Multi Soup

Any recipe of mine that causes my six-year-old to announce, unprompted, "why, this is the tastiest soup I've ever had" is worthy of publication.  That's because she is an exceedingly choosy eater and sticks to proteins and a tiny assortment of vegetables and starches.  She liked my soup so much that she also wanted to name it.  It's a very appropriate name so I stuck with it.

The soup I prepared last night utilized a versatile soup base that I came up with a couple of weeks ago after a trip to my local farmers market in Brooklyn.  I froze it and intend to experiment with several "multi soups."

Soup Base

3 leeks, white part only
1 Tablespoon butter
4 cups chicken stock
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
3 ears of corn

Cut leeks down center of stalk to within 1/2" of root end and wash their interiors to remove any sand, then slice in 1/8" rounds.  Melt butter over a low flame in a heavy, Le Creuset type pot and add leeks.  Cover the pot and sweat the leeks for 20 minutes, checking occasionally to make sure the leeks don't scorch.  While leeks are sweating, snap the ears of corn in half and standing them on their cut sides, run a knife down their sides to remove the kernels.  Set the kernels aside.  Uncover the pot, add the chicken stock and then, holding the corn cobs over the top of the pot, run the back of a knife down the cobs to extract all the corn milk.  Add the cobs to the pot, bring stock to a boil and then simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.  Add potatoes and simmer another 10 minutes.  Add corn kernels and simmer a final 10 minutes.  Remove corn cobs, cool soup base slightly and puree.  Makes about 6 cups of soup base, enough for two different soup recipes that serve 3 to 6.

For last night's soup I used 3 cups of the base and added 3 chicken Gerhard's Sausages (with basil and pine nuts) that I fried up first, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1 can of rinsed Progresso canellini beans and salt and pepper to taste.  When I served the soup, I drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil on top.

The soup base would also lend itself to a seafood chowder preparation, or any other chowder for that matter.  Try topping it with an assortment of fresh chopped herbs, fried sage leaves or oven roasted tomatoes.  (I tried it with some roasted tomatoes that I made recently and it was delicious.  Maybe I'll publish a recipe for those next.)