French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [102]
As I have already observed, it is rare to come across iced soups of the vegetable purée variety in France, and crème vichyssoise is, as is well known, an American soup. But it was evolved by a Frenchman, Louis Diat, for forty-one years chef des cuisines at the Ritz-Carlton in New York. Based on the ancient formula for potage bonne femme, the leek and potato soup known to every French housewife, the iced vichyssoise was served for the first time by Louis Diat at the Ritz-Carlton in the summer of 1917, and has since become famous all over the United States. Diat’s recipe makes a delicious soup, its sole disadvantage to English readers being that it is almost impossible to obtain leeks in the summer months, the time when one would most naturally think of serving iced soups. But I expect it won’t be long before leeks, like celery, are grown at seasons of the year other than those we have come to expect, so here is the recipe:
‘Finely slice the white part of 4 leeks and 1 medium onion and brown very slightly in 2 ounces of sweet butter. Then add 5 medium potatoes, also sliced finely.
‘Add one quart of water or chicken broth and one tablespoon of salt and boil from 35 to 40 minutes. Crush and rub through a fine strainer.
‘When the soup is cold add 1 cup of heavy cream. Chill thoroughly before serving, at which time finely chopped chives may be added. This quantity is sufficient for eight people.’
NOTE: The American quart is 32 oz., or a little under 1 English pints; and the American measuring cup contains 8 oz., or half the American pint. In American kitchen terms sweet butter means unsalted butter.
In spite of it seeming, under the circumstances, rather impertinent to criticise M. Diat’s recipe, I cannot help remarking that the soup seems better to me without the onion, so I substitute another couple of leeks instead. Also I use an extra pint of water to cook the soup and correspondingly less cream, for to my taste 8 oz. makes the soup too cloying.
POTAGE CRÈME DE PETITS POIS
CREAM OF GREEN PEA SOUP
This is one of the nicest, freshest and simplest of summer soups. Those who claim not to be able to taste the difference between frozen and fresh peas will perhaps find it instructive to try this dish. Not that a very excellent soup cannot be made with frozen peas, but when fresh peas are at the height of their season, full grown but still young and sweet, the difference in intensity of flavour and of scent is very marked indeed.
Quantities are 1 lb. of peas, the heart of a cabbage lettuce, lb. (yes, lb.) of butter, 1 pints of water, salt and sugar.
Melt the butter in your soup saucepan; put in the lettuce heart washed and cut up into fine strips with a silver knife; add the shelled peas, 2 teaspoons of salt and a lump or two of sugar. Cover the pan; cook gently for 10 minutes until the peas are thoroughly soaked in the butter. Add the water; cook at a moderate pace until the peas are quite tender. Sieve them, or purée them in the electric liquidiser. Return to the pan and heat up. A little extra seasoning may be necessary but nothing else at all. Enough for four ample helpings.
Fish Soups
SOUPE DE POISSONS DE MARSEILLE
MARSEILLAIS FISH SOUP
This is a typical Provençal fish soup made from all sorts of the little shining red, pink, brown, yellow and silver-striped fish which one can buy by the basketful from the market stalls in the Vieux Port (although much of the Vieux Port quarter was destroyed by the Germans in the last war the fish stalls are still there). I don’t think it is possible to make the soup without all these odd little Mediterranean fish, which are too bony to be used for anything except la soupe, and I have not attempted to cook it since I lived on the Mediterranean shores, but still the method, which was shouted above the hubbub of the market to me many years ago by the fishwife at a market stall, is worth recording.
For six people you buy rather over 2 lb. of fish16 and