Fennel & potato soup

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This is one of my favorite soups!  The taste is heavenly!  (My readers already know that fennel is the vegetable that I love most in the whole world.  Imagine how much the flavor is enhanced when you add the butter and the homemade stock.)

Warning: With canned broth or bouillon cubes, this soup would be a calamity.  I urge you to make a homemade one.

Ingredients

4 large bulbs fennel
2 medium onions, cut
1 large (or 2 small) potatoes, peeled and cut in pieces
1 cup HOMEMADE turkey or chicken stock (have a little extra on hand)
½ pint (c. 250 mL) heavy cream
extra-virgin olive oil
1-2 TB butter
black pepper, freshly ground
nutmeg, freshly ground

Preparation

Take the fennel.  Remove the cores, and remove the stalks, but save a few of the fronds.  Cut the bulbs in little pieces.

Heat a Dutch oven (or a normal pan).  Add the oil.  Then add the butter.  Fry the onion, potatoes, and fennel, about 5 minutes, stirring well so that everything fries uniformly.  Add the stock and half the pepper.  Cover and simmer very slowly for a half hour.

Shut the heat.  Let it cool off enough that you can transfer it to the blender.  (Or, use a handblender.)  Purée it.  Return it to the pan.  Add the cream, the rest of the pepper, and the nutmeg, and reheat it on a very low flame.  Arrange the decorative fronds on top.

Note: When you reheat the leftovers the next day, you will possibly need to add a little stock.