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La Belle Cuisine
Michele's Broccoli, Zucchini
and Leek Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1 large leek, white and light green portion only,
trimmed, washed, chopped
2 bunches broccoli, trimmed washed, chopped
3 medium zucchini, trimmed, scrubbed, chopped
6 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces mushrooms, scrubbed, chopped
1/4 cup dry white wine
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
1/4 teaspoon dried basil, crumbled
White pepper to taste
Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning, to taste
8 ounces sour cream or plain yogurt
In large kettle sauté coarsely chopped leek in 1 tablespoon butter
until
soft. Add the broccoli and zucchini. Season with salt and pepper to taste
and cook,
stirring, a minute or so. Add the chicken stock. Bring to boil,
cover and simmer 15
minutes. Purée the soup in batches in a food
processor, and return to kettle.
Sauté the mushrooms in the remaining 1 tablespoon butter until the
liquid they give off evaporates. Deglaze the pan with white wine, and continue
to cook
until the liquid is reduced by half. Add mushrooms and liquid to
soup along with lemon
juice, parsley, basil, white pepper and Tony's Seasoning. Stir in the sour cream and
continue cooking just long enough
to heat through. Do not allow the soup to boil.
If serving cold, do not add sour cream. Refrigerate and then whisk in
plain yogurt. Serves 4 to 6.
A Soulful Chicken Soup
by Julia Child
Food & Wine January 1995
Food & Wine - One Year Subscription
Q: "When is a cream soup not a cream soup?"
A: "When it is made with a purée of rice and white
onions. My cream soups look and taste just like conventional cream soups with all those
delicious creamy fat calories, but you can actually make them with no fat at all, and few,
if any, of
your guests will ever know.
The following cream of chicken soup gets its unbelievably
velvety and smooth texture from the rice and onion purée, so the cream I add at the end
is for flavor and enrichment alone. To make a fat-free version, cook the onions for the
base
in a little stock instead of butter, and omit the cream that finishes the soup. It
won't taste quite the same, but this is the price you pay for abstinence.
The formula for the purée is simplicity itself. You will
need a blender because he purée must be absolutely fine. In the old, pre-electric kitchen
days, a fine purée
like this would have had to be passed through a hair sieve - meaning
that you
first pounded the cooked rice and onions in a mortar, then pushed them through
a
fine mesh stretched over a drum-shaped form with a wooden pestle, and finally scraped the
purée off the other side with a tortoiseshell scoop. That took some doing, and I know
since it's how we puréed in my Paris school days in 1949."
Rice and Onion Soup Base
For about 2 quarts of soup, you will want:
2 cups of thinly sliced onions
2 tablespoons of butter
8 cups of homemade chicken stock or
canned broth
1/2 cup of raw white rice
seasonings
In a 3-quart heavy stainless saucepan, cook the onions in butter
over
moderately low heat for 7 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently, until the
onions are
very tender and colored no more than a buttery yellow.
(In current cuisine language, this
is known as "Sweating the onions".)
Pour in 4 cups
of the stock, stir in the
rice and simmer for 20 minutes
or more until the
rice is very tender. Purée the soup in
the blender
until very smooth and lightly thickened, adding a little more stock if
needed.
Return the purée to
the pan, add the rest of the stock and
season to taste with salt and
pepper.
Cream of Chicken Soup Printaniere
Makes about 2 quarts
This onion-accented creamy chicken soup garnished with fresh
vegetables
is perfect with a dry, fruity, blush wine, such as the 1993
Sanford Pinot
Noir-Vin Gris from California, or a hearty red, such
as the 1993 Georges
Duboeuf Syrah
from France.
Prepare the Rice and Onion Soup Base using only 5 cups of the
chicken stock.
Meanwhile, peel and cut into thin slices or julienne enough onions,
carrots, white of leek and tender celery stalks to make about 1 cup each. Arrange the
vegetables in a stainless saucepan with 2 skinless, boneless chicken breast
halves, 1/2 cup dry white French vermouth
and the remaining 3 cups chicken stock.
Bring to the simmer and cook
for 4 minutes, skimming as necessary, until the chicken is
just lightly
springy to the touch. Remove the chicken and let the vegetables simmer
for 5
minutes or more until tender. Correct the seasoning and remove
the pan from the heat.
While the vegetables finish cooking, cut the chicken breasts
lengthwise
into julienne. Add the chicken to the vegetables and let steep for several
minutes or longer to pick up the aromatic flavors. Add the Rice and Onion Soup Base to the
saucepan and bring just to the simmer. Taste very care-fully and correct the seasoning.
Remove from the heat. Ladle the soup
into warm bowls and top each serving with a dollop of
sour cream or
crème fraîche and a sprinkling of parsley if you wish.
Variations:
Cream of Mushroom Soup:
Make the Rice and Onion Soup Base with a cup chicken broth and 6
cups of milk. Meanwhile, dice 1 quart of fresh mushrooms. After puréeing the
base, bring it to the simmer and fold in the mushrooms
and 1 sprig of fresh tarragon
(or 1/4 teaspoon dried). Simmer for
10 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in
1/2 cup
or so of sour cream,
simmer a moment more and carefully correct seasoning, adding
drops
of lemon juice if needed.
Cream of Cucumber Soup:
Peel and roughly chop 4 large cucumbers and toss with 2
teaspoons
each of salt and wine vinegar. Make the Rice and Onion Soup Base as directed
and simmer for 15 minutes, then add the cucumbers and their juices. Simmer 5 minutes more
and purée. Whisk in 1/2 cup or so of
sour cream, which will whiten as well as
enrich the soup.
You can go on and on with this formula, applying it to all
kinds of
ingredients: broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, artichoke bottoms, sole,
sea
scallops and so on.
Potage
Cultivateur
Gourmet Archives
1/3 cup dried white beans
1 small onion stuck with 2 cloves
2 large carrots, sliced thin, plus
1 small whole carrot
1 parsley sprig
1 small bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
6 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 turnips, trimmed, quartered
lengthwise and sliced thin
3 cups shredded cabbage
White part of 3 leeks, quartered lengthwise,
washed well
and sliced thin
3 ribs celery, sliced thin
2 boiling potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish
Soak beans overnight and drain. Combine them in large saucepan with
onion, whole carrot, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, and enough cold water to cover mixture by 2
inches. Bring to boil and simmer, covered partially,
for 1 1/2 hours. Drain beans,
discarding vegetables and herbs.
In a kettle melt 2 tablespoons butter, add turnips, carrots, cabbage,
leeks, celery and potatoes. Cook vegetables covered with a buttered piece of foil and lid
over low heat, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Do not brown.
Add beans and stock and
simmer 25 to 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Transfer 1 cup of vegetables with
slotted spoon to blender or
food processor, purée them, and stir purée into the soup.
Bring soup to
boil, remove kettle from heat and stir in 3 tablespoons butter. Season to
taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with parsley. Serves 4 to 6.
Potage Parmentier
In addition to being delicious, inexpensive and simple to prepare, this
leek
and potato soup is valuable due to its tremendous versatility. It can be the
base, or
starting point, for a large variety of other vegetable soups. Suggested additions are
cauliflower, broccoli, watercress, green beans, carrots, or even
zucchini if you wish. And
in case you haven't guessed, this soup could very
easily become the famous Vichyssoise
when enriched with cream and chilled. Serves 6.
1 pound russet potatoes
1 pound leeks
2 quarts white stock or chicken broth
Salt and white pepper
2 tablespoons softened butter (optional)
3 tablespoons minced parsley or chives
Peel and dice the potatoes. You should have about 3½ cups. Trim and
wash the leeks, leaving the tender green portion and discarding the tough dark green
portion. (In case you have trouble finding leeks, just substitute yellow onions). Slice
the leeks; you should have about 3 cups. Place the potatoes, leeks and stock or broth in a
3- to 4-quart kettle. Simmer them, partially covered, for 40 to 50 minutes, or until the
vegetables are very tender. Purée the soup either by passing it through a food mill or
puréeing
in a food processor or blender. The food mill is my preference. If using either
electric appliance, please do not make baby food out of this soup. There should be some
very small pieces of identifiable vegetable visible. Taste the purée and adjust seasoning
as necessary. The amount of salt and white pepper required will depend upon the amount
already present in the stock or broth. Just before serving, reheat the soup to the simmer,
remove kettle from heat and stir in butter by spoonfuls, if desired. Ladle the soup into
warm bowls and sprinkle each serving with the minced fresh herbs.
Since I am an avid watercress fan, my favorite simple variation of this
soup is to add fresh watercress when it is available. This can be done by
adding 1 cup
(packed) watercress leaves during the last 5 minutes of
cooking. Proceed as in the recipe
above.
The most exquisite soup I have ever
tasted in my entire life was served in small, wonderfully warm and cozy family restaurant
in a French village whose name
I do not recall. To say that this event took place over
thirty years ago is at once
my excuse for not being able to pass along to you the name of
the soup, the
restaurant, or the village - and - a strong indication that this exceptional
soup
must have made an indelible impression.
Now that I know just a little bit more about
cooking, I am convinced that this marvelous soup was a variation of Potage Parmentier. I
will never know just exactly which vegetables Madame had available that day, but she
certainly
knew what to do with them! Fortunately for all of us, the soup was brought to
our table steaming hot in a large tureen. We were free to have "seconds" if we
wished. After the waiter had literally scraped the bottom of the tureen dry, I
recall my
stepfather rather sheepishly requesting if we could possibly have
some more. Mais oui,
m'sieur, tout de suite! It turned out that the patronne/
cook was so pleased at the success
of her soup that she came running out of
the kitchen to our table to meet the very well
satisfied customers, obviously
from l'Amerique. What a charming experience. Vive la belle
France!
More favorite soup recipes:
Soulful, Soothing Soup
from Chef Keegan:
Crab and Mushroom Bisque
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Tomato Bisque
Family Favorites:
Gigi's Potage St. Germain
Michele's Mushroom Soup with Pasta
Michele's Potage d'Hiver
New Orleans Navy Bean Soup
Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée
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