Bogle's Sweet Potato Soup with Ginger and Curry

You know those emails you get from your relative that say "thought you'd enjoy, love so-and-so?"  Well I'm not usually one to read those unless they are wine or food related.  I know you are all shocked.

A few years ago we discovered our favorite "cheap chardonnay."  The Bogle 2008 Chardonnay.  Read more about it here, where I high lighted it along with Potato Cheese Soup from my childhood.  When my mother sent me Bogle's monthly email new letter I scanned through it only to find a delightful recipe at the bottom that tickled my taste buds.

Sweet Potato Soup.  A Bogle Winery employee's recipe that they begged her to share.  A perfect merriment of sweet, salt, spice and cream.  Everything sounded so right about it.

I know it's almost Thanksgiving now, but it was my little feline friend that shared company while I made this soup.  She got the third place prize at work.  Probably because of those hamstrings!  Meeeee-owww!

I digress... pumpkins, fall leaves and SWEET POTATOES!  Dad calls them sweet potatAHHHs like he's from the south.

This would be a lovely dish to surprise your guests with on Thanksgiving.  Make ahead of time and reheat on the stove top.  Saves on oven space for the turkey and you still get that beautiful orange on the table.

Bogle's Sweet Potato Soup with Ginger and Curry 
(Noelle's version, slightly altered)

4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

2 pounds red-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled & coarsely chopped

5 cups chicken stock

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tbsp curry powder

1 cups crème fraîche

1/2 cup sherry

Sea salt and ground pepper, taste

I've been making a soup nearly every Thursday night for the church community group that we host.  It's family table style with lots of dishes being passed around.  Good conversation.  Laughter.  Life stories.  And a pipping hot bowl of soup.

Wise ol' Solomon spoke of mankind in Ecclesiastes 3: 12 "I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live- also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil- this is God's gift to man."

 This is the reason I love to cook good food: because there is literally nothing better this side of heaven than enjoying God's gift of a shared meal.  So... this is what we do around our table every Thursday.  

Peel your sweet potatoes.  I love the unique shapes and sizes.  It's kind of like a team sport.  Same uniform, but different builds on the players.

In a large pot saute your onion and carrot in the melted butter for about 5 minutes.

Chop the potatoes up into equal sizes so they cook equally.  Add them to your buttery onions and carrots.

Add just one cup of stock and reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Add the rest of the stock.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Then reduce and simmer for another 20 min.

Lastly add your ginger, curry, dry sherry and crème fraîche.  Bogle's recipe called for double the amount of crème fraîche.  I thought I'd try half and see how it tasted.  It was lovely.  No need for the extra, it was perfectly creamy.

Remove from heat after the last of the ingredients are stirred in.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Now for the food processor or blender.  Our blender is "challenged."  It doesn't like to blend.  It likes to sit in the cupboard with the vases and pitchers and just hang out.  So it puts up a little bit of a fight when "working out."  Just make sure you have a towel to cover the top in case any blowouts.  I did a nice speckle job all over a kitchen at 6:28p right before our hungry group arrived.

(Chris: if you're reading this- I would like a hand held immersion blender for Christmas.)

Luckily most of the soup was still in the pot.

But not for long.  Oh so good.

I did manage to get one last bowl for the left overs.  Otherwise we would have had an "epic food blogger fail" on our walls hands.

The last delightful bowl.

Bogle tops their soup with candied ginger.  I thought green onion would look nice.

This is my new favorite soup.  Even if I don't get the immersion blender.  I would make this again in a heart beat.  The flavors were incredible.