The recipe scheduled to be prepared for this week's assignment for
Whisk Wednesdays is from Class 27, Menu 4:
Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup), and can be found on pages 419-420.
While a bowl of hot steamy soup is not a traditional favorite in the summertime, I actually love soup any time of year, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, makes no difference to me when it comes to a good soup.
I've never had cauliflower soup before, just never dawned on me to make soup with cauliflower before now. My loss all these years, as this is a wonderful soup, creamy and satisfying, with a gentle flavor accentuated by parsley and croutons.
The recipe goes together fairly quickly, making sure that you use a good number of pans, bowls, etc., as after all, you paid for this stuff, so you might as well use it all, as in "all the time" in French cooking. Results are so worth it, so absolutely worth it.
Saute onions, leek, in a little butter, add rice flour, cook a couple of minutes, salt & pepper the concoction, add chicken stock, cauliflower, and simmer for a half hour.
In the meantime, cut bread into cubes for croutons and bake until browned. Also boil (okay, I steamed as I always steam vegetables) some reserved cauliflower and refresh in cold water to add to the bottom of the soup bowls later and clip some fresh parsley.
When the soup has simmered, you process it in the food processor and strain it through a mesh strainer, then you put it back in the pot, add an egg yolk to some cream, whisking it into the soup as we all now know how to do quite well without making scrambled egg of it all.
Ladle into the bowl, top with parsley (don't skip this step as it is really good with the soup), serve the croutons on the side, and you have one very fine lunch. Easy, simple, warms up well the next day, and is absolutely delicious.
I followed the recipe exactly, tasting a little here and there along the way for seasoning, etc. and I have to say that I could have stopped without the addition of the cream and egg...it was good, but seriously, after you puree the soup in the food processor, before you add in the cream and egg, the soup is very velvety and smooth and creamy and you don't really need the extra calories and fat at all to have a very wonderful soup. Next time I make it, I'm skipping the cream and egg, as I loved the soup just as much without it. And there will be a next time, and a next, and a next, etc.
If you would like to see how the other Whisk Wednesday members fared in this class, click here, and then on the Whisk Wednesdays connect to individual bloggers, or better yet, come and join us! Shari has the ingredients posted on her site at the click, so while we can't post the recipe instructions, you can at least look at the ingredients, and I bet you can figure out a lot of it from there.
Class 27: Menu #4
• Velouté Du Barry (Cream of Cauliflower Soup) pages 419-420
• Mignons de Porc Arlonaise (Pork Tenderloins with Beer) pages 367-368
• Profiteroles au Chocolat (Profiteroles with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce) pages 304-305