The PREFECT Idea and Soup for Summer! | Vichyssoise

Today guys I have a delicious recipe for you and an idea that hopefully you will like for summer. We're going to be making some Vichyssoise. If you don't know what that is, this is a very classic and easy and delicious cold french soup that's perfect for summer, easy to make and it's also a great idea if you want to make a batch of this, save a little bit that you can take to work a little later on. If you need it for a little bit later on in the week you don't have to reheat it, you can just take it with you and go. So before we get going be sure to subscribe down below if you haven't done already, like the video and share it with others if you do like this recipe. Let's get started. We're going to need at least one onion, we're going to need a little bit of butter, some potatoes, some leeks, a little bit of heavy cream and a little bit of whole milk. And then for garnish either you can use a little bit of parsley or a little bit of chives, just something to give it a little bit of color. First I'm going to prep my onion. I'm going to cut this into small dice. The smaller you cut it the faster it cooks. If you cut this into like mirepoix size it doesn't really matter because at the end we're going to blend it, it just depends on how fast you want to make this. Now with the leeks we only want the white bit so about here to around here because this is the sweetest part of the leek. The rest of it we don't want to throw away, you can save the rest of this to make stock a little later on. And because the leek has a lot of dirt in it as you see here we want to, after we cut this up, we want to give this a good wash before we add this to our soup. So we're going to cut more or less about here. Save that for stock. And then we're going to take the leek just like this, cut down the length of it then it'll open up. Flip it over and start slicing into more or less a quarter inch, half an inch or so sized pieces and then it'll be easier to wash. Now I'm going to peel the potato skins off and if you do happen to have a potato that has a lot of bruises on it, cut it off or peel it off. We don't want any bruises on the potatoes. And if they are starting to grow a few eyes as well then take them off because this is a sign that they're going a little old and green potatoes are not good for you. Even though that this soup has a French name it was actually created in I think it was 1917 in New York City at the Ritz-Carlton by Chef Louis Diat if I pronounce his last name right. He took the inspiration on from when he was a little boy in France in Vichy which is actually a little town very close to where I was living in Lyon, France. So he adjusted the recipe and he made it at the Ritz-Carlton and this is what we have today. Cold potato and leek soup. Now once you have all the vegetables prepped, all the mise en place, we have our onions, potatoes and leeks, set that aside. We're going to weigh out or measure out the amount of milk and heavy cream as well before we start and we're also going to be using some chicken stock. This is important. You can substitute the chicken stock for vegetable if you want to make this 100% veggie or you if you don't want to use anything at all you can use water but if you use a stock it enhances the flavor. Yes because all those ingredients that went into making the stock infuse a lot of flavor and nutrients into it than we use for cooking so it's important to have a stock. Now I'm going to get a wide based pot. Why am I using such a big pot? Because the bigger it is the wider it is the faster everything's going to cook because there's contact with the bottom of the pan. I'm going to put in my butter first, wait until it melts a little bit then I'm going to add the onions and then I'm going to add the leeks. Now we want to cook the leeks and onions as much as we can. I'm going to put the lid on because this is going to cook faster if we cook with the lid instead of without it and we want the leeks and onions basically to be falling apart. Now we're going to add in the potatoes. I'm going to cook these for a few minutes and then I'm going to add the chicken stock and we're going to cook this soup until the potatoes are fully done. You'll be able to take a toothpick or a knife and easily skewer one of the potatoes or the largest potato in the pan. Then we're ready to add the cream. We're going to add the cream and the milk in and we're going to blend it while it's on the fire. Blend it for at least a minute or two to allow everything to be fully blended with the hand wand. If you need to put this into an actual blender or a thermal mix that's fine but make sure that is fully blended. We want to bring this back up to temp just a little bit of a simmer because at this point now if you start to boil it with the cream in it and then with the potatoes in it the starch from the potatoes will start to stick to the bottom of the pan and then you can easily burn it. So this is why we add the cream at the end because then we don't burn anything and then everything's perfect. Now at the end taste it if it needs salt and pepper or more salt and pepper because I added a little bit in the beginning to allow the onions to sweat. Add more, taste it and once it's at your liking take it off the heat and then let it chill. Now to plate this we can either just plate it in a bowl if you just want to make this for friends and family or if you want to do something a little nicer then you can copy what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to be making some little croutons and if you like a tutorial on making the little croutons it's super easy. You get a little piece of bread, a little baguette, you freeze a section of it because when it's frozen it's easier to actually cut and then we're going to cut it as thinly as possible. You lay that on some parchment paper on a little tray with a little bit of olive oil and salt into the oven and then after a minute or two or after you know until it's a little golden brown take it out and you're done. I'm going to get a little bowl, I'm going to get a little bit of creme fraiche, I'm going to make a little quenelle in the middle, I'm going to add the soup into the bowl, not that much and then I'm just going to season with a little bit of olive oil around the edges, a little bit of parsley or if you have some chives you can substitute and I'm going to add the crouton on top and there you have a very beautiful and delicious vichyssoise that will impress any family or friends. It's something easy that you don't have to think about, you make this once during the week, you leave it in the fridge for three to four days and you have at least three to four days worth of soup. So it's a very easy and tasty idea especially for summer when literally even now today is 30 degrees in Barcelona and it's a little warm. In any case guys if you did like the video then be sure to like and subscribe if you do like the rest of my content and share as well and if you do want another delicious recipe on well any other recipes that I have on my channel then you should click on this video here and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Until next time, take care.