Recipe - Potato Soup Scented With Cumin

3 tablespoon Unsalted butter
1 cup Chopped shallots
3 pound Red skin potatoes; peeled
and cut into 3/4" cubes
1 One half tablespoon Ground cumin
12 cup Chicken stock
1 cup Half and half
or evaporated skim milk
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
4 teaspoon Chopped fresh cilantro

Melt butter in large, heavy, nonaluminum, deepsided pan over mediumhigh
heat. When hot add shallots and cook, stirring constantly, until soft,
about 3 minutes. Add potatoes and cumin. Toss and cook 1 minute more. Add
stock. Bring to boil, stirring several times to prevent potatoes from
sticking to pan. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are quite tender, 25
to 30 minutes.

Remove soup from heat and puree, using food processor, blender or food
mill. Return mixture to pan and stir in half and half. Season to taste with
salt and pepper. (Soup can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cool, cover and
refrigerate.)

To serve soup warm, reheat over medium heat, stirring, until hot. To serve
cold, taste chilled soup once again and add salt and pepper if needed.
(Cold foods often require extra seasonings.)

Ladle into 8 bowls and garnish each with One half teaspoon chopped cilantro.
Makes 8 servings.

Christie Aspegren, September 93 Round Robin.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini