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4/23/10

Potato Leek Soup - Soupe de Poireaux et Pommes de Terre














After our wonderful trip to Napa I came home and was inspired to make Thomas Keller's Potato Leek Soup.  This soup recipe caught my eye because it required leeks, shallots, yellow onions, and chives.  I love onions, Aaron says I tend to onionize my food.  Yes I am the onionizer!! Watch out!

This soup has very simple ingredients, for me what makes this soup special is the stock.   I'm sure it tastes fine with store purchased stock, but making your own stock will take this from soup to a symphony in your mouth.  I keep my chicken stock in the freezer, I make large batches so that when I want to make soup or need to make a sauce I am good to go. 

The funny part is I used the last of my chicken stock on this recipe.  So I was out of stock Monday morning, and Monday night Aaron went in for emergency surgery.  He had an appendectomy at 6:30 pm.  He is doing much better now but we are both still out of sorts.  The surgery went well and I was able to bring him home from the hospital Tuesday afternoon.  I got him home and into bed, and of course I made more chicken stock to make him some chicken noodle soup.  Nothing says I'm taking care of you more than homemade soup.  Trust me.

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs Leeks, about three
  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • ½ cup shallots, sliced
  • 1/3 cup onion, sliced
  • Kosher salt and freshly grated black pepper
  • ½ pound russet potato (about one large), peeled
  • 1 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 8 thyme sprigs
  • 2 Italian parsley sprigs
  • 2 bay leaves
  • ½ tsp pepper corns
  • cheese cloth
  • 5 ½ cups chicken stock
  • ¾ cup heavy cream, warmed
  • ½ cup minced chives
  • Extra virgin olive oil
Method:

Make a Sachet with the cheese cloth, thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and pepper corn.  Set aside.














Prepare the leeks by cutting away the dark green portion, and the bottom root part.  Slice the leek in half and clean well under running water.  Place the leeks cut side down on the cutting board and chop them into ¼ inch slices.

Melt butter in a stock pot over medium-low heat, add the leeks, shallots, onions, and season with salt and pepper.  Turn the heat to medium and sweat the vegetables, stirring every 3-5 minutes.  The vegetables will get soft, but should not brown.
















In the mean time chop the potato into ¼ inch think slices.  Add the garlic to the vegetables and cook for about a minute.  Add the sachet and potatoes and cook for 4 minutes.












Add 5 ½ cups chicken stock and test for seasoning.
















Bring to a simmer and then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Remove the soup from the heat and let cook for 15 minutes.

Transfer soup to blender and puree, start on a low speed to release the remaining heat in the soup.  For a refined soup strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer.














 

Rinse out the stock pot and return the soup and heat up over medium heat.  Bring the soup to a simmer and add the cream, simmer for 5 minutes.  To serve the soup, remove it from the burner and stir in the chives, save some for garnish.
















Ladle the soup into the serving bowls and garnish them with extra virgin olive oil and chives.  Enjoy, serves 6-8

1 comments:

Lazaro Cooks said...

Beautiful soup. Delightful presentation. Cheers!

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