Shrimp & Potato Soup

Will it really reach 90 degrees on Monday as everyone seems to think?

I figured I should take a few pictures of the blooms and blossoms in my yard before they wilt and drop from heat exhaustion.

None of the tulips have opened yet, I'm hoping they can hold on until after the heatwave!

My niece has adopted a puppy.  Meet Milo!

They live about 100 miles away, I'm afraid by the time I meet him in person his puppy days will be behind him.

Fortunately, she's posting lots of pictures of him on her facebook page so I get to "oooh" and aaaaah" over him all day long!

I made this pillow for the bottom of his crate.....puppies should be pampered, don'tcha think?

I decided to pamper myself a bit tonight!  Mr. Terrific and Sean went to the Red Sox game (Go Sox!!), Erin was out with friends, so I only had myself to cook for.  I'm the only seafood lover in this house, so unless I want to listen to a chorus of groans I rarely prepare anything remotely fishy.  

Tonight, I seized the opportunity to get creative in the kitchen without having to worry about pleasing anyone other than myself!

With the warmer weather coming, I figure that my soup-making days will be on hold for the next five months or so. The only seafood I had in the house was some shrimp in my freezer, but I had enough ingredients on hand to put together a really yummy soup!

Today's Playlist

"Rockin' Robin".....Bobby Day

"Ain't That A Kick In The Head"......Dean Martin

"Roman Guitar"........Lou Monte

"Sway".......Rosemary Clooney

"Papa Loves Mambo"........Nat King Cole

"Fly Me To The Moon"........Frank Sinatra

"Botch-A-Me"........Rosemary Clooney

"Little Bitty Pretty One".....Bobby Day

"That's Amore"........Dean Martin

"Brown Eyed Girl"......Van Morrison

Shrimp & Potato Soup (Serves 4 to 6)

• 1 Tablespoon Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 large shallot, diced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon seafood seasoning
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 2 large potatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup light cream
• 1 teaspoon potato starch
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh snipped chives, for garnishing

Gather your ingredients.

It might appear to you that the pictures I'm showing don't exactly match the amounts of ingredients I've given you.

I prepared a very small batch of this soup (since it was only for me), and those are the pictures you see.  Then I adjusted the amounts for the recipe that I wrote for you.

I'm wishing now I made a nice, big batch because I would like to have some leftovers.

Prep your ingredients.  Peel and chop the potatoes, dice the shallots and thyme.

Heat the tablespoon of olive oil in a large (6 to 8 quart) saucepan over medium heat.

Add the shallots.  Crush the garlic directly into the pan.  Saute for 2 or 3 minutes, just to soften.

You are not seeing things.  There is a smidge of thyme in the pan with the shallots.  I'm a messy chopper when I'm prepping and my ingredients got a little mixed.

Add the tablespoon of chopped thyme (you can use dried thyme if you do not have fresh thyme on hand.  If you are using dried thyme, however, only add 1 teaspoon).

Add the seafood seasoning.  I like Paul Prudhomme's "Seafood Magic"  seasoning, but go ahead and use whatever you like best.

Stir the seasonings in and cook for a minute or two.

Pour in 5 cups of chicken broth.  Raise the heat to medium-high and bring it to a boil.

When the soup starts to boil, add the potatoes.  Cover the pot (I put the cover on sort of crooked so the steam can escape), reduce the heat down to medium and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes.

Add the milk.

You may have noticed that there was no potato flour or light cream in my picture of ingredients.  I just grabbed what I thought I would need to make a nice soup.

The soup wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be, so at this point I decided to add a couple of things to thicken it up.  Can you guess what that might be?

Yep, potato flour.  And light cream.   The light cream was a little camera shy.

If you don't have potato flour, you can use cornstarch or all-purpose flour. (If you do use all-purpose flour, however, you will probably need to use more than 1 teaspoon.)

I used potato starch because I love the way it thickens soups, and because I already had potatoes in the soup I figured I wouldn't be introducing another flavor.

Mix the teaspoon of potato starch into 1/4 cup of light cream.  Stir until there are no lumps (potato starch kind of expands when you add liquid and suddenly you will have a bowl of lumps if you don't stir it).  Add the mixture into your soup.  Bring it up to a simmer.  If you feel that your soup is still thin, go ahead and add another teaspoon of starch mixed into 1/4 cup of light cream.  It's okay.

Add the shrimp.  Stir to combine, and as soon as the shrimp is heated, your soup is done.  Taste for seasoning, and add salt and pepper as needed.

For the record, I added no salt nor pepper.  Thanks to Paul Prudhomme's Seafood Magic seasoning, the seasoning was perfect.

 Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve immediately.

Enjoy!