[jyl]

Potato leek soup, mmmm.

Clean leeks well (usually are sandy inside) and roughly cut up. Peel and cut up white or gold potatoes. Equal weight leeks and potatoes into large pot, enough chicken stock to cover plus a couple inches, bay leaf, boil then simmer until potatoes are very soft. Remove solids from pot and puree with blender, adding liquid from pot as needed, put purée into a second pot. (This process lets you adjust the consistency of the purée, if you just stuck a stick blender into the original pot then should the result turn out too thin, there's no way to remove the excess liquid.). You want the purée to be a bit thicker than you want the final soup to be. Now add half & half and butter, to the purée, and adjust salt. I like a leetle bit of heat so will add white pepper, wasabi powder, or powdered horseradish to taste. Very small increments. When the taste is right, strain or purée again if needed to get rid of any unsmooth solids. Pick out any errant bits of nonwhite stuff. Serve with chopped chives, either hot or chilled. Very traditional soup.