Potato Soup With Parmesan-Gruyère Gougères

Potato soup is one of my favorite foods though I've never made it before. I searched far and wide across the internet and finally found a recipe on allrecipes.com that sounded delicious. To serve on the side I found a recipe for parmesan-gruyère gougères. I stumbled across this one on foodgawker.com. I had never heard of gougères before but based solely on the recipe and picture decided I must try them.

Today I headed out to the grocery store to pick up all the ingredients. I had one heck of a time finding gruyère cheese. It was tucked away in a corner near the deli cases. The recipe called for grated gruyère cheese so I also had to buy a cheese grater. I'm embarrassed to admit that at age 21 I still didn't have a grater. I also had to pick up numerous seasonings I never before owned--basil, parsley, garlic salt. Once again, how embarrassing! But every cook needs to start somewhere.

The gougères turned out alright, just needs a little tweaking.

So, how did everything turn out?

Downright awful!

The gougères baked very nicely. The recipe was very easy to follow and took only half an hour to cook. The texture and flavor was wonderful. However I added too much pepper. I will definitely use this recipe again, but next time watch my pepper!

The potato soup was a severe disappointment. All the reviews said it was a great recipe if the red pepper was left out which I chose to do. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly yet it tasted horrible. The consistency was off and I could see bubbles of oil. Perhaps there was too much butter? It tasted more like clumpy lard with chunks of potato than potato soup.

Notice the awful consistency? It didn't taste any better.

I'm hoping to find another potato soup recipe. Somewhere among the heaps of recipes online I must find a good one! This one failed but I know I can find a better one.