Sweet Potato Bisque

Here's the sweet potato bisque recipe I mentioned - I hope you try it, it's REALLY good!

2 oz butter (4 T)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp Madras Curry Powder
2 pounds orange/red fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped (or thinly sliced - evenly cut is the key)
5 cups stock, vegetable or chicken
1 T grated fresh ginger
1/2 cup creme freche, or to taste (optional, but damned yummy!)
1/2 cup dry Sherry
fine sea salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste (or black pepper if you don't mind the color)
4 T crystallized ginger for garnish (chopped or crushed and chopped semi-finely)

1. In a large soup pot, melt butter, and saute onions, carrots and curry powder until slightly tender, about 5 minutes. Add sweet potatoes and 1/2 cup of stock, reduce heat to low, cover and sweat for 15 minutes. Note: to sweat the concoction, cut a piece of parchment paper the size of your lid, and place that directly over the potatoes before putting the lid on. This helps keep the color, and the flavor, of the sweet potatoes. Instead of steam rising to the lid and dripping back down onto the food, all the moisture stays in/close to the food.

2. Add remaining stock, bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Check that the potatoes are soft all the way through with a skewer or toothpick. If you sliced them, they should be. Puree with an immersion blender or food mill. (You can use a regular blender, but it's a major hassle, I think - but if that's all you've got, go for it!)

3. Mix in the ginger, creme fraiche, and sherry. Season to taste with salt and pepper and garnish with crystallized ginger.

This can be made ahead, up to 3 days (according to the recipe). Reheat and adjust seasoning before serving. It also freezes and thaws well - that's what I had for lunch today - YUM! A touch of creme fresh is nice to put on top as a garnish, and the crystallized ginger *really* adds a nice yummy touch to it. I also forgot the sherry in my last batch, and didn't put any pepper in at all, and it was delish! I actually kept making nummy noises when I was eating it at lunch, I enjoyed it so much. It probably would have annoyed others, but I was thankfully alone ;)

This is actually super easy, and it's SOOOOOOO tasty!

Enjoy!

--Kimberly

Contact Kimberly at: kimberly at bobrow dot net