Creamy potato soup

The lighting in my new home is fabulous. Even on an overcast, gloomy day I still have pretty decent light coming into my living room and although my backyard isn't south facing, the huge French windows bring in enough light there as well. I did contemplate where i should be setting up my photography station and although it mostly depends on the time of the day and the sun position, I think I'm going to like the French windows than the living room, purely because i can use my gorgeous new dining table for the set up and not drag my photography table (which has doubled up as a side table at the mo) around, and also I'm lazy (maybe this is the only factor, now that i think of it).

(If interested, do follow me on instagram: mykitchenantics, to see nooks and corners of the house while i set it up).
My props are all 'propped up' up stairs and that's kind of a pain because it means i need to plan my shoot. Believe it or not, I don't plan my photo shoot in advance. I do a spur of the moment thing which means my set is a disaster zone after I'm done. I try the food in various serve ware before deciding on the one i like. Now that i have to go upstairs each time and since we've already established that I'm the lazy kinds, it requires a bit more planning.

Well, the reason I'm saying all this is because i nailed this setting with the first try. Although i brought down soup bowl and such, i tried this setting first and it worked for me. This is my mums recipe, well most of it. I've made it a couple of times and have created my own version with stock cube, cream and spring onions. her version is much more simpler, made with leftover chicken and potatoes, which is also great but i jazzed it up a bit more to make it more creamier and delicious. It takes almost no time to prepare especially because of the pressure cooker, but you can of course do this is a stock pot or sauce pan and derive the exact same or maybe tastier result. Its still cold in my part of the world, so soups are still welcome at the dinner table.

Serves 2 as part of main meal

Potato- 350 gms (around 2 large ones), peeled and cut into big chunks

Garlic- 2 large pods, peeled and lightly crushed

Leftover chicken on bone- 3 leg, thigh or wing pieces

Chicken stock cube- 1 1/2 cubes diluted in 3 1/2 cups warm water

Double cream- 1/4 cup

Salt- to taste

Freshly ground pepper- to taste

Spring onions- 2 sprigs, finely chopped

Herbs de Provence- to garnish (optional)

Chilli oil- to drizzle (optional)

Into a pressure cooker add the potato, garlic, chicken and diluted stock cube. Don't add the salt at this point as the stock cubes may be salty.

Pressure cook for about 15 minutes (around 3 whistles), wait for the steam to die down and then open the cooker.

The potatoes should be cooked, almost mashed or easily mashable consistency. If you feel its still hard, put it on for another whistle or so.

Remove the chicken pieces from the soup and leave the cooker open for the soup to cool down a bit.

Once cool, add the double cream, give a stir and using an immersion blender puree the soup to a creamy mix. Its ok if the potatoes don't get puréed, i like to have a bit of a bite between spoonfuls. But of course if you want it completely smooth, go all out. But make sure the garlic is not left behind in chunks.

Shred the meat off the chicken bone and add to the soup.

Check for salt and add more if needed, also season with a generous dose of pepper.

Just before serving, lightly warm the soup and garnish with spring onions, a light sprinkling of herbs de Provence and some good quality chilli oil.

Dip some crusty bread into it and sink into comfort heaven.

Notes: Break down the chunks of potato with a fork before blending, to make it a bit easier.

You can of course, chuck the entire thing into a smoothie blender and do the job. However with an immersion blender its just a tiny blade that needs cleaning and not an entire jar :)

You can add any leftover meat (or prawns even) of choice into the soup, doesn't have to be chicken. You can also just shred and add cooked chicken at the end, if you don't have them on the bone.

Add vegetables like spinach, carrots, peas etc to make it a completely veg soup.
The left over chicken i used was spicy, so the soup was too, if you do want to give a bit of heat, add a tiny piece of birds eye chilli while cooking the potatoes