Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Potage Crème d'Epinards (Cream of Spinach)

Recipe from Child, Bertholle and Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Justin and I are part of the University of British Columbia's farm CSA share. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a wonderful set up where you pay the farm a sum of money up front and each week you receive a box of fresh farm foods (CSAs are farm specific so the specifics are different for all). Our fridge is FULL of fresh produce right now since we took a few days off from cooking like we normally do. What better way to use a large amount of something than to put in a soup? I used the variation version of Julia Child's Cream of Water-cress Soup for our Cream of Spinach. The result make us late for a friend's choir performance...we could not stop spooning more into our bowls.


1/3 cup minced green onions, or yellow onions
3 Tbsp butter
3-4 packed cups of fresh spinach cut into chiffonade (thin slices)
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp flour (I used 5 Tbsp total for a thicker soup, your preference)
5 1/2 cups boiling white stock or chicken broth (see note #1 below)
2 eggs yolks
1/2 cup whipping cream
1-2 Tbsp butter

1. Cook the onions slowly in the butter in a covered saucepan for 5 to 10 minutes, until tender and translucent but not browned.

2. Stir in spinach and salt, cover, and cook slowly for about 5 minutes or until the leaves are tender and wilted.

3. Sprinkle in the flour and stir over moderate heat for 3 minutes.

4. Off heat, beat in the boiling stock. Simmer for 5 minutes. *If not to be served immediately, set aside uncovered. Reheat to simmer before proceeding.

5. Blend the yolks and cream in the mixing bowl. Beat a cupful of hot soup into them by driblets. Gradually beat in the rest of the soup in a thin stream. (see note#2 below) Return soup to saucepan and stir over moderate heat for a minute or two to peach the egg yolks, but do not bring the soup to a simmer. Off heat, stir in the enrichment butter a tablespoon at a time.

For 6 servings

My notes:

1. The white stock in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a veal stock. For the sake of time and money I used vegetable bullion cubes. I imagine this soup using a white stock would be quite decadent, but it was still delicious with the bullion.

2. I very slowly added in the hot soup to the bowl of yolks and cream. I added maybe two cups of liquid and then slowly poured that into the soup pot. A bit less messy than swapping the entire soup around so many times.

3. Don't you absolutely adore the sound of "enrichment butter"?

4. I think the recent film Julie and Julia Hollywood-ified Julia Child and her cookbook just a bit. Apparently bookstores could not keep Mastering the Art of French Cooking on their shelves. I wonder how many people actually went home and have cooked from it? Though some recipes do look quite intimidating, there are many very simple dishes just like this one.

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