Hot-Smoked Trout & Potato Soup

This soup is made of two equally important parts: a simple comforting potato soup and a generous topping of compound butter. The butter is loaded with crumbles of rich, meaty hot-smoked trout. It also contains crisp bits of smoky bacon and herbs. When swirled into the warm soup, the chunky butter transforms the soup into a hearty, satisfying dish that’s reminiscent of chowder.

In addition to using it in the soup, I like to tuck this butter into a piping hot baked potato, both russets and sweet potatoes. I make my butter with Sunburst Trout Farm’s excellent hot-smoked trout, my favorite smoked fish in the world. It’s available online. If you use another source, be sure the trout is full of flavor.

Makes about 2 quarts

Ingredients

For the hot-smoked trout & butter bacon:

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup finely chopped scallions
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped dill
• 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
• 4 thick slices (4 ounces) smoky bacon, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces, and cooked until crisp (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 to 6 ounces hot-smoked trout, skinned and crumbled (about 1 cup) such as from Sunburst Trout Farm

For the potato soup:

• 3 tablespoons butter (or use the fat left from cooking the bacon)
• 2 cups chopped leeks or milk onion
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 5 cups peeled and cubed russet or Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cubed (about 2 pounds)
• 4 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade; the better the stock, the better the soup)
• 1/2 to 1 cup whole milk, half-and-half, or buttermilk, as needed
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder (preferably Coleman’s)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne
• Lots of ground black pepper

Directions

For the hot-smoked trout & butter bacon:

Stir together the butter, scallions, dill, and mustard until well-blended. Fold in the bacon and trout. Cover tightly and set aside at room temperature until needed. (If making ahead, store covered and refrigerated, and return to room temperature for serving.)

For the soup:

Warm the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the leeks and 1 teaspoon salt and stir to coat. Cook until they are soft, about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Do not let them brown.

Add the potatoes, 2 teaspoons salt, and the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, partially cover the pot and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.

Stir in the mustard powder, nutmeg, and cayenne.

Purée the soup directly in the pot with an immersion blender, adding milk as needed to thin the soup as desired. (Alternatively, puree in a stand blender, working in batches to not fill the blender more than half full, and return it to the pot.)

Season generously with pepper and taste for salt and cayenne.

To serve, ladle the warm soup into shallow serving bowls. Place a generous dollop of the room temperature Smoked Trout and Bacon Butter in the center of each serving, and serve at once.

Sheri Castle, award-winning food writer and cooking teacher, is known for melding culinary expertise, storytelling and humor, so she can tell a tale while making a memorable meal. Her creative, well-crafted recipes and practical advice inspire people to cook with confidence and enthusiasm. She's written a tall stack of cookbooks and her work appears in dozens of magazines. In 2019, the Southern Foodways Alliance named Sheri among Twenty Living Legends of Southern Food, calling her The Storyteller.

Sheri says that she's fueled by great ingredients and the endless pursuit of intriguing stories, usually about the role that food plays in our lives, families, communities and culture.

When she steps away from the kitchen or a local farm, Sheri enjoys spending quiet time at her home near Chapel Hill. She hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.