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Cream of Sweet Potato Soup
6 small sweet potatoes 1 quart water 1 cup cream 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 1/2 teaspoons minced parsley Peel potatoes, and immerse at once in cold water to which has been added a little flour to prevent discoloration. Drain, and cook in sufficient boiling water to cover. When tender, drain, and rub through a colander. This should make three cups of mashed potatoes. Add water, cream, salt and parsley. Reheat, and serve. The water in which the potatoes are cooked may be used as a part of the liquid unless very dark.
This soup should have the consistency of rich cream and is greatly improved by adding two tablespoons of brandy just before it is removed from the fire. Serve with croutons.
A simple purée soup that depends almost entirely on the sweet potatoes themselves, so the main decisions are about texture and seasoning.
- Quantities to trustIgnore "6 small sweet potatoes" and work to the three cups of mashed potato the recipe names as the target. That takes roughly 2 lb of sweet potatoes, sometimes a little more once trimmed.
- The flour-water trickSweet potatoes darken from oxidation once peeled; a spoonful of flour whisked into the cold holding water was the standard period remedy. Plain cold water works nearly as well, and neither matters if you peel and cook straight away.
- Cook them in as little water as possibleCook them in as little water as will cover -- The recipe allows the cooking water to be used as part of the liquid, so keeping the pot tight means that liquid carries some of the sugar and flavor back into the soup. Make up the rest of the quart with fresh water, and discard the cooking water if it has gone very dark, as the recipe says.
- Colander versus blenderRubbing through a colander gives a slightly fibrous purée. A food mill or ricer does the same job faster. A blender gives a smoother soup but can turn sweet potato gluey if run long, so pulse rather than whip.
- Consistency"The consistency of rich cream" is the standard here, and the quart of water is a starting point rather than a rule. Different varieties vary hugely in dry matter; add liquid until it pours, then check the salt again, since thinning dulls it.
- Reheat, do not boilOnce the cream is in, bring it to a bare steam. A hard boil will make the soup taste scorched at the bottom, and the purée catches easily.
- The brandyTwo tablespoons stirred in just before the pot comes off the fire, as the recipe directs; it is a seasoning rather than a garnish and cuts the sweetness. If you leave it out, a squeeze of lemon or a grating of nutmeg does similar work.
- YieldThree cups of purée, a quart of water and a cup of cream come to roughly eight cups, so six to eight servings as a first course. Croutons are worth making from stale bread in butter rather than bought.