Cucumber Leek Vichyssoise Recipe A Well Seasoned Kitchen

CLASSIC VICHYSSOISE

Steps:

• In a large stock pot melt butter over low heat. Add leeks and onion, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
• Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Add thyme, marjoram, bay leaf and stir well. Cover pot and continue to cook for 12 minutes.
• Add chicken stock and bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook, partially covered for 30 minutes.
• Puree soup in blender or food processor and cool.
• Prior to serving add cream. If you are serving this soup warm you need to reheat the soup slowly so that the cream does not change consistency.

POTATO LEEK SOUP (VICHYSSOISE)

Steps:

• In large pot melt butter. Add leeks and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Add water and bring to a simmer. Cook until vegetables are tender. Place 3/4 of soup into a blender and puree, return to pot and stir in cream. Serve hot or cold.

CUCUMBER CUPS WITH VICHYSSOISE

Steps:

• Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 10 minutes. Add potatoes and stock. Season with salt. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
• Strain leek-potato mixture through a fine sieve, reserving liquid. Puree solids in a food mill or blender, adding reserved liquid as needed, just until smooth. Stir in remaining reserved liquid.
• Strain soup through sieve into a large bowl, and stir in half-and-half and nutmeg. Season with salt and white pepper. Refrigerate vichyssoise until chilled, about 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, hollow out cucumbers using a melon baller, leaving bottoms intact. Refrigerate, covered with a damp towel, until ready to use.
• Stir cream into chilled vichyssoise just before serving. Fill cucumber cups with vichyssoise and garnish with chives.

CHILLED CUCUMBER VICHYSSOISE

Steps:

• Pour stock into large saucepan, add potatoes and bring to a boil.
• Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.
• Heat the butter in a skillet, add leeks and onion and saute over low heat for 5 minutes.
• Either use an immersion blender after adding leek mixture to the liquids or in batches, combine vegetables and stock in the processor, add cucumbers and puree.
• Pour mixture into large bowl.
• Stir in cream, add nutmeg, salt and pepper, stir and chill for a couple of hours.
• Serve in soup bowls or wine glasses garnished with minced chives.

CHIVE AND CUCUMBER VICHYSSOISE

Steps:

• Melt butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add leeks; sauté just until soft but not yet brown, about 5 minutes. Add broth and potato. Simmer until potato is very tender, about 12 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer potato and leeks to blender. Add half of cooking liquid and blend to coarse puree. Add cream and blend, using on/off turns. Transfer to large bowl. Combine cucumber, chives and remaining cooking liquid in blender; puree until smooth. Mix into leek puree. Season with salt and pepper. Chill, at least 4 hours and up to 6 hours.
• Stir soup and ladle into bowls. Garnish with radishes, if desired.

VICHYSSOISE

Steps:

• Melt butter in a stockpot over medium heat. In a second stockpot over low heat, warm the chicken stock. Meanwhile, slice the white parts of the leeks in half lengthwise; then thinly slice. Trim and thinly slice celery. Add leeks and celery to the melted butter; gently sweat until translucent, 7-8 minutes, adding a pinch of salt halfway through. Make sure the vegetables do not take on any color.Meanwhile, slice potatoes lengthwise into 4 wedges, then roughly dice into 1-inch chunks. When the leeks and celery are translucent, add warmed stock, followed by the potatoes.
• Make a sachet: Lay a square of cheesecloth large enough to fit the herbs on a flat surface. Place thyme, parsley, bay leaf, and garlic in the middle; then wrap into a bundle and tie with butcher's twine. Submerge the sachet in the soup and simmer, uncovered, until potatoes are soft, 15-20 minutes.
• When a fork easily pierces a potato, the soup is ready to be blended. First, remove the sachet. Then use a ladle to remove 1½ cups of broth; set aside. Carefully add the rest of the soup to a blender and cover. Blend, beginning on low speed, then slowly increasing to high speed. When the soup is pale and completely puréed, turn off the blender and add crème fraîche. Cover and continue blending on high speed to a light, smooth texture. Test the thickness, then add some of the reserved broth as necessary to thin the soup, and blend again. Set aside the remaining broth.
• Strain the soup (optional): In a large bowl filled with ice, chill a second bowl large enough to hold the soup. Strain the soup through a chinois or fine-mesh strainer into the chilled bowl; use the back of a ladle to help push the soup through the strainer. The vichyssoise will have a syrupy texture when it's warm, but it will become thicker and more velvety as it chills in the bowl. Let cool for 1 hour.
• When the vichyssoise is chilled, strain more reserved broth into the soup as needed to thin to desired consistency; stir well to combine. Ladle into a bowl. Shape quenelles of crème fraîche (optional): Pass about a tablespoon of crème fraîche back and forth between two spoons, smoothing and shaping it until you have formed an egg-shaped dollop, or "quenelle." Garnish each bowl with a quenelle of crème fraîche and several chive batons before serving.

POTATO LEEK SOUP (VICHYSSOISE)

Steps:

• Melt butter in soup pot over medium-high heat. Add leeks and salt; cook until leeks begin to wilt. Reduce heat to medium or medium-low and cook until soft and almost pastelike, 30 to 40 minutes.
• Place potatoes in the pot; add chicken broth. Adjust heat so mixture simmers slowly. Cook until potatoes are soft, about 30 minutes. Puree mixture with an immersion blender or in batches in a blender. Whisk in heavy cream and creme fraiche. Heat over medium heat. Add more salt, if needed, and cayenne pepper. Do not boil.
• Serve with a drizzle of creme fraiche and a sprinkle of chopped chives.