[Intro music]
Velouté Carmen, a beautiful velouté soup made of
a nice chicken velouté and red bell pepper.
The recipe has been created by Auguste Escoffier
in the mid-19th century.
Wow. Are you ready?
You will need: butter, flour, diced onions, salt
and white pepper, whipping cream or crème fraîche to garnish,
heavy cream or whipping cream, paprika, tomato paste,
red bell peppers, cooked rice, dill or chervil to garnish,
chicken stock or a vegetable stock.
Heat the pan on medium heat.
Add the butter and melt it.
The soup is called velouté.
And a velouté is usually used to make a sauce.
When the butter is totally melted add the onions. All of them.
Stir well.
And we are going to cook the onions for about five minutes,
stirring from time to time.
And we are going to avoid coloring them.
Meanwhile, we are going to heat the stock
in order to bring it to a boil,
thus it will be to temperature when we will add it to the roux.
The onions are becoming translucent.
And I'm going to add the flour all at once.
And now we are going to mix the flour and the butter.
[mixing sounds] And we are going to let it cook
for about a couple minutes.
And that will help the flour to cook and the gluten to roast
a little bit, thus it won't have this strong flour flavor.
The roux has been cooking for about two minutes.
Add the tomato paste at that point.
So I'm going to get a tablespoon.
The addition of the tomato paste will help
the color of the soup. There we go.
Tomato paste could have a flavor that is bitter a little bit,
so cook the tomato paste about a minute with the roux
in order to develop the flavor.
Velouté soups are beautiful in flavor.
They are usually made of chicken stock, beef stock, fish stock
or other white stocks, broth, vegetable stocks
and even with milk.
Now my stock is boiling here.
And I have removed my pot from the heat.
And let's add the stock.
I'm going to turn it down.
Add about two ladles, so about a cup and a half
of stock into the roux. [mixing sounds]
And ladle the rest. [mixing sounds]
So the soup will become very thick at the beginning
and as you add the rest of the stock it will get thinner.
After the stock has been incorporated into the roux
return the pot to medium heat.
Let me put the rest.
And keep whisking the velouté in order to have everything
incorporated and blended.
Add the seeded and diced bell peppers to the liquid.
When you are whisking during the cooking process,
do that a few times from time to time in order to make sure
that the soup doesn't stick to the bottom.
And when the soup is simmering we are going to leave it on low
heat and cook it for about 40 minutes.
From time to time you will have to whisk
in order to make sure that the soup doesn't attach.
And finally you have to skim all the foam that will get created
on the top, so use a skimmer.
Try not to pick up the bell peppers.
More skim here, look at that, so just pick it up.
Great. [mixing sounds]
The soup is quite thick now. Perfect.
Another five minutes and then we will blend it.
So the soup should coat the back of the spoon like it is now.
The soup is cooked.
It's been simmering slowly for 40 minutes. 0:06:31.130,1193:02:47.295 Now it's time for us to check the consistency.
Great. Perfect.
Let's blend the soup.
[pouring sounds] Maybe everything will fit.
I'm going to place the rag over the lid
and that will help me to keep the lid in place.
So just like so. [blending sounds]
Start on low and process the soup to a higher speed after that.
Great. [blending sounds]
So process the soup for about two to three minutes.
And then we are going to transfer the soup
into a clean saucepan.
Let's get a sieve over the saucepan.
Strain the soup that's been blended.
That will help to pick up any skin from the red bell peppers.
[whisking sounds] Perfect.
Take back the soup to the stove.
Leave it on medium heat.
Bring it to a boil and then we will add the cream.
Add the cream to the soup. Nice color.
Taste the soup.
If the soup is too thin, add a little bit of roux.
If the soup is too thick, add a little bit of stock.
And it should have this consistency,
just to coat the back of the spoon. Beautiful.
So let's taste it a little bit.
We haven't put any seasonings yet,
so we may put salt and pepper after that.
Mm. It's a little bit creamy, but not much.
It's more veloute. This velvet texture that veloute has.
It's beautiful.
Little bit of salt and pepper. And a good pinch of white pepper.
[whisking sounds] Mix well.
So stir the veloute well because sometimes you even have a
little skim that could form on the top.
Great. Then add a little bit of the re-heated rice on top to garnish.
Maybe a good tablespoon.
Little bit of cream.
Then a dust of paprika powder.
And a sprig fresh herb.