Hey everybody.

It's  Ghosty writing again with another nice dish for the cold season.
A rustic potato stew, full of vegetables, herbs and spices.
It's a vegetarian dish, as I cooked it for dinner with Kuraiko and as you probably know by now, he's a vegetarian. But for you meatlovers, you can easily modify the stew, by cooking it with some smoked sausage (the German "Mettenden" for example) or add fried bacon, Wiener or "Bockwurst" at the end. You could also use some meat broth instead of the vegetable stock or broth.
Easy to make, just needs a little love and time. Good for making a big batch and then freeze the rest.

Ingredients:
~1,2kg starchy potatoes
- 1 big leek or 2 smaller ones
- 1 big yellow onion
- 3-4 carrots (or as much as you like)
- 1 piece of celery after your taste
- 1 piece of parsnip after your taste
- 1 piece of root parsley after your taste
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- Spices and herbs after your taste (this dish used: salt, pepper, allspice, bayleaf, a sprig of thyme and rosemary, fresh parsley, "Earth" and "Gemüseschmackes" from Ingo Holland spices)
- clarified butter
~1,5 L vegetable broth or stock (homecooked or liquid. Please don't use powered stuff, far to salty and artificial)
(Optional: Creme fraiche)

Preparation:
Clean and if necessary peel the vegetables, including the potatoes (especially the leek, which can be very sandy) and cut it into cubes or rings. Peel the garlic and crush it gently with the broad side of the kitchen knife.
Wash the herbs, tap them dry and chop the parsley.
In a large pot, heat up some clarified butter and gently sweat the onions until they turn translucent. Add the rest of the vegetables and garlic and continue to carefully fry.
Put in the potato cubes as well, fry a little longer and deglaze with a bit of broth (or white wine, if you prefer).
Fill up the pot with vegetable broth until everything is well covered and add allspice, bayleaf, thyme and rosemary.
Tip: put herbs, bayleaf and allspice into a paper tea bag to cook in the broth, makes for easy removal later.
Let it simmer for about 35-40 minutes on low heat until the veggies are soft and the potato cubes are starting to break up.
Remove the bag with the herbs, remove of the garlic as well (or leave it in, your choice).
Puree it, either with an immersion blender or chinois. Personally I prefer to leave some visible chunks of vegetables and potato.
If you're using an immersion blender, be careful with it. Don't use it for too long or the potato starch will turn your stew into ugly glue.
If the stew is too thick, add a little more broth or water.
Season to your taste with salt, pepper and spices (the potatoes can absorb quite a bit of salt before you can even taste it) and sprinkle in the chopped parsley.
Plate onto a soup bowl or soup plate, add a little blop of creme fraiche and top it off with some more fresh parsley.
Please enjoy your meal! :)