Mushroom Vichyssoise Recipes

Steps:

• I a large, heavy bottom pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Once butter is melted, add the leeks and sweat for 5 minutes, making sure they do not take on any color.
• Add potatoes and cook for a minute or two, stirring a few times.
• Stir in the chicken broth and bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat to a simmer. Cook on low heat, gently simmering for 35 minutes, or until the leeks and potatoes are very soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
• Slowly, and in SMALL batches, puree the soup at a high speed in the blender. Do this bit by bit, never filling the blender too high. Make sure the benders lid is on, and lean on the top when you turn on. If not the burn you will get is awful, and a most frequent accident in even professional kitchens.
• Return soup to the cooking pot and whisk in cream and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper. Return to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook 5 minutes. If you want to thin soup out, add more broth, if needed.
• Transfer soup to the mixing bowl an chill over the ice bath, stirring occasionally. When soup is at Room temperature, and only at room temperature, cover in plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator to cool.
• Check seasoning, sprinkle with chives and serve in chilled bowls.
• This soup DOES get better over time. Keep covered with plastic, not foil in the refrigerator, or it will pick up other tastes.

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.

Steps:

• Peel potatoes and cut into thin slices. In a saucepan simmer broth, bay leaf, chili, and potatoes over moderate heat until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
• Transfer half of potatoes with a slotted spoon to a blender and strain half of broth into blender. Reserve chili and discard bay leaf. Purée potato mixture and strain into a large bowl. Purée remaining potatoes and broth in same manner.
• In a skillet, cook onion, garlic, and mushrooms in oil and butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms give off their liquid. Add Madeira and cook, stirring, 3 minutes. Stir mushroom mixture into potato mixture and whisk in cream. Chill soup, covered, several hours or overnight.
• Seed reserved chili and cut into julienne strips (wear rubber gloves).
• Serve soup topped with chili strips and chives.

Steps:

• Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large pot.
• Add 3 peeled and cubed potatoes and 3 trimmed and chopped leeks.
• Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring, until softened.
• Add 4 cups stock. Boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes.
• Purée, then let cool. Stir in 1/2 cup or more cream before serving.
• Garnish with chopped chives.

Steps:

• Melt the butter in the pressure cooker pot over medium-low heat. Add the leeks, celery leaves and 1 teaspoon of the salt and cook, stirring often, until soft, approximately 8 minutes. If the leeks start to brown during this process, reduce the heat.
• Drain the potato pieces and add to the pot along with the simmering chicken broth. Clamp on the cooker's lid, (according to the manufacturer's instructions) and bring to full pressure over high heat.
• Once pressure is attained (there will be a loud whistle) back the heat down to medium-low, just maintaining a hissing of steam for 8 minutes.
• Kill the heat and release the steam pressure by opening the dump valve or setting the cooker under cold, running water. When the lid can be removed, carefully transfer the mixture to a blender carafe. (If the mixture fills your carafe more than two-thirds full, work in two batches!)
• Top the carafe with the main lid but remove the center lid so that air can escape as it heats and expands. Cover the lid tightly with a tea towel and blend on low for 1 minute before slowly increasing the speed to smoothly puree the potatoes. (Although you want to increase the speed slowly, try not to puree the potatoes too long as they could become gummy.)
• Transfer the mixture back to the pot and whisk in the cream. Stir in the white pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning (I always need the rest of the salt). Chill thoroughly then serve garnished with a small spoonful of the roe and dill fronds.
• Tightly covered, the vichyssoise will keep a week in the refrigerator. The soup can also be frozen in ice-cube trays then kept in freezer bags for up to three months.

Steps:

• Cook the potatoes in salted water to cover until just tender. Melt the butter in a skillet and cool the leeks gently, tossing them lightly, for a few minutes. Add the chicken bouillon and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer the leeks until tender. Add the potatoes to the leeks and the broth and season to taste with salt, papper and nutmeg. Put this mixture in the blender (you will need to blend it in two lots) and blend for 1 minute, or until smooth. Chill. When ready to serve, mix in sour cream or heavy cream. Garnish with chopped chives.