The ingredients were easy to find. This time, though, I decided to make my own creme fraiche. Sounds fancy but I used the shortcut recipe from my cookbook. Other recipes call for buttermilk and require 24-36 hours to set, but this quick recipe can be made in 8 hours and only calls for heavy cream and sour cream. Maybe one day I'll try the full recipe but I already had the cream and sour cream at home and I liked the idea of the quicker setting time given the rest of the prep I had to do for Thanksgiving dinner, so this worked fine for now. I think I prefer the store bought to this recipe, but considering the price of store bought creme fraiche, this worked fine for a soup and adding the orange flavor.
To make the creme fraiche, I whisked together 1 cup heavy cream and 2/3 cup sour cream in a nonreactive bowl. (The recipe actually called for 1/3 cup but I found that it didn't set thick enough so I added a little more sour cream.) Once whisked together, I let stand at room temperature for 8 hours. I refrigerated it after set and whisked in 1 teaspoon orange zest and 1 teaspoon ginger. I refrigerated it overnight and brought to room temperature before serving.
To make the soup, I first peeled and cubed the sweet potatoes and sauteed them in a pan with 2 tablespoons butter and brown sugar till the butter was melted and mixed in with the sweet potatoes. I transferred to a roasting pan and roasted for 15 minutes.
In a large pot, I melted 2 tablespoons butter and sauteed leeks, celery and ginger for about 4 minutes. I added the roasted sweet potatoes and sauteed for 2 more minutes. I added the chicken stock, oj, and salt and pepper and let simmer for about 20 minutes.
I pureed the soup with my handy dandy hand mixer and just seasoned with salt and white pepper. I went a little light on the salt and pepper. I made this the night before and reheated it for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. The flavors definitely developed over night.
I served with a big dollup of orange creme fraiche. Overall the family liked it and ate it all up. It was a great festive starter for a yummy Thanksgiving. I do have to say, however that I missed the regular butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner, but it's always fun to change things up. The orange in the soup really came through. It did taste A LOT like sweet potatoes, so next time I might experiment with more spices. As for my star rating system, as I remember, I originally started out with 4 stars but all the soups were getting 4 stars. I added an extra star for soups that were phenomenally good. So I suppose that would make 3 stars average. Long story short- this soup gets 3.5 stars. Above average but not very very good and surely not phenomenal. But still yummy :-)
Creme fraiche
1 cup heavy cream / from home
2/3 cups sour cream / from home
1 teaspoon freshly minced, peeled ginger / $2.99/lb = $0.66/ Safeway
1 teaspoon grated orange zest / From home
Soup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter / $3.79 / Safeway
4 1/2 cups peeled, cubed red-skinned sweet potatoes / $1.49/lb = $3.53 / Safeway
2 teaspoons light brown sugar / From home
2 cups chopped leeks / $2.99/lb = $2.93 / Safeway
2/3 cup finely chopped celery / $1.00 / Safeway
1 teaspoon freshly minces, peeled ginger / Safeway
6 cups chicken stock / $2.49 / Smart & Final
2/3 cups orange juice / From home
salt
ground white pepper / $3.99 / Whole Foods
Prep time: 20 minutes (24 hours if making creme fraiche)
Cook time: 1 hour
Servings: 6
Taste: 3.75 stars
Prep: medium
Cost: $18.39 ($3.07 per serving)
