Staying with Mario for the weekend. He worked until 10 last night and had to be back at work at 6 this morning, so I decided to surprise my exhausted boy with some tasty lunch: chicken legs and a potato leek soup/sauce. This was really just a product of my going into the grocery store and picking out some stuff that sounded interesting. This started from the chicken simmered in cream and onion sauce but I wanted something a little more substantive, decided to add potatoes as a side and then was intrigued by leeks in the produce section - thus potato leek soup was born.
So the same way I start a good 75% of everything I make, butter, onions, shallots, garlic, salt, and pepper. I then added a little white wine (I am especially fond of Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc) and a touch of chicken broth. Before All the liquid had cooked off, I added some cream cheese to melt before I added the rest of my liquid ingredients. Once sufficiently cooked down I added more chicken broth and heavy cream and all my seasonings and brought it to a boil. I then added chopped leeks and a few chopped potatoes and left it to boil down while I made my chicken. Herein lies my epic mistake.
Dredged my chicken legs in flour and bread crumbs, and on second thought, I which I had added some other seasonings because I felt it was kind of plain. As they started to brown and get crispy, I tossed them in a casserole dish to roast in the oven (they were pretty thick for chicken legs and I needed to keep them warm for a while anyway). Though I don't usually have problems with popping oil, after it got the top of my foot and and my arm, I finally broke out the screen. Even with it, I got another oil pop to the eye while flipping some, and then while I was taste testing the soup, I caught major pop through the screen on the exact same spot on my arm in addition to burning my mouth on the soup. Not even the best part though.
While being so distracted with this chicken popping all over the place, I had forgotten to stir my soup, and when I finally got back to it, found that some of the potatoes and leeks had stuck to the bottom of this boiling pot, and I oh so stupidly scraped the bottom with my stirring spoon. My perfectly white soup turned brown. Leeks had burnt to the bottom of the pot. And though I pulled out the bigger charred pieces, the damage was already done. Tiny flecks of black marred my own beautiful creation. The super delicate flavor was now completely overpowered by terrible burnt charred ash taste. Soup ruined. I burned soup. How sad and pathetic and ridiculous. I just burned soup. Even now, four hours later, I am so frustrated and disappointed. I created a recipe of my very own, and just as it was proving itself to be an absolutely delightful masterpiece, sure to impress all of the boys and especially Mario, I destroyed it. I just killed my baby. And it really shouldn't be a big deal, I can always try again, but I was so excited about it. It was my first experience with leeks and I was feeling especially proud of my culinary talent, and then victory was snatched away from me. Frankly, I am pissed.
I made peanut butter brownies sundaes for dessert, but really...brownies out of a box. Any moron with a mixing bowl can do that.
Burns all over...arms...mouth...ego. :/
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