Features

By Josephine Campbell jcampbell@timesleader.com
Features Staff

ASHLEY — The potato may indeed be humble, but a skilled cook can elevate it to a simply sublime dish.

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Red potatoes went into this batch of soup, but Jane Clarke has used other varieties that hold together well.

CLARK VAN ORDEN photos/THE TIMES LEADER

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Jane Clarke’s potato soup will be on the menu for the St. Patrick’s Day Tea at Miss Molly’s Tea Time on March 20.

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TIME FOR TEA

What: St. Patrick’s Day Tea

When: Noon to 3 p.m. March 20

Where: Miss Molly’s Tea Time at Clarke’s Irish Imports & Flower Shop, 62 N. Main St., Ashley.

Includes: Entertainment and food including shepherd’s pie, soups, such as creamy potato; a variety of desserts, such as Irish Bailey’s cheesecake; and tea.

How much: Adults $19.95; children $14.95. Reservations required by March 17.

More info: 824-1831

TRY YOUR HAND

Yes, you can make a dish, in this case, a dish of soup, without an official recipe. Sometimes you just have to use your judgment, as Jane Clarke does.

What you’ll need:

• Butter (to taste)

• 1 medium carrot, diced

• 1/2 medium onion, diced

• 1 stalk celery, diced

• Flour (use judgment)

• Water

• Four to five russet or red potatoes, peeled and diced

• Heavy cream (to taste)

• Salt and pepper

Dice vegetables. Melt butter in medium saucepan, add vegetables and saute. Add flour to make a roux and stir for several minutes. Add water to cover and stir again. Stir in peeled, diced potatoes and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Stir in heavy cream to taste. Total cooking time is at least 20 minutes.

Jane Clarke, who serves lunch fare and desserts six days a week, used a few basic ingredients to create a creamy potato soup Monday morning.

As she diced vegetables in the tiny kitchen of Miss Molly’s Tea Time at Clarke’s Irish Imports & Flower Shop on North Main Street, she recalled several trips she’s taken to Ireland. Both she and her husband, Ray, have cousins there, in County Mayo and Dublin, and have traveled around the country.

“The food was bland but got better” as the years passed and cooking schools opened there, she said. “I would say they were probably about 40 years behind where we were” in 1979.

Though potatoes were hardly showcased at fine dining establishments in Ireland, a meal during a more recent trip drew her attention.

In Limerick, dining at one of the better restaurants, she was surprised by what arrived with her entr�e. “The salmon was very good, and it came with two sides — one was a baked potato and the other was fries.”

For her business, she doesn’t do much “Irish cooking,” Clarke, 74, said. However, “We do sell a lot of shepherd’s pie; it’s a very popular hot item.

“I think the next (most popular) would be potato soup.

“There aren’t a lot of Irish in the area, but the ones who come in do seem to like it.”

The recipes she uses are her own. “I’ve been cooking for a large family for years,” she said.

Clarke was a stay-at-home mother to eight children, one of whom, Mary Holmgren, has taken over the business. Another daughter, Kara Rowley, lends a hand.

From flowers to gift items, “We just kept expanding.”

It was Holmgren who wanted to add a tea room, Clarke said. “We put different hats on during the day, whatever suits our needs.”

For Clarke, that means arranging flowers and cooking and baking for the tea room, serving 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.

“I enjoy working. I enjoy getting up in the morning and having something to do.

“I always tell my daughter she’ll have to carry me out.”

Clarke makes an array of scones, from seasonal varieties such as blueberry and gingerbread to the popular chocolate chip and raisin scones, which were in the kitchen Monday as she melted butter in the soup pot.

Into the sizzling butter went a diced carrot, half an onion and a stalk of celery. She saut�ed them for a few minutes, the sharp aroma of onion rising from the pot.

“Then add flour to make a roux” and add some water, she said, stirring the mixture briskly.

“Then I’ll get my potatoes peeled and add them to it.” Clarke never measures, except when baking. “I eyeball it,” she said.

She uses four or five potatoes and seasons with salt and pepper when she adds the diced potato.

“I usually use russet, but today I’m using a red potato.

“They hold together.”

Clarke stirred often as the soup cooked. “The potatoes tend to lay heavy on the bottom,” she explained.

Potato soup takes about 20 minutes, she said, not including time to chop the vegetables.

She tastes as she goes, adding more salt and pepper as needed.

“I was never a salt person, so I have to make sure I use enough salt.” In fact, when she married nearly 54 years ago, she didn’t even put salt and pepper on the table.

Clarke makes small pots of soup for the tea room, she said, then makes another batch if she runs out.

“It has to cook until the potatoes are tender and the carrots,” she said, stirring the soup again and checking the progress of the vegetables. “They’re not tender yet.”

After a few more minutes, she stirred in heavy cream, judging by sight how much to use.

“It’s much richer if you use the whole milk and heavy cream” rather than reduced-fat products.

“I usually run the potato masher through it a little bit to break up the potatoes.

“It makes it a little thicker.”

For anyone unsure of working without a recipe, she says, “You can’t be afraid to try it.”

Go slowly.

“Try (adding ingredients) a little at a time until it gets to the consistency or it gets to the way you want it to taste.”