Soup and sandwich

I've made chicken noodle soup a number of times, but last night was my first attempt at a creamy soup. It came as a request from Rory's former coworker Kristy so here you go.

Kristy wanted me to make a beer, cheese soup. It sounded good to me so I started looking for a recipe. I was surprised that nothing really looked good out there. Though my many searches I finally found this potato soup with blue cheese recipe. Rory's not a fan of blue cheese, but I figured I would use this recipe as a base and make some changes to it. I also did my version of a Cuban sandwich. Here's what I did.

8 slices of bacon cut into half inch pieces
2 leeks diced, just the white and light green parts
1 medium onion diced
2 carrots diced
2 stalks of celery diced
3 cloves of garlic diced
3 good sized baking potatoes peeled and cubed
1 bottle of Shiner Bock
1 32-ounce container of chicken stock
1/2 a pound of sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (Don't buy the stuff in the dariy case of this, you need some good quality cheese in order for this to really work)
1/2 cup cream

Salt white pepper and black pepper for seasoning

Special equipment: Blender or immersion blender

Chop the bacon and cook in a heavy bottom pan until crispy over medium high heat. Remove and drain all but but a couple of tablespoons of the fat. Add all the veggies except for the garlic. Cook until just caramelizing, about 15 minutes, add garlic and cook for another minute or two.

Add potatoes, beer and chicken stock and cook partially covered for about 20 minutes, over medium heat, until potatoes are fork tender. Start adding the cheese a little at a time stirring to make sure it doesn't clump.

This is the point where depending on your equipment you may have to do a couple of things. I used my immersion blender to get a nice puree on the soup. It was so very easy. If you don't have one you'll want to start working in batches to puree the soup in a blender.

After the soup of pureed add the cream and mix. Serve garnished with the bacon.

Thoughout the process while the soup if cooking you'll want to be tasting to adjust the seasoning.

I was pretty happy with the end result, but there are a couple of things I will do differently next time. I thought the Shiner Bock would work well, but I couldn't really taste it. Next time I'll probably use a stout. Also, you need to use good quality cheese. I did, but it could have been sharper to give it more zing.

I also did my version of a Cuban sandwich. Dominick's didn't have roast pork so I did it with ham and chicken breast. I bought some French bread, places a couple of pickle slices, mayo and yellow mustard along with some Swiss chesse, chicken and ham. I put a little butter on the outisde of the bread and placed it in my prehreated 12-inch non-stick pan. I has also heated my 10-inch cast iron pan and just placed it on top to get the pressed sandwich effect, I think it worked out pretty well.

Also, I have been negligent in my photo taking. The lighting in my kitchen sucks and just seems to make the food look unappetizing. I need to make a light box.