Viccyssoise - French Potato and Leek Soup

I love Viccyssoise and my husband, first totally unsure about this one cause of the leek, always wants seconds when I make it. I have several ways of making this one, and all of the recipes I have are really easy to throw together, light on your budget and yummy in your tummy J

Prep time: 10 minutes    Cooking time: 30min                 Serves: 4

• 6 large potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 8 leeks, green trimmed off, washed, and chopped into largish chunks
• 3 stalks celery, cleaned and again chopped into large chunks
• 1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 quarts stock – can be chicken or vegetable
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (equals to about 125 gr butter) at room temperature
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large soup pot, put the vegetables with the bay leaf and chicken stock over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, then turn heat down to a gentle boil and cook about 10 to 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. (Don’t boil too hard or you will end with yuky potatoes.)

Mix the flour and butter in a small bowl until they form a dough like mixture.

When the potatoes are fork tender, put the flour-butter mixture into the soup and mix, don't worry if you get big blobs of that stuff in your soup, we'll take care of it later on. Add the creamand season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the bay leaf (I always call it happy hunting) and puree the soup with a stick blender until smooth. If you don't have one, just ladle the food into your food processor in batches. Just be careful that you won't get any hot soup spritzing on you.

Once your soup is as smooth as you want it, you need to continue to cook it over low heat stirring frequently for another 15 minutes – the soup needs to thicken up. Be careful that the soup doesn't burn

Serve it with some hearty bread.