It's cold and rainy and almost Halloween ... and for his birthday Brett has requested a remedy to all of that: Shoo Vampire Soup! I make it every year, and every year I have to google it because I don't have it written down. And when I do find it online, it seems that the posters always scale the garlic waaaaaaaay back - and I wonder: how can it keep the vampires away with those little amounts of garlic? Here is the one and only, with correct amounts of garlic, from Martha Stewart Living.
Shoo Vampire Soup
serves 8 to 10
5 heads of garlic (that is an entire bulb, not just one teeny tiny clove!)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 leeks, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced, well washed
8 sprigs fresh thyme
8 springs fresh flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 dried bay leaf
2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-ince dice
4 fourteen-and-a-half-ounce cans low sodium chicken stock or 7 cups homemade chicken stock
1/4 cup Marsala wine
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
8 to 10 slices pumpernickel bread
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Snipped chives, for garnish
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wrap 3 heads of garlic in aluminum foil; roast for 45 minutes. Let cool, halve crosswise, and squeeze garlic from cloves. Reserve garlic puree, discarding papery skins. Peel remaining 2 heads of garlic.
2.
In a 6-quart stockpot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Add leeks and garlic cloves; stirring frequently cook until translucent but not browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Wrap thyme, parsley, peppercorns, and bay leaf in a piece of cheesecloth; tie with kitchen twine. Add to pot along with potatoes, stock, and garlic puree. Raise heat to medium; simmer until potatoes are tender, 25 to 30 minutes. Discard cheesecloth bundle. Pass soup through a food mill fitted with a fine disk. Discard solids; return soup to pot. Add wine; simmer over medium-low heat, about 15 minutes. Stir in cream; season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3. Cut bread with cat-shaped cookie cutter. Place on baking sheet; toast in over, 3 to 4 minutes. Serve soup in bowls; garnish with Parmesan, chives, and black-cat toasts.
