Recipe - French Potato Soup (Potage Parmentier)

1 pound Potatoes; peeled and cut up
2 Leeks; peeled down to the
"good" and wellwashed and
cut thinly
2 md To large onions; peeled and
cut or sliced up thinly
1 lg Carrot; washed and well
scraped, and cut or sliced up thinly
1 Stalk of celery; washed and
cut or sliced up thinly
1 Sprig of parsley; washed and
chopped
2 One half cup Water
1 tablespoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground black pepper
One fourth cup Butter (I use One half !) (up to
1/2)
One half cup Heavy cream
Chopped Chives

I rarely post a recipe that is not my own, but this one comes from an aged
Women's Day Encyclopædia of Cookery. It will "stick to your ribs" and
dispel the cold of winter, even in frigid New York! (Doubtless you know
that Parmentier was the French agronomist who popularized the potato in
France.)

Now, one more time, when I say potatoes, I mean real potatoes such as the
Maine kennebec or the Irish cobbler, and not those russet things.

The following will feed six. Double it if you feed a "tribe." Moreover, you
will note that this is not for you if you are on a low fat diet! *grin*

In a large sauce pan, add the water and all of the vegetables except the
chives. Cover and cook over low heat for about two hours. Then add the salt
and pepper. Drain the vegetables and KEEP the liquid! Process the
vegetables in either a food mill or a blender. Return them to the liquid.
Add the butter and the cream. Reheat and taste...you may wish to add a bit
more salt... Serve sprinkled with the chives.

To change that masterpiece into a Watercress Soup (Potage au Cresson), hold
the chives. Instead finely chop a bunch of watercress and add it at the
same time that you add the butter and cream. Serve with the top sprinkled
with additional finely chopped watercress.

Posted to JEWISHFOOD digest V97 #306 by "Claude V. Hall" cvhall@usit.net
on Nov 23, 1997