Chilled Cream of Potato and Leek Soup : Crème Vichyssoise : Lesson 10 : Part 3 : LCB at Home

Neither this nor the Rice Pilaf are about to produce anything in the way of interesting pictures; alas. Between that and the fact that the soup was dug into prior to the picture being took gives me this…

It was very decorative before the ladle-ing.

I did this recipe at an Italian restaurant I worked at; it was pretty much the same: leeks, onions, potatoes, water, some dairy, salt, pepper - simple enough.  And lovely, served cold on a warm summer evening.

What I did was…

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Crème Vichyssoise : Chilled Cream of Potato and Leek Soup

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• oil
• butter
• 6 leeks, medium, the white part, chopped
• 2 onions, medium, chopped
• 3 potatoes, baking, chunks
• 6 C chicken stock
• salt
• pepper, white, fresh ground
• 1 1/2 C crème fraiche
• chives, fresh, cut, for garnish (and flavour)

Procedure

1. Oil, with maybe a little butter, into a pot , leeks & onions in too - medium-low heat
   • Cook until soft but not colored
2. Add stock and potatoes, simmer
   • until very soft (15 minutes, maybe)
3. Purée with a stick blender (best) or in batches in a blender-blender
4. "Temper" 1 C of crème fraiche with a couple of tablespoons of the purée
5. And then the cup of crème fraiche into the pot of purée
   • Salt and pepper to taste (please, use enough salt)
   • Allow to cool and then into the fridge for a couple of hours
6. After it's cool check the salt and pepper again - it probably will need a touch of pepper
7. Finish, upon serving, with the rest of the crème fraiche and some chopped chives

Notes

1. At the restaurant we didn't use crème fraiche; we used 1/2 cream and 1/2 2% milk
2. Some cut the potato down to just one spud - and it's good with more leeks; but leeks are blindingly expensive here in Toronto thus we'll not be doing that.

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