrees outside.  Who eats hot soup after spending the day outside sweating?  I am really glad I decided to have the soup!

I am planning on doing a variation on this soup for dinner later this week.  My spin, I'll be making it in my crock pot.  I'm excited about trying it this way.  Even better:  it will allow me to go and see Darryl play soccer and we'll have dinner ready when we get back to the house.  (He always jokes that I only go and see him play soccer because we end up going out to eat afterwords since it's so late and will take too long to make dinner.)