Cream of celery soup

[Callalily]

I've been craving homemade cream of celery soup but could not find my recipe. I searched on Martha Stewarts site and her recipe comes very close to mine, only I add hot pepper flakes. So I just finished making a 1/2 batch. It's very tasty.

Cream of Celery Soup
Ingredients
Serves 6 to 8
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 10 pale-green inner ribs celery, coarsely chopped (about 3 1/2 cups)
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped shallots
• 1 small russet potato (about 6 ounces), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• Coarse salt
• 6 cups homemade or low-sodium store-bought chicken stock
• 1/4 teaspoon plus a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 cup heavy cream, or to taste
• Very thin baguette, toasted
• Pale-green celery leaves, for garnish
Directions
1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add celery, shallots, potato, and a pinch of salt. Partially cover; cook, stirring often, until vegetables are soft but not browned, about 15 minutes.

2. Add stock; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low; cover, and cook 30 minutes. Stir in nutmeg. Let cool.

3. Puree soup in a blender or food processor in batches until completely smooth. Pour through a fine sieve into a large bowl, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Return soup to pan; stir, and season with salt. Just before serving, heat soup over medium heat (do not boil). Stir in cream, and serve topped with baguette slices; garnish with celery leaves. Soup can be refrigerated, covered, up to 2 days.

[japple]

1. That sounds and looks wonderful, Callalily. I'm bookmarking

this one. I'm wondering if turmeric or garam marsala would be good? Might make the color too weird, though.

[Callalily]

5. I'm not really sure

about adding turmeric or garam marsala, but we're all about experimenting. If you do try it, please let me know how it tastes.

[NashVegas]

2. The Best I Ever Had

Was at the Mad Platter here in Nashville, when Craig and Marcia Jervis were in charge.

Their secret was a touch of gruyere to finish.

[Callalily]

6. Now, adding gruyere would

be a nice touch. I was in the Twin Cities not too long ago and had some fabulous squash bisque. They sprinkled it with blue cheese. Very tasty!

[pengillian101]

3. I've never tried it.

But I think I will now - sounds great! Thanks for posting the recipe.

[Callalily]

7. You are very welcome,

and you'll find that it is super easy to make.

[hippywife]

4. That does sound and look good to me, too.

And the leftovers would be perfect for any of those recipes that call for a can of similar soup. :hi:

[Callalily]

8. Oh, I agree. The

leftovers would be great in other dishes. This tastes so much better than the canned version.

[Jazzgirl]

9. This sounds yummy.

Saved to my cookbook!

[Warpy]

10. A pox on Stewart and her damn shallots

Here in NM, they're insanely expensive and often the size of onion sets.

I like both onion and leeks in my soups.

Unless I move to France where shallots are cheap, plentiful, and a size worthy of bothering to chop for a soup, I'll stick to those.

Oh, and the baguette should be on the side, thanks.

[Phentex]

11. I will drive to a market so I can buy them individually...

IF I can even find them at the grocery, they are in a bag and god knows how old AND ridiculously expensive. At least at the market I can buy only what I need and I can check them out.

[Warpy]

12. I live in the desert

and veggie markets here sell twenty kinds of chiles and as many varieties of tortillas but the shallots are the same overpriced, dried out boxed things the supermarket sells.

Personally, I think shallots are for people who don't like onions. Their flavor is so mild as to be pretty much not there and they cook down into nothing. When I want a stronger onion flavor, I use onions. When I want a more subtle one, like in this soup, I use leeks.

After all, this soup will have all the fibrous stuff strained out of it, so it's not as though an onion hater will be mortally offended by a little piece of leek.

So I'll continue to sneer at pretentious cooks like Stewart who want us to spend thirty bucks on enough overpriced, undersized shallots to flavor what is actually a peasant soup while I make a better one for five percent of the cost.