Even though I live across the river from French Canada where pea soup (soupe aux pois) is a national dish, I've never ordered pea soup in a restaurant or tasted split peas before, so I wasn't too thrilled to make this soup, and neither was my family in Saskatchewan! My sister suggested I make it when I return to Ottawa, but she wasn't so lucky with the Whisk Wednesdays' schedule. The kids passed on having a bowl, but the others bravely accepted a small bowl of this funny-colored soup. We were all pleasantly surprised. In fact, my sister declared it the best split pea soup she's ever tasted!

Pease porridge is what we call split pea soup today.

Split Peas

Peas are an ancient vegetable, mentioned in the Bible and prized by the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Apicius, who was one of the first cookbook authors in the 4th or 5th century has nine recipes for cooking Ospreos (peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas).

Peas belong to the legume family, like beans and lentils, but they are spherical. A common name for this type of fruit is a "pod". Certain varieties are grown specifically for drying. When the yellow or green peapods are fully mature, they're harvested and dried in the pod. The skin around the pea dries and falls off, and they split naturally (like a peanut). After peas have been dried, they can survive the long, cold winter months. When puréed, they are a natural thickening agent in soups and stews. Vegies
After soaking the split peas overnight {although some websites suggest split peas don't need to be soaked overnight}, I tasted both the green and yellow ones and enjoyed their taste. The green ones were milder than the yellow ones, which had a more earthy flavor.

Then, I cooked the vegetables (carrot, onion, leek, and garlic) in some butter along with the bacon. After the vegetables were soft and translucent, I added the drained split peas and chicken stock. I brought the mixture to a boil, reduced the heat, and added the bouquet garni and let the flavors blend for about 40 minutes.

Rice
In a separate pot, I made a small batch of rice. I used basmati, since that's all we had in the pantry, but the recipe calls for short-grain rice. {I actually had to make it twice since the first time I added too much salt!} The rice gives this puréed soup a bit of texture.

Purée
Next, I puréed the soup in the blender. {Why did I so carefully cut the vegetables into a fine dice?! I guess "chopped fine" is different from "fine dice".} Then, I added the cream and brought the temperature of the soup back up. {I added some extra whole milk to make the soup more soupy and less thick.}

Garnish
The soup calls for a garnish of wilted sorrel and lettuce. I couldn't find sorrel anywhere, so, after looking it up online, decided to substitute baby spinach. I wilted both in some butter before serving the soup in a tortilla bowl.

Links
The Old Foodie has some insight into pease porridge that I found interesting. As well, you can watch a video on how to make French Canadian Pea Soup.

"Mess of Pottage"
The curriculum that I'm following called for Potage Esau, which is a very old soup that's mentioned in the Bible. It's in the story of Jacob and Esau, twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. Although the boys were twins, Esau was the first-born. One day, when the boys were young, Esau returned from hunting very hungry. Jacob seized this opportunity and offered to give his brother some lentil soup if Esau would, in exchange, give up his birthright. Esau, faint with hunger, agreed and the deal was made. (Genesis 25:29-34)

Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook didn't contain a recipe for Potage Esau (lentil soup), so I substituted a split pea soup instead since split peas are in the same family as lentils.

Recipe: Potage Ambassadeur (Split Pea Soup with Bacon, Sorrel, and Lettuce)

You can find the recipe for Potage Ambassadeur (Split Pea Soup with Bacon, Sorrel, and Lettuce) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link) or here. To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
This soup has a smooth, mild gentle flavor with a hint of a smoky bacon taste. Delicious {even though the color of the soup is unappealing}! Next time, I would like to add more ham or bacon or even some curry for extra flavor. I also used half green and half yellow split peas and wonder if using just green split peas would be more flavorful. I think I'll stick with fresh peas from the pod. That's still my favorite way to eat peas. However, I intend to try a taste test of fresh pea soup versus split pea soup, so stay tuned…

Update: Split Pea versus Fresh Pea Soup

Today I made both versions of this soup: one using split peas (only the green kind) and one using fresh peas. I preferred the taste of the soup made with fresh peas. It had a smoother, mellow taste. The one made with split peas had a more starchy, grainy, but brighter taste. My husband liked the split pea version, and I liked the fresh pea version, but we both agreed that they needed more ham or bacon flavor!


Soup Summary
This is the last in a series of soups. We've covered

• chunky vegetable soup (Potage cultivateur/Cut vegetable soup)
• puréed fresh vegetable soup (Julienne Darblay/Creamed Leek and Potato Soup with Julienned Vegetables)
• soup made with a liaison of cream and egg yolks (Velouté Agnès Sorel/Cream of Chicken Soup)
• shellfish bisque (Bisque de Homard/Lobster Bisque)
• cold consommé (Consommé Madrilène/Chilled Consommé with Red Peppers and Tomatoes)
• two regional soups (Billy Bi/Mussel Soup and Soupe à l'oignon gratinée/Onion soup)
• puréed soup of dried vegetables

I'm ready for an entrée now!

Next Week (August 27)
• Steak Mirabeau (Beef Tenderloin Steaks with Anchovy Butter) page 426-427

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Running total: $639.39 + $21.11 (chicken stock) + $8.88 = $669.38

Butter used so far: 7 pounds, 1 tablespoon

White soup. White stock. White chicken. White button mushrooms. And a touch of pink from the ham. This is Velouté Agnès Sorel, a cream of chicken soup. Agnès Sorel was a mistress of French King Charles VII in the 1400s and this is one of several dishes named after her.

This could also be the soup mentioned in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice:

“As for the ball, it is quite a settled thing;
and as soon as Nicholls has
made white soup enough
I shall send round my cards.”

1. Make Stock
The first step is to make stock. Since I’m currently not in my kitchen with access to all the chicken stockpiled in my freezer from earlier lessons, I made some fresh chicken stock to start this soup. {I’m visiting family and friends in Saskatchewan and having fun raiding all the cupboards for food props!} Although the first thing I was supposed to do was truss the chicken, it came that way from the grocery store so I just had to plop it into my sister’s large stock pot.

2. Prep Garnish
Next, I prepped the mushrooms and ham (since tongue, which is mentioned as an alternative, is not something I really want to eat!), slicing them into julienne. When the chicken was poached, I sliced off the breast meat and cut it into julienne too. Still practicing that julienne!

3. Make Liaison
The last step is to make the liaison, which is a mixture of cream and egg yolks that thickens the soup and adds a richness of flavor. This is the trickiest part of the recipe since the eggs can curdle. Slowly whisking some hot stock into the cream and egg mixture is key. After “tempering” the cream and egg mixture by bringing it up to a similar temperature as the stock, I combined the rest of the stock and liaison in the pot. Then, I stirred and stirred and stirred and watched it carefully on the heat to thicken it a bit more. I was careful not to let it boil, but it never thickened as much as I expected it to.

Although the name of this soup says that it is a Velouté, there is no flour in the ingredient list to make a blond roux. I imagine if I added 2 tablespoons of flour, it would be a thicker soup, but the soup doesn’t need to be thicker.

“it is the duty of every housekeeper to learn the art of soup making”
~ Fannie Farmer in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1918) ~

Recipe: Velouté Agnès Sorel (Cream of Chicken Soup)

You can find the recipe for Velouté Agnès Sorel (Cream of Chicken Soup) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
This was a delicate, smooth soup that absorbed a smoky flavor from the ham. The chunks of chicken, mushrooms, and ham made it meal-worthy. I added more salt to boost the flavor, but it was a creamy, delicious soup that I’d love to make again. Coriander instead of parsley and coconut milk instead of cream and a few other Thai ingredients could quickly turn this into one of my favorite Thai soups: Tom Kha Gai!

Next Week (July 30)
• Bisque de Langoustins (Langoustine Bisque) pages 185-186

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $482.99 + $17.49 (stock) + $5.80 (soup) = $506.28

Butter used so far: 6 pounds, 14 tablespoons
. . . . . . . . . .

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

Leeks and potatoes are a classic pairing in Vichyssoise (pronounced vee shee swahzz), the cold version of this soup. Julienne Darblay is served hot with an “elegant” garnish of julienned vegetables.

History
Vichyssoise was invented by a French chef named Louis Diat in New York City near the beginning of the 20th Century. He worked at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue at 46th Street and called this soup Creme Vichyssoise Glacée, or Chilled Cream Vichyssoise, after the town where he was born.

Base of Chicken Stock
The base of this soup is chicken stock, so I was able to use up more stock from my freezer that I made earlier in the year. Julia Child’s version of Vichyssoise uses water, but the extra flavor from a homemade chicken stock improves the soup’s flavor.

Leeks and Potatoes
It’s important to clean leeks thoroughly since sand and dirt like to settle in-between the leaves. Here’s a video videoof Jacques Pépin cleaning a leek.

Although the recipe calls for dicing the potatoes, in the end the soup is puréed so the accuracy of each cut doesn’t have to be as precise. The reason to keep them a uniform size is for even cooking.

Thickening Agent
This soup, known as a potage, or thick soup, is thickened by puréeing the vegetables using a food mill, processor, or blender. I used my blender, but I made sure to take the feeder cap on the lid out, cover the hole with a dry towel, and hold the lid down when I turned the blender on. Otherwise, my kitchen would have been covered in soup!

The cream added at the end also serves to thicken the soup and add some more flavor.

Garnish of Julienned Vegetables
In this Julienne Darblay soup, the julienne refers to the garnish of vegetables cut into julienne and blanched. I used carrot, leek, and parsnip instead of turnip. (I actually made a mistake when I pulled the parsnip instead of the turnip from my refrigerator!) I like peppery flavor of the parsnip and this mild soup needed the extra flavor boost from the parsnip so it was a good mistake.

I ended up julienning more vegetables than I needed for the soup so next time I would only do enough for each bowl as a garnish. Also, julienning baby carrots isn’t such a good idea since it’s hard to get them uniform without wasting most of the carrot. Next time julienned carrots are called for, I’ll have to get the good ol’ fashioned kind of carrots that look like they’re actually grown in the ground!

Recipe: Julienne Darblay (Creamed Leek and Potato Soup with Julienned Vegetables)

You can find the recipe for Julienne Darblay (Creamed Leek and Potato Soup with Julienned Vegetables) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link). To see how the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group fared with this week's recipe, click here (or check out the sidebar) and then click on each blogger!

Tasting Notes
This was a silky-smooth light soup. The crunch from the tender julienned vegetables made it even more delicious. I had to add quite a bit of salt and pepper for extra flavor. Although the recipe calls for white pepper, I’ve never liked it. I find it has a sharp, harsh taste, so I always just use freshly ground black pepper even though classically white soups shouldn’t have the ugly black specks in them!

This soup tasted even better while we were camping! I served it along with brie baked on the grill with chopped apples, pecans, and craisins. Delicious!

Next Week (July 23)
• Velouté Agnès Sorel (Cream of Chicken Soup) pages 444-445
Note that I may be late with my post since I'm travelling next week.

. . . . . . . . . .

Running total: $475.26 + $7.73 = $482.99

Butter used so far: 6 pounds, 12 tablespoons

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index

We’ve left the tricky emulsion sauces behind and moved onto the first in a series of soups. The first soup on the list is Billy Bi (pronounced BILL-ee BEE and sometimes spelled bilibi or billi-b), which is a cream of mussel soup said to be one of the most elegant and delicious soups ever created.

Traditionally, the mussels are strained out, leaving a creamy smooth and silky soup. Now it is more often served with the mussels. I even went and bought more mussels the next day to finish off the leftover soup! There’s nothing like Le-Cordon-Bleu-style leftovers!

History
This mussel soup was created by chef Louis Barthe at Maxim’s in Paris, named after a regular customer William “Billy” Brand (not William Bateman Leeds, a late 19th century tin tycoon, who is often said to be the namesake), and is a signature dish at this famous restaurant. In the 1930s, Maxim’s was one of the first restaurants in the world to win three Michelin stars (the highest number possible). It was highly controversial at the time to serve mussels in such a fine establishment since they’re normally considered trash seafood.

In an online search for the Maxim’s menu to see if this soup is still listed, I found that a 1979 version was sold on eBay in May 2008 for $20 (Cdn).