Recipe request: Potato Leek Soup

I have the potatoes, I have the leeks. Does anyone have a wonderful soup recipe? As I watched the snow (!) flurries yesterday, the thought of it sounded great. It still does.

I've never made it before and I'm open to all suggestions.

Thanks!

I love it. It's Potage Parmentier and I make it all the time. It's in the book. And if you don't have the book it's all over the Internet.

This is one I like from Peggy Bucholz


Potato Leek Soup
source: by http://www.finedinings.com

2/3 cup leeks, thinly sliced, white portion only
1 small onion, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2-1/2 cups potatoes, peeled, sliced thinly
2 cups chicken broth
1-1/2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
Salt, to taste
Snipped fresh chives or parsley for garnish

In a saucepan over medium high heat sauté leeks and onion in butter until tender but not brown. Add potatoes and chicken broth; bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 35 minutes.

Puree the soup mixture in a food processor; return to the saucepan. Add milk and cream mixing well, add salt if needed. Cover and refrigerate.

Serve vichyssoise potato leek soup hot or cold. Garnish with chives or parsley.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Wine recommendation: Pinot Gris; Chardonnay

You're going to make me work for it, huh chef?

Karen that sounds good. Thanks!

[Jenise]

This is one I like from Peggy Bucholz

Serve vichyssoise potato leek soup hot or cold. Garnish with chives or parsley.

What I make is very similar but for more chicken broth and no milk, but that's a trifle. Hers will be a little sweeter than mine, but close. However I do take issue with the garnish. I find chives an absolute neccessity!

On one of our biking weekends in the Delaware Valley, we stayed at a place called Hotel du Village, a couple of miles north of New Hope, PA. One attraction of the place is that it has a very good restaurant, in fact they pull in people from miles around, not like some similar places where they mainly serve the overnight guests. The last time we went there I ordered a cup of the Potato Leek Soup as an appetizer. It was so good I passed it around the table and everyone remarked on it. What the chef had done was to use "too much thyme." Well, obviously none of us considered it too much, but if I were to attempt to tell you how much thyme he had used you would probably say "that is TOO much." At any rate it gave the soup a very distinctive and memorable flavor.

When I got back home I opened Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and put together my version of the same soup. Unlike Julia's version, the potatoes are not pureed before serving. I had those little "ratte" potatoes and I left them in spoonful size chunks. I tried to cook it so that they retained their nice "bite" -- if you overdo it you don't have to puree, they will fall apart. Everyone liked what I cooked but I think I chickened out on the thyme. It was there, and fairly strong, but not what we had tasted at Hotel du Village.

F

[Jenise]

Unlike Julia's version, the potatoes are not pureed before serving. I had those little "ratte" potatoes and I left them in spoonful size chunks. I tried to cook it so that they retained their nice "bite" -- if you overdo it you don't have to puree, they will fall apart. Everyone liked what I cooked but I think I chickened out on the thyme. It was there, and fairly strong, but not what we had tasted at Hotel du Village.

F

My first encounter with Vichysoisse was during a French cooking course I took when I was about 19. (I was madly in love with my instructor who looked like Jeremy Irons.) I recall that the question of leaving the potatoes and leek unpureed came up, and we were told that was the English version which went by the name cock-a-leekie. To be called vichysoisse, it must be pureed.

I've learned since that the soup was actually created in New York City around the time of the first World War by a French chef who based it on a hot soup made by his mother where he grew up, near Vichy. His version was served chilled, and it was his masterstroke to add the chives.