Vichyssoise – Refreshingly Elegant Cold Soup

Cold soups are a refreshingly elegant summer fare that will keep your kitchen duties to a minimum and your tummy happy.  Vichyssoise is the king of cold soups.  The ingredients are few and simple but the flavor that results is at one time deep, complex and bright.  But don’t try asking for Vichyssoise in France, you’ll end up getting some odd looks.  Vichyssoise is actually an American invention.

The main component of Vichyssoise are leeks.  Working with leeks is easy but requires a bit of preparation.  Because of the way that leeks are grown, dirt and grit can and does work its way down deep into the layers and needs to be rinsed out.  To begin with, cut off and discard the bitter and tough dark green leaves an inch or so above the whitish, pale green part of the stalk.  Next, trim off and discard the roots and then thinly slice the remainder of the stalk into rounds.  Finally, transfer the sliced leeks to a large bowl of water and agitate them gently to wash away any remaining dirt.

While Vichyssoise is easy to prepare, you’ll need a few pieces of equipment that you probably already have on-hand; a blender, a medium to fine mesh strainer and two large bowls to make an ice bath – a smaller bowl set into a larger bowl filled with ice and a bit of water.  Basically, you’ll be blending the final soup and then, with the back of a ladle, pushing it through a mesh strainer into an ice bath to quickly and safely bring the soup down to room temperature.  You need to be extremely careful blending the hot soup and work in small batches.  Hot soup atomizes in a blender and turns very quickly into steam, spiking the pressure inside the blender which can cause hot soup to spurt out under pressure.  Not a good thing.  The best way deal with this is to take the center “hole” part out of the blender lid so pressure can flow out.  Then, loosely fold a heavy clean kitchen towel and hold it firmly over the hole so that no soup can escape but making sure it is on loose enough so as not to cork in the pressure.  Remember, blend in small batches.

We’ll be sweating the leeks for vichyssoise.  Similar to a sauté, sweating helps to draw out moisture from aromatics and weaken and soften their cell walls by cooking small, uniform pieces of food in an open pan in a small amount of fat.  The difference between the two techniques lies in the temperature.  A sauté takes place over medium-high to high heat, and the goal is to cook quickly while browning the food.  This browning is called the Maillard reaction and it radically changes the way food tastes – like the difference in taste between a piece of bread and a piece of toast.  In a sweat, the goal is to draw out the flavor of aromatics without letting them take on any color thereby changing their flavor.

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a heavy 5-quart pot over a medium heat.  Add the sliced leeks and sweat them down for 8 to 10 minutes making sure they do not take on any color.  Adding a bit of salt to the leeks at this point will draw out more moisture.
2. Next, add diced potatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
3. Cover, reduce to a low heat and simmer gently for 45 minutes or until the leeks and potatoes are very soft.  Cut the heat and add the heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Slowly, working in small batches, puree the soup at high speed in the blender.  Then, with the back of a ladle, push it through a mesh strainer into a bowl set into an ice bath to quickly and safely bring the soup down to room temperature.  Make sure you have read the blender precautions above.  When the soup is at room temperature, and only at room temperature, cover tightly and put into the refrigerator to cool.
5. When completely cool, check seasoning and serve sprinkled with chives in chilled bowls.