Potato Leek Soup, salad, and anarchist pumpernickel

The Soup

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes
• ¼ pound bacon
• 2–4 leeks
• 4 shallots
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• Rosemary
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1½ cups whole milk
• ½ cup heavy cream

Method

Chop the bacon and place in a cold heavy pot. Turn on heat to medium; remove bacon when it's done and has rendered most of its fat. Slice the leeks, shallots, and garlic. Place in the pan and cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and sweat for 20 minutes. You don't want them too brown, but a little caremalization never hurt anyone. Cut the potatoes into about 1-inch cubes.

When everything is soft and smells yummy, add potatoes, bacon, and chicken stock. Cook, uncovered, until potatoes are soft (45 minutes?). Purée in food mill or using a handy immersion blender. Add milk and cream, and heat through without boiling.

About anarchist pumpernickel

Here's the story from the riverfront times back in 2001 about the marvelous breads made by the Black Bear Bakery Collective, including the Lickhalter Pumpernickel pictured above.

Their bread label may show a smiling bruin astride a bicycle, but the bakery's mission statement defines itself as an "anti-authoritarian, anti-ideological collective" that "challenges division-of-labor and capital-based hierarchical business." Aside from producing healthy, affordable food, one of the bakery's primary objectives is "to organize and embrace anarchic grassroots agitation, information and action."