WEDNESDAY
Jane Grigson’s Celery Soup | Buffalo Chicken Wings
It is just about 5:30pm on a very wet Friday evening. Rain…glorious rain…has been coming down, steadily, for hours. Not a shower, mind you, but a thoroughly soaking rain streaming down from a sky the color of battleship gray. It has eluded us for months, this rain, wreaking havoc with nature’s rhythm in this part of the country but, for the next few days, we will {hopefully} enjoy a respite from the sun and enjoy this extraordinary gift of water.
The meatballs & marinara for tonight’s dinner have been simmering in the slow~cooker for most of the day and the spaghetti squash is now in the oven roasting and, despite the seasonings of oil, salt, and pepper, its aroma simply cannot compete with those savory, rich meatballs. As I write this, the warmth and smells coming from our kitchen are the perfect foils for this dark, wet evening, yet, as much as we all look forward to our dinner tonight, I still cannot get this celery soup out of my head.
This soup was an unexpected interruption to our dinner plan this week. Wednesday evening, I had begun preparations for this soup dinner…chicken wings were roasting in the oven…when I came across Jane Grigson’s Celery Soup over at Food52. Well, even though we really do like that soup, you all must know by now that I have a strong tendency to try new things. What exactly was it about a “celery soup” recipe that grabbed my attention?
Crisp celery?
Hearty potato? Savory onion?
Quick, easy preparation? Actually, I think it was the butter. The right amount {a lot} at the right time {the very beginning}.
And then there is dill, one of my favorite herbs…
This soup has got to be one of the easiest, yet most flavorful, soups we have ever had…no cream required. The secret really rests with the butter…as in poaching {like this recipe}. We skipped the whole straining step and just used an immersion blender to purée the soup to a smooth consistency once cooked. The flavor was rich and satisfying…Mallory described it as a smooth chowder. The addition of dill gave the soup a fresh twist and a spot of cream added a decadent touch but really was not necessary.
The chicken wings, ultimately destined to become a part of the scheduled soup, were tossed with a bit more butter and Sriracha sauce after getting crispy in the oven. A new twist on the celery~Buffalo chicken wing combination…
- 1 pound celery, trimmed + chopped (about 1 large bunch}
- 1 cup yellow onion, peeled + chopped
- 1 cup potato, peeled + diced
- 12 tablespoons {1 1/2 sticks} unsalted butter, sliced into pats
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup milk {optional}
- 1 teaspoon dried dill weed
- 4 tablespoons cream {optional}
- Place the celery, onion, and potato into a large pot, covering the vegetables with the pats of butter. Cover the pot with a lid and place over a medium~low flame and heat until the butter melts into the vegetables, about 10 minutes. Don't let the vegetables brown.
- Add stock {or water} and 1/2 teaspoon of dill weed. Gently simmer for about 40 minutes, until the vegetables are very tender. Remove the pot from the heat and, very carefully, blend or purée the soup, adding a little milk if too thick. Return the soup to the stovetop and, once again over a medium~low flame, bring slowly to just under the boil, seasoning with salt, pepper and more dill weed if required.
- If desired, put a touch of cream into each soup dish, and pour the soup on top. Swirl around with a spoon before serving, to mix in the cream.
- A hand~held immersion blender makes easy work of this soup but the mixture can also be puréed, in batches, using a standard blender. Be very careful when processing hot liquids in a blender. I usually find that covering the lid of the blender with a thick kitchen towel and holding down while processing is a good idea.
