No Green Beer Here

Since I am starting this blog on St. Patrick's Day, I'm going to share a recipe that I think is appropriate for the day. I'm also going to share how to make a cup of tea that doesn't involve a cute little bag from the people at Lipton. The Irish are great tea drinkers, and there is little that is more soothing after a night of drinking green beer than a nice cup of good strong tea.

First, I am sharing a recipe for Potato and Greens Soup. This was a recipe clipped from The Akron Beacon Journal by me sainted mother, Peggy (who was actually a good German girl, FWIW), more years ago than I care to count. It can be made ahead and the recipe easily doubles to feed a crowd, which makes it perfect St. Patrick's Day party food. Irish soda bread would make a great accompaniment. The original recipe calls for browning a pound of hot Italian sausage and adding it to the soup before serving, but it's potatoes and greens and if you want to make it more "Irish", I'd think you could sprinkle the soup with some nice crisped crumbled bacon before serving instead of using Italian sausage. You decide.

Potato and Greens Soup

4 large baking potatoes (about 2 lbs)
8 cups chicken broth
1 lb. fresh spinach, shredded
1 lb. bulk hot Italian sausage
1/2 cup whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and halve the potatoes. Place the potatoes and 4 cups of the chicken broth in a large soup pot, cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Mash the potatoes in the broth. Add the remaining broth and the spinach and simmer until the spinach is wilted and tender. Brown the sausage in a medium skillet, drain it and add it to the soup. Add the whipping cream, heat to a simmer and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.

That's the basic recipe, but here are my own notes. First, I prefer using low-sodium, reduced fat chicken broth. It wasn't available when this recipe was first published, but since it is now, I find it helps you control the saltiness of the soup. Secondly, the whipping cream is an optional ingredient, and I seldom add it in. The soup is quite hearty and filling without it. Totally up to you how much you want to gild this particular lily. Third, I think that substituting a sprinkling of crisp, crumbled bacon on the soup before serving instead of stirring in a pound of hot sausage would be perfectly delicious. I might even try some nice browned pancetta. If you choose to eliminate the sausage, you might want to simmer a 1/4 tsp. of fennel seeds with the potatoes and broth for flavor. Or not. Totally up to you. See what you like and make this recipe your own house specialty.

Now for that cup of tea. First, dust off your teapot and rinse it out well. Fill the teapot with hot water to warm the pot while you are boiling the water for the actual tea. Start with cold water and boil enough to fill your teapot. Once the water is boiling, empty the hot water that's been warming the pot out of your teapot. Put in approximately one teaspoon of loose black tea of a variety of your choice for every 6-8 oz. cup of tea you plan to make and then throw in an extra teaspoon of loose tea for the pot. Gently pour the boiling water over the tea leaves, put the lid on the pot and wait about 5 minutes. Swaddle your teapot with a nice clean tea towel if you don't have an actual tea cozy for the pot. I know. What about those *#@! bloody tea leaves floating around in the pot, right? Well, that thing that looks like a teeny little colander with a handle that you've had in the back of a drawer in your kitchen all these years? Now you'll know why it is called a "tea strainer". Rinse it off and put it over your tea cup and then pour the tea through. Voila. No tea leaves in your tea. Serve it straight up (my preferred way) or with sugar (my second favorite way), cream or lemon, or whatever combination you prefer. You probably don't want to make more tea than you'll drink, because tea that steeps more than 5 minutes is going to get bitter. Of course, you could use one of those tea ball contraptions to hold the loose tea, but I find them more trouble than they are worth to fill and fiddle around with (they are great, however, for holding peppercorns, cloves and other whole spices in soups, stews and compotes). I do like the teapot I got many moons ago from some now defunct kitchen shop chain whose name eludes me. It's got a removable porcelain strainer that I can take out once the tea is brewed. The porcelain strainer holds most of the tea leaves, and I can catch any it misses with my tea strainer.

Have a happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!