A legendary soup

You may have heard me talk about how much I love Julie Powell (the author of Julie and Julia). In her book, she talks about making Julia Child's Potage Parmentier (that's potato leek soup for you non-French speakers) and how great it is. So I figured I should give it a try. I realized I had five leeks and a bag of yellow potatoes in my fridge, so this seemed like a good day to go for it.


It is very simple (so says Julie Powell), which doesn't mean easy. You have to peel a bunch of potatoes (about 1 pound) and then slice or dice them up. Then you slice the same amount of leeks and wash them really well in a colander (mine were from my CSA box and were completely covered in dirt).

Then throw them in a pot with 2 quarts of water (or chicken broth - I did a mix of both) and one Tbs of salt - simmer them over moderate heat for about 45 minutes, partially covered (I balanced the pot lid over one side of the pot and my little espresso maker - I am such a professional). Once the vegetables are tender, it's time to blend them up.

Julia asks that you don't use a food processor or a blender - she wants you to use a food mill or a fork. I did just get a food mill (another wedding present - woot!) but I was too lazy to set it up. My immersion blender just called out to me, "Lena! Use me! I am so easy to use and already out of the box!" So I pureed about half of it with the immersion blender and left some chunks of potato in tact (as a sort of compromise with the ghost of Julia Child). Then I adjusted the seasoning and adding some cream (Julia says! She wanted me to add 6 Tbs, but I added about half that in deference to my girlish figure).


It's good - very filling, but it's not a wow. It's kind of bland for my taste - but it would be a good first course type thing - just not a whole meal.

Cooking through the sickness

What's a girl to do while she waits for her antibiotics? Cook, of course. I had these vegetables in my house (courtesy of my CSA):


These seemed like a natural soup choice to me. I got my mom a new cookbook this weekend (Deborah Madison's Local Flavors - a cookbook devoted to seasonal farmer's market cooking) and I flipped through it and found this recipe for a simple potage (which as far as I can tell means potato soup. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). It was so easy, I'm not even referring back to the book for what the directions were. I'm a maverick.

Leeks (I used two)
Potatoes (Yukon Gold preferred - I just grabbed a handful of small ones)
Baby Turnips (I just used a small bunch)
Chicken Stock (use water if you're a vegetarian. Or vegetable stock. But veggie stock is for losers)
salt and pepper
thyme
cream (optional)
1.5 Tbs butter

1. Wash and chop all your veggies. I chopped them, then washed them. I didn't peel the potatoes or the turnips. Potato skins are good for you and the turnips were really small. Wash the leeks really well, post chopping. Leeks are muddy little suckers.

2. Melt the butter in a large soup pot. Toss the vegetables in the butter and add 1/2 cup water or stock and some fresh thyme (or dried thyme if that's all you have). Simmer for five minutes.


Add 5 more cups of stock or water and some salt.


3. Bring to a boil, then bring down the heat to a simmer and let it simmer for 25-30 minutes. You can add some pepper here. And some more salt if you want. At this time, I decided I wanted to make my soup a little more pureed, but I didn't want to wash my food processor, so I just mashed it a bit with my potato masher.


4. There were still some larger bits, but I think that's okay. Varied textures! Then I added a little bit of cream (sinful, I know. But I added about 1/4 of a cup to a gigantic soup pot. You could even add less. Or no cream at all. Or some milk. Whatever floats your boat).


It turns a nice light color with the cream though. See?


5. Now eat it! I put a little more thyme on top as a garnish. Garnishes make my photos look really nice.


Enjoy!