Leek and Maine Potato Soup

serves 4

Steph grew the most beautiful, perfectly textured potatoes in the garden this year. This recipe, that I made tonight using stuff we had in the fridge, totally shows off their subtle, deep, comforting flavors.

• 4 cups chicken or turkey stock, preferably homemade
• 1 -2 cups cold water
• 3 small, fresh, best-quality local Kennebec potatoes, peeled and cut into evenly sized dice
• 1 large leek
• 1/2 cup fresh fennel bulb, white portion, chopped
• 1 slice bacon
• 2 tsp white flour
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tb minced mild fresh herbs, for garnish (parsley, dill, chives, and/or chervil)

Put the potatoes, stock, and water into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer, covered.

Cut the bacon crosswise into 5mm strips (scissors work well for this) and begin to try out over low heat in a medium saucepan, until it begins to brown.

While the bacon starts to cook, remove the root and dark green portion of the leek. Cut down into the light green portion, spread the layers, and rinse out any grit. Chop the leek finely by cutting into eighths lengthwise and then into 5mm crosswise slices.

Stir the leek and fennel into the bacon and its fat. Cover and sweat over low heat until soft and translucent, stirring occasionally - about 10 min. Do not brown.

Stir the flour into the leek / fennel / bacon mixture. Cook uncovered over low heat, stirring occasionally, for a couple of minutes. Pour several ladlefuls of the hot stock into the leeks and stir, scraping all the vegetables from the corners of the pan. Pour the resulting mixture back into the large saucepan with the potatoes and the rest of the stock. Add the wine. Cover and simmer over very low heat until potatoes are very soft and flavors have melded - about 20 more minutes.

Optionally use a stick blender to make the soup into a very thin puree. (I like doing this because I like the resulting texture and I think it brings out the flavors. Other people don't like the homogenization and want to see and taste the individual pieces of stuff. Whatever.)

Stir a couple ladlefuls of the soup into the cream. (Doing it this way discourages curdling.) Add the thinned cream back to the main body of soup. Taste carefully and add salt as needed. Warm over lowest heat. Do not boil.

Stir in herbs and black pepper to taste. Serve immediately in hot soup plates with good bread and a salad.