Potato Soup

I lost my Notes on Facebook for the longest time, which was the Holy Grail of my tested and original recipes. I found them again after more than a year of having to Google myself and the recipe name on Facebook; but recently figured out how to add them back to my profile page.

We are good again, Facebook… but my little black heart doesn’t trust, so I will be slowly adding them to my blog, so I never lose them again!

This recipe was a batch to feed two households and then I still had a gallon to freeze for later. So you will want to REDUCE your ingredients by at least HALF. But I am not doing that for you today, because MATH.

Ingredients:

• 10 pounds red potatoes, diced into small bite sized pieces
• 1 package uncooked bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 2 medium sweet Vidalia onions, diced
• 1/2 bunch celery, diced
• 1 gallon (16 cups) whole milk
• 1/2 gallon (8 cups) water
• 3 tbsp chicken base
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp black pepper
• 1-1/2 cups salted butter
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 bunch finely chopped fresh parsley, cut stems away from base
• 1 pint (2 cups) whipping cream
• For garnish:
• shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• real bacon bits
• chopped green onions

Directions:

In large pot, boil potatoes in salted to taste water for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain and set aside until the end. In sauté pan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain bacon fat and place on paper towel over plate to drain more. Add onion and celery to bacon pan over medium-high heat until celery is tender, about 5 minutes. To your soup pot, add milk, water, chicken base, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat until mixture is very hot, about 10 minutes, stirring often. Do not let mixture boil.

In small, heavy saucepan make a blonde roux: melt butter then add flour and mix well. Cook over medium-low heat until mixture bubbles, then while stirring non-stop, another 2 to 3 minutes, then remove from heat. While stirring soup, add roux slowly until soup is thick and creamy, about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in parsley, half of your reserved potatoes, crumbled bacon and cream. Gently stir in the rest of your reserved potatoes, then turn down to simmer and put a lid on your pot, cook for an hour. Check every 10 minutes to make sure soup isn’t sticking to the bottom of your pan – at simmer, you should be fine but better safe than sorry.

Garnish with cheese, packaged bacon bits. Serve hot!