HungryForever

POTATO AND FATBACK SOUP

The ultimate soothing yet steadying soup; if feeling a little liverish, or generally frail, this should sort you out.

Servings

Ingredients

12 floury potatoes (this is importantas we are aiming at liquid silk, not wallpaper paste), peeled and chopped
6 leekscleaned and chopped
5 onionspeeled and chopped
10cloves of garlicpeeled and chopped
extra virgin olive oil
1quart light chicken stock
1quart Milk
sea salt and black pepper

TOPPING

4ounces ¼salted fatback (as with the wet walnutsbut cut into baked-bean-sized chunks)

Instructions

As with the previous recipe, sweat off all the chopped vegetables and garlic in a pan with the oil. Again I cannot stress enough how much more improved the flavor of the soup will be the longer you can extend this moment. The perfect result would be the potatoes completely cooked (leaving no glimmer of the bitterness of raw potato).
Add the stock and milk and simmer away until all the vegetables have given up any sign of resistance. Put through a fine sieve. Check for seasoning.
Now you have various options; eat the soup as is, which might seem a bit dour. Or, in a frying pan, render your small chunks of salted fatback on not too high a heat, so that you end up with crispy nuduals of salty pork fat to top off the soup. But our possibilities do not end there. You could instead shear off a generous slice of fresh foie gras per bowl of soup, pop on top of the hot soup and give it a few minutes to do a little melting, then eat.