Mon Sherry

I’m obsessed with cooking with Sherry. It started at Thanksgiving when I purchased a bottle to use in the gravy. Since I'm not much of a sherry drinker and the bottle was already opened, I found myself using it to deglaze just about every pot and pan. The Thanksgiving bottle was rapidly replaced. Sherry became staple of my German kitchen

Sherry in mushroom risotto, classic. Sherry in chicken soup, delicious. Sherry in beef stew, perfect.

Around the same time, because winter was upon us, I started making a lot of soups. Each batch of pea soup tasted great, but the color was off. Not green, but a murky brown. I couldn’t figure out why.

Last night, while making potato-leek soup I discovered the problem. After sweating the leeks, as per usual, I deglazed the pot with sherry. Then, when I blended the soup the color was not the creamy white I expected, but nut brown. Like potatoes with gravy.

Then it dawned on me ... gravy ... sherry ... It's the sherry that's mudding the color of my soups.