Sweet potato bisque

The Kitchen staff, within the community in which I work, is staffed with Chef's. Not just cooks but actual Chef's that know how to prepare and cook wondrous dishes and scrumptious deserts that put most average day to day cooking to shame.

It only costs $2. for team members to buy a meal from the Kitchen and Managers actually eat for free so I eat there on a pretty regular basis.

Most lunches start with salad and the soup of the day.
For whatever reason, I don't care too much to eat most salads (not all) that I haven't prepared myself. (Don't know why really) We can analyze that at another time. So anyway, I pretty much leave most of the salads alone, but I have gotten in the habit of eating all the different soups.

The soups they make are sooooooooooooooooo incredibly good and different and completely delicious that I have been craving soup when I'm at home on a regular basis. Since I only know how to cook Split Pea, 15 bean and chicken dumpling soup I am generally left choosing between Campbell's and Chunky at our local grocery stores- which isn't even close to the satisfied and deeply nourishing feeling I get when I slowly savor those steamy bowls of soup.

SO, I talked to Nicholas about my new passion and we agreed we would begin a Soup Quest!
Hunting for and preparing new and varied soups.
Which is exactly what we are doing and this was my first attempt: Sweet potato bisque

I was inspired to look up the recipe because it was a soup that I had tried while working one day, that I thought sounded completely disgusting but fell in love with because it was lightly sweet, tangy, smooth and well, just plain awesome.

When it was finished I gave everyone a small bowl to sample (because most of them were eating pizza and hot wings) and I added crackers and made it my dinner.
They were each impressed by how surprisingly good it was and I was just excited that our soup quest is well under way!

Here is the recipe that I followed:

(Except I cheated and used canned sweet potato's which I drained and smooshed for the sake of immediate gratification)

Ingredients:
8 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
5 cups chicken stock
small pinch ground nutmeg
2 sticks cinnamon, crushed
2 cloves
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or more to taste)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dry Sack sherry
salt and pepper to taste
whipped cream for garnish

Directions: Bring chicken stock, sweet potatoes, maple syrup and spices to a simmer. Simmer until sweet potatoes can be easily crushed. Puree and return to simmer. Add cream and sherry, return just barely to a simmer. Adjust seasonings with salt, pepper and more maple syrup to taste. Strain and serve, garnished with whipped cream and dash of cinnamon.

It was completely AWESOME!
Give it a try!