Granny's Potato Soup

I call this "Granny's Potato Soup", but I think all of the "moms" in her lineage made it. I've mentioned a few times that I view my mother as part-Momma/part-WitchDoctor.  It's true. She always had some kind of concoction that could help anything.  One of them is this potato soup recipe.  Now, it is not simply potato soup: It's an amazing elixir that can cure anything. Yes, you heard me right. It. Cures. Anything. Sickness. Heartbreak. Life Disappointments.  All will be better after eating a bowl of this delicious potato soup.  I promise.

No worries, Miranda. When she is older, you will fix Claire right up with this soup just like your grandma did for me!

I've been sick with some sort of sinus madness for over a week. Antibiotics and decongestants have resulted in limited improvement, so I felt that I needed to pull out the big guns and make potato soup.

The ingredients are simple: Butter, salt, pepper, onions, potatoes, flour and milk.  For the love of family history, use real butter and whole milk, because you are not going to cure sickness or heartbreak with skim milk or oleo. Personally, I prefer starchier potatoes for this recipe but I only had some baby Yukon Gold new potatoes on-hand today.  They work well-enough.  Plus, since they are baby potatoes, I did not bother to peel them.  If buying potatoes, I'd likely go with Russet potatoes and peel them.

Onions, butter, salt and pepper

For ratios, I'd estimate a small-medium onion for a pound of potatoes. A teaspoon of finely-ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons salt, 3 tablespoons of butter, a third-cup of flour, and half to whole cup of milk.

With potatoes and water

Peel and dice your onion. I like a smaller dice, but the dice is up to you.  Peel potatoes, if needed, and dice them to spoon-sized pieces.  Rinse again after cutting the potatoes.  Add the onions and potatoes to a pot with the pepper, salt, and butter.  Add water until the potatoes are barely covered. Bring to a boil and simmer until the onions and potatoes are soft, which takes about 30 minutes.  Stir from time to time - more if the potatoes are starchy.

Flour and Milk

Make a slurry of flour and milk.  Whisk it so that it is very smooth.  Slowly pour it into the simmering soup while stirring constantly.  Once it thickens to the point that you want, keep stirring for another full minute.  (If too thick, add more milk and stir for a minute.  If not thick enough, add more slurry and cook a full minute after it reaches the desired thickness.)  Adjust salt and pepper.  Do not fear either, but keep in mind that salt can dissolve to overly-salty very quickly.

Soup!

Serve with saltines, if desired.



Variations: Cheese, bacon, and scallions are nice to add....but it is no longer Granny's soup.  I cannot vouch for its healing properties.

If you add no onions and make it thicker, it is essentially your grandmother's "creamed potato" recipe. She often made creamed potatoes as a side to go with fried fish (usually ocean perch) in the winter.  She also made scalded bread with it.  Delicious!

Potato soup can be made in advance, but will develop a skin on the top.  It will melt away when you stir it in.  Add milk to thin it, if needed.

Your grandmother would make this to help us "break a fever" when we were small.  It's actually pretty good for that purpose.  Also, it will get congestion moving.