New Year’s Potato Soup

My nephew was asking me for a potato soup with ham recipe, and he consulted CrapGPT and complained that he got some mish-mash of a recipe with ridiculous instructions and a long-ass list of ingredients. I told him that he knew better to just call me and he said I was right and asked me what he needed to do, so I'm sharing the recipe with you too. Happy New Year, everybody.

**Notes: **My nephew said he didn’t want to chop a lot of stuff and doesn’t like celery and only carrots, so this recipe uses frozen veg where called for. If you prefer to use real fresh chopped veggies, just chop them up and saute them at the same time as the onion/garlic and add them to the soup with the potatoes.

Creamy potato soup with ham

INGREDIENTS

1. 4 or 5 large russet potatoes
2. 8 cups water (or low salt chicken broth)
3. 1 cup heavy cream (best) or whole milk
4. 2 tablespoons oil or butter
5. Chopped onion/garlic
6. 1 Ham shank
7. Bay leaf (optional)
8. Frozen veg (carrots, etc that you like)
9. Cornstarch or flour (just a couple tablespoons)
10. Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash and peel the potatoes (you can leave the skin on but it makes them harder to mash later). Dice them into the bite size you want, and set them aside.

2. In a large pot over medium-low heat, heat 1-2 tablespoons of oil or butter and add in chopped onions and/or garlic and cook on very low heat until they are fragrant, they don't need to be softened or browned (the soup will cook them more thoroughly). Just make sure not to burn the onions or garlic, they will ruin your soup. You can skip this step if you're not doing onions.

3. Put the ham bone/shank into the same pot and cover it with water. Bring it to a boil and then turn down the heat to a slow simmer. Cover the pot and cook about 45 mins to 1 hour or until the meat starts to fall off when you pick up the bone using tongs and use a spoon or fork to gently shred the meat. If it comes off easily, the bone is done.

4. Remove the bone from the water and set it aside on a plate until it's cool enough to handle without burning your fingers, and you can then continue to shred the meat off and place it back into the ham broth pot. At this point, you can add in the potatoes and the bay leaf (optional).

5. Continue to cook until the potatoes are tender and the soup tastes how you like.

6. Remove about 1/4 to 1/2 the potatoes using a slotted spoon and set them into a container you can use to mash them. Add in a bit of the cream (about 1/2 cup or so, a little at a time, you don't want it runny). While mashing, keep adding potatoes or milk until the consistency is very thick like mashed potatoes. You can also do this with a stick blender or a food chopper/processor.

7. Add in your frozen carrots/etc. and return the potatoes to the pot. Cook until they're heated through.

8. Add the remaining cream/milk to the soup, and stir, and let it cook on medium-low about 20 more minutes. Stir very frequently while scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure the soup doesn't stick and burn. Season to taste and serve.

**NOTE: ** To make the soup thicker, you can add a slurry like so:

Put 1–2 tablespoons of cornstarch or flour with an equal amount of COLD water into a jar or shaker cup, then stir into the soup during the last 30 minutes of cooking on low.