Weekly Food Challenge

I made this tonight in about 15 minutes--it's very quick and very satisfying. The potato, ham, frozen pearl onions, and cream were leftovers.

Unfortunately, because this is improvised, I can't really give quantities. But it should be pretty foolproof.


Roasted potatoes
Frozen pearl onions
Frozen corn
Milk
Thyme leaves
Ham juices*
Ham
Cream

Put your leftover roasted potatoes into a pot and mash them up a bit until you've got some quite crushed bits and some chunky bits. Add some frozen pearl onions (about 1/3 as much onions as potatoes is about right), as much frozen corn as you like, some thyme leaves, a couple of spoonfuls of the ham juices, and enough milk to just cover. Bring almost to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the onions are nearly tender. At this point, add some ham which you have cut into bite-sized pieces, and a good glug of cream, and keep simmering until the onions are cooked and the soup has thickened somewhat. This should only take a couple of minutes. If the soup doesn't thicken as much as you want, remove some of the potato, mash it up finer, and return it to the soup. The soup probably won't need any added salt.


*After you cook a ham, you can pour the juices into a shallow pan and refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove the fat layer that has formed on the top, cut the now gelatin-like ham dripping into small squares, and freeze. You can add a bit to all kinds of dishes for an instant flavor boost.