A Potato Soup Recipe: The Humble Potato Exalted

Let’s Cook! In Praise of the Humble, Versatile Potato.

If you read recipes, as I often do, you’re bound to have seen at least one recipe for Potato Soup.

Many, if not most, or — dare I say it? — even all recipes for Potato Soup have so MANY so-called “garnishments” that you wonder if you’re eating Potato Soup, or something else, like a puréed casserole, or some such thing.

Perhaps instead those ingredients should  be called “amendments” — like soil amendments, for example, defined as being things added to change something to which they’re added… because they FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE the ENTIRE dish — flavor, texture — EVERYTHING, so that the potato becomes lost in the mix, and essentially disappears as a foundational element of the dish, making the additions to it the center-of-attention.

It’s hardly recognizable as a potato, per se, aside from the traditional, well-worn add-ons like sour cream, chives, bacon, onions, cheese, butter, pepper, parsley, milk, buttermilk, pulled pork, celery, celery seed, chicken broth, ancho chili powder, green onions, flour, and goodness knows what all else.

Even for a so-called “loaded” baked potato, that’s a whole lotta’ stuff… that COMPLETELY HIDES, COVERS UP, and MASQUERADES as a “potato.”

Make NO mistake.

It is NOT.

It’s some type of casserole, using a potato as an excuse to exist.

This recipe is NOT that.

Not by a long shot.

Not even hardly.

Look… many, perhaps even most, folks like potatoes. And to be certain, not only are there are numerous types of potatoes, they are ubiquitous globally, including Sweet — and there are numerous varieties even within that group — by some accounts, several thousands. By the way… in the language of horticulture, the proper term that describes a variation (a variety, or type) in a plant is “cultivar.”

Then, we have the Russet, Yukon Gold, Red, etc. And within the greater potato genre, per se, there are multiple thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands, even, of varieties and cultivars of potatoes globally. So, it’s not as if there are only 3, or 4 types. It’s just that “your” grocery store chain has chosen to sell those limited few types, and the farmers… well, the farmers grow ’em, god love ’em. It seems as if we’re broaching upon narrowing to monoculture… almost.

Each of those types and cultivars have their own unique characteristics, including variations in

Man finds GOD in Eggplant

Apparently, for some, the kitchen is their church.

From our “See? God IS real – this eggplant proves it!” files comes this item:

Workers at a Baton Rouge restaurant say they saw the word ‘GOD’ in their eggplant.

http://wapo.st/1mK5355

Baton Rouge restaurant employee finds ‘GOD’ in sliced eggplant

Posted: Jul 08, 2014 12:06 PM CDT Updated: Jul 08, 2014 4:19 PM CDT

By Amber Stegall – email

and Gerron Jordan – email

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – When an employee at Gino’s Restaurant in Baton Rouge cut into an eggplant Monday, he found “GOD.”

Chef Jermarcus Brady couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I saw a miraculous image formed by the seeds,” said Jermarcus Brady. “It spelled out the word God!” Chef Brady has many responsibilities, one being cutting, salting and sauteing eggplants.

Jemarcus Brady holding the “GOD” eggplant (Source: Jemarcus Brady)

“When you sliced into it, the pattern showed from the seeds that were forming in the inside the letters G-O-D as God,” said Brady. “I couldn’t think of anything. I just had to tell somebody to come look at it.”

Brady showed the eggplant to the owner of the restaurant and fellow coworkers and took photos, but he believed it was meant to be shared with everyone.

Brady says he is