Sky > wrote:

> As the subject line says - "yeah yeah" - of course I can Google
> recipes about vichyssoise, except I'd like to learn about 'favorite'
> recipes here via RFC folks!

Crème vichyssoise glacée is basically just a version of potage
Parmentier served cold and was a creation of sorts of Louis Diat, a
great French chef at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, in 1917. In
his "Gourmet's Basic French Cookbook" he remembers how his mother added
cold milk to her leek and potato soup on hot days. Jacques Pépin
mentions that he learnt to make this soup from Louis's brother, Lucien,
in France, at the Plaza-Athénée. I would say that modern variations are
basically about using blenders or food processors. Still, texturewise,
nothing can compare with rubbing the soup through fine or very fine
sieve twice!

Here is Louis Diat's recipe from his _Cooking a la Ritz_.

Victor

Cream Vichyssoise Glacée

Ingredients
4 leeks, trimmed
1 medium onion
2 ounces sweet butter
5 medium potatoes
1 quart water or chicken broth
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups milk
2 cups medium cream
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
Finely slice the white part of the leeks and the onion, and brown very
lightly in the sweet butter, then add the potatoes, also sliced finely.
Add water or broth and salt. Boil from 25 to 40 minutes. Crush and rub
through a fine strainer. Return to fire and add 2 cups of milk and 2
cups of medium cream. Season to taste and bring to a boil. Cool and
then rub through a very fine strainer. When soup is cold, add the heavy
cream. Chill thoroughly before serving. Finely chopped chives may be
added when serving."