Cooking with Wine

I find myself with a large amount of veggies from the CSA this past week.  Veggies I normally don't cook, so I did some surfing on the internet to see if I could come up with a soup that would somewhat use some of the leeks, 8lbs of potatoes, parsnips and rutabagas that I brought home.

I found a recipe for Potato Leek Soup to use as a base, altered it for my ingredients and what I had in the fridge.  I also used a Whitecliff Vineyards & Winery 2011 Estate Chardonnay( wanted to keep as much of it local)  A little wine for the soup, a little wine for the fish, a little wine for me and I was off slaving over the stove.

If you find your self with lots of root veggies, here is the soup recipe I created.  Hope you enjoy it.

Debbie's Root Veggie Soup

• 3 leeks, washed and sliced
• 2 parsnips, peeled and diced
• 1 rutabaga peeled and diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 black peppercorns
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
• 3 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 Tbs butter
• 3/4 cup dry white wine
• 7 - 8 cups chicken stock
• 2 pounds potatoes, diced
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3/4 teaspoon white pepper

Put the peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme in a garni bundle. (I use these little mesh teabags for items like this.) Set aside.

I cook my bacon in the microwave. If you do that save some of the grease to cook the leeks in.  Otherwise cook the bacon with butter take out when done, cool, crumble.

Add leeks to bacon grease and saute for about 5 minutes.  Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the garni bundle, chicken stock, potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, bacon salt and white pepper. Reduce heat to simmer and let simmer for about 40 minutes or until the veggies are soft.  

Remove garni bag and let cool for a bit.  Then put in blender and process in batches.  Enjoy.  I served it with the baked cod below.

Sauteed some greens and baked the cod with some white wine, dill and lemon juice.  Real easy dinner!

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