[Intro music]
Potage Julienne Darblay is a parmentier soup.
Parmentier means that the soup is made of potatoes.
The soup will be mixed with a julienne of vegetables.
It's one of the first recipes that new students would learn
when studying his culinary program in a French cooking school.
To make the soup you will need: potatoes, turnip,
white part of the leek, celery, carrot,
the green part of the leeks, chicken stock, parsley,
or chervil if available at the market, whipping cream
or heavy cream, salt, white pepper, optional, sugar and butter.
So, I have washed my leeks and peeled my potatoes.
Then slice the leeks.
Position your fingers into a claw position.
[chopping sounds] The leeks don't have to be very thin
or, you know, the cut doesn't have to be very precise
because the soup will be processed or pureed.
Then cut the white part in half and slice it.
I have a little bit of green here, it's fine.
It will give a little bit of color to the soup.
We don't want to waste too much of the vegetables.
So I'm using my index finger and thumb on each side
to keep the leek in place.
[chopping sounds] Good. Let's cook.
In a saucepan or a large pot, melt two tablespoons of butter.
Add the chopped leeks.
Cook the leek on medium to medium low heat
for about five to seven minutes or
until they're fully melted and tender.
Then make sure that the leeks do not brown.
We don't want to have too much heat in the pot to brown
the leeks, okay. No color. Stir from time to time.
Slice the potatoes into half-inch slices.
Keep the potatoes in cold water to prevent them from browning.
After five minutes drain your potatoes and add them to the pot.
Add the water and the chicken stock.
Season lightly with salt.
Stir.
Make sure that all the leeks are into the liquid
or covered by the liquid.
And bring the soup to a boil on high heat.
Turnips are called navets in French.
They can be white or yellow.
And they are root vegetables.
When peeled wash the turnips under cold running water
and it will be ready to be used.
Our soup is boiling.
Turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer
for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fully tender.
Cut your turnip into julienne.
So here it's flat, so leave it there.
Position your finger over and cut it into thin slices.
Alternatively you may use a mandolin.
[cutting sounds] Stack the slices.
Then position your fingers over and finely cut it
into thin julienne.
[cutting sounds] So here my julienne has different length.
If you want to have something very regular,
then you have to make sure you trim the slices
in order to have everything the same length.
The thing is you will waste a lot of food. [cutting sounds]
If you work in a professional kitchen,
the chef might want a perfect julienne with all the vegetables
being the same length.
Then you will have to trim everything.
Cut the carrot into sections.
The same length as the other julienne.
Cut each section into thin slices.
So make it flat. Sit.
And then cut it into thin slices.
Stack the slices.
And cut them into thin julienne. [cutting sounds]
Cut the celery into sections about all the same size.
Break down your celery, make it flat and finely slice it.
If you want a very thin julienne,
then cut the celery ribs into thin slices, like so.
And then each piece into half again.
Then slice each slice into thin julienne.
Celery is a bit thicker,
so it's harder to make a nice julienne
even though the vegetables are very tender. [cutting sounds]
Cut your leeks into sections, about five centimeters,
an inch and a half, or almost two inches.
So here my leeks are dirty, so we're going to cut the sections.
Separate them like so. In half.
Take all your leeks to the sink and wash them thoroughly.
I'm ready to cut my julienne, but before I do so,
what I did, I did sanitize my area and my cutting board
and my knife to prevent cross-contamination.
In professional kitchens it's common
and some of them just prefer to cut the julienne
and then wash the julienne.
Okay. So it's really up to you.
So grab all the leaves and stack them
by little piles of two or three leaves.
Position your finger over and finely julienne it.
[cutting sounds] With this exercise julienne
should not have any secrets any more for you.
It's time now to cook it.
In a pan melt the remaining butter.
Cook your butter on medium heat.
We don't want to have the pan too hot
because otherwise it would brown the vegetables.
And we just want to cook them slowly with the butter
and the seasoning.
When the butter has melted add the vegetables.
Season with salt. Add the sugar.
So the sugar is just to taste, so about half a teaspoon.
And stir. Look at all those colors. Beautiful.
If you feel like it you may saute the vegetables.
The julienne being so thin it will take only
three to four minutes to be cooked.
If your vegetables are still a little bit crunchy, it's fine.
They will finish cooking anyway in the soup if you want to.
Personally I like to have my julienne slightly crunchy
because you don't want them to fall apart and to get mush.
You put so much effort cutting them, right,
so you want to show that.
You want to say, hey, this is my julienne.
It's Julienne Darblay, isn't it.
Reserve the julienne.
When the soup is cooked, with a hand blender, puree the soup.
The soup is blended.
It's pretty thin. Nice.
Return the soup to a boil and add the cream.
Add a little of your white pepper, optional.
[whisking sounds] Taste. Perfect.
Remove the whisk and add the julienne to the soup.
Mix. What a nice soup. I love the colors.
Then plate the soup.
It's always a good idea when you serve a hot dish
to preheat your plates or your bowl.
That way your food will stay warm for a longer time.
Add chervil leaves on the top to garnish or parsley leaves.
There we go. Nice.
Then with a clean rag, clean the plate.
It's of course to remove some food on the side
I may have dropped,
but also to remove any fingerprints on the plate.
Any plate you will serve or you will make
must be clean all the time.
There's nothing like to have a plate in a restaurant,
for instance, where you can see all the fingerprints
from all the brigade or the kitchen, right.
This is why in a restaurant, a professional waiter
will have what we call a liteau,
which is like a napkin to grab the plates
because they shouldn't use their finger on the plate.
French cuisine, French service.
Enjoy your Potage Julienne Darblay.
Bon Appetit.