Potato-Kale-Beer Chowder

My friend and co-worker told me she was making a potato-kale chowder with chorizo, which sounded delicious so I made the appropriate "mmmm" sounds until she promised to bring some in for me the next day. She didn't, but I didn't think about it until Sunday when I thought to my self "Hey, that sounded so tasty and mighty comforting during this cold spell." Although I didn't have any chorizo, I had just bought some fantastic organic kale from the Co-op. It was long, slender and very tender, unlike the curly, woody stems usually found languishing as a garnish on dinner plates. The beer was an afterthought. I hate wasting things and couple of weeks ago, I opened a beer that I could not finish. No, I'm not that dainty, I had two before that. Anyway, I didn't want to waste it and I am so glad I didn't. It was a dark beer, perhaps stout, I can't remember since I threw the bottle out already. I added the beer to deglaze the pot, after cooking the onions, and it really rounded out the soup and gave it a biting, nutty undertone. I'm really going to have to approximate the amounts in this recipe, I kept adding this or that.

Potato-Kale Chowder

1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1 onion, diced
1-2 T. flour
1/2 bottle dark beer
2 c. diced potatoes
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into rounds
1 bunch kale
2 cups chicken stock
pinch salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg
pinch thyme

Heat the olive oil and butter, add onions and cook about 15 minutes. Once cooked, add the flour and stir. After a minute or two, once the brown fond starts to form, add the beer to deglaze. Add the potatoes and carrots, then the stock. Cover and cook until the vegetables are tender. You can keep the soup like this but I fished out the potatoes and pureed them, then added the mash back to the soup pot to give it more body and heft. I sauteed the kale separatley and added it to the pot to simmer away a bit more but I did it like that so it was easier for me to remove the potatoes. Add seasoning. I ate this as is but yesterday, I aded some milk as I reheated the soup and, of course, that made it creamier and fuller. You can add more stock or milk if the soup is too think.