Vichyssoise

[Holly Moore]

My quest for Philadelphia restaurant or food shop vichyssoise has been a flop. Only version I found had the texture of applesauce. Look's like I'm going to have attempt my own.

Found a good recipe here: Vichyssoise, but it doesn't say what type of potato works best - baking or boiling - waxy or mealy.

Any suggestions?

[Holly Moore]

Come on all. I'm going shopping tomorrow for vichyssoise ingredients. Some knowledgeable old guard cook or chef hereabouts has to have made vichyssoise and knows what potatoes work best.

[Country Cook]

Come on all.  I'm going shopping tomorrow for vichyssoise ingredients.  Some knowledgeable old guard cook or chef hereabouts has to have made vichyssoise and knows what potatoes work best.

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A Russet will do fine.

[Torrilin]

Russets will do fine. So will red potatoes. So will Yukon golds. Really all vichysoisse is is plain old leek and potato soup pureed and served chilled. It's one of those fine old peasant dishes spiffed up with a fancy name and a refrigerator .

If you have Mastering The Art of French Cooking, you'll notice there are something over a dozen suggested variations on leek and potato soup. And they miss quite a few varients. So... really don't worry about the "perfect" potato. They'll all do, it's just a matter of making it enough that you know which potato *you* think is perfect.

Note that for a formal meal leek and potato soup ought to be pureed, but it can be just as good (in a different style) served chunky. And in the summer, I find it far more chilling to pour over heavy cream on a spinach and asparagus variant served chunky. The vegetables hold the chill of refrigeration very well.

Emily

[Holly Moore]

Thanks all. I sensed russets would have more flavor but I wasn't sure if I needed the smoother texture of a "boiler."

My goal is to attempt the silky smoot texture of classic vichyssoise as I remember being served in a glass bowl over ice - vichyssoise can't be chilled enough. The downside - just pureeing will not do. The soup then has to be pushed through a sieve. Twice. That's one technique I hate. End up with with soup all over the kitchen and the cook.

[Torrilin]

If you are after the silky puree, then yes, you do have to sieve it. Russets in soup tend to go a bit powdery in prolonged cooking, and that would make doing the sieving easier. You'll probably (gack!) need to do a flour thickener to help maintain an emulsion on the puree. (the gack is because this kills the scent of the soup while it cooks... horrifying)

The other thing I'd do to make it easier is rinse the leeks' surface, chop off the dark green leaves and roots, then halve the "logs" you have left. Use a food processor to chop 'em *before* trying to clean 'em. Then dump the leeks into a salad spinner, fill with water and use the spinner to dislodge the sand. Repeat as needed until the leeks are by god *clean*. Then if you want to be very thorough, go over the leek bits with your chef's knife to mince them further.

I'd also skip any of the variant flavorings on your first few runs. A lot of them don't take well to pureeing, even tho they can add a lot of depth to the flavor.

If it's not obvious *g* leek and potato soup is one of my family's standards.

Emily

[rlummis]

On potato type, James Peterson calls for waxy, while the Gourmet cookbook specifies russets. Either should be fine.

Madeleine Kamman insists that you use a tamis to puree, and claims that a food processor or blender will give an unpleasant texture. I could see that overblending could give you a glue-like texture, but I usually use a food mill and haven't had any real problems. I suppose a tamis would give you an even smoother texture.

[mrbigjas]

i just found a copy of saveur from a few months ago, and there was a vichyssoise recipe in it. it called for boiling potatoes. then it called for a medium sieve and adding milk and light cream, and then cooling and pushing through a fine sieve and enriching with heavy cream.

if you're still in the mood and want the recipe, holly, pm me.

[PicnicChef]

Really, Mastering the Art of French Cooking has the best recipe in it. Do it that way. I do. Chef potato works fine. For me, no yukon gold...the color makes the soup off....

Enjoy.

[jsmeeker]

I made some vichyssoise last night to serve at a party tonight. I've made this potato leek soup recipe before, but this is the first time I ever turned it into a vichyssoise. Now that it's been sitting in the fridge overnight and all day, it's well chilled. But it seems to be pretty thick. How thick should it be? I was planning on serving it chilled, but now I am thinking I should heat it up. (it was thinner when it was hot).

Ideas? Comments? Suggestions?

[rlummis]

I'd still serve it chilled. If it is too thick, it can be thinned with heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk (in my order of preference).

[jsmeeker]

I'd still serve it chilled. If it is too thick, it can be thinned with heavy cream, half-and-half, or milk (in my order of preference).

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hmmm.. OK. It's already had a decent amount of cream added to it. Maybe I can thin it with milk. I think the problem was there being a lot of leeks and potatoes relative to the amount of stock.