[Intro music]
Now I am going to show you how to make a delicious cream soup.
We are going to make an
artichoke cream soup with hazel nut and crispy bacon.
To make the soup, you will need artichokes sliced
you may use fresh, canned or frozen ones.
those were canned. sliced shallots,
olive oil, garlic, chicken stock or vegetable stock,
shelled hazelnuts, cream and smoked bacon.
preheat the oven at 350 degrees F
which is about 180 degree C. We will use it to cook the bacon.
Finely slice the shallots.
Slice the artichokes.
About the artichokes bottom; you want to make sure that
the chokes have been removed, because that doesn’t go in my soup.
Start on high to start the soup.
Heat the pot where we are going to put the oil.
Heat the oil on medium heat as you don’t want to have oil too hot
otherwise it will colour the shallots.
Add the shallots.
And we are going to cook the shallots for a couple of minutes without colouring them.
If the shallots colour slightly, it's ok. Don’t worry about it. It’s acceptable.
So I am just slicing the garlic as the garlic will be processed in the soup later on.
And it will release all the flavour.
I just want to make sure you remove the germ of the garlic.
Add the sliced garlic to the sliced shallots.
Stir a little bit to combine the flavours.
Add the artichokes.
And cover with the stock.
Mix. Make sure you get all the shallots and all the vegetables removed from the sides here.
So now, we are going to bring the soup to a boil
on high heat and when the liquid will be boiling,
I will reduce the heat to medium
and we let it cook slowly, simmering gently
for about half an hour or until all the vegetables are tender.
It's time for us to prepare the bacon.
We are going to lay the bacon slices on a piece of parchment paper
that I set over a large cookie sheet.
So I am using European smoked bacon. It's very nice.
It's not too thick or too thin. It's about 2-3 mm thick.
As we want the bacon to remain totally flat,
we are going to cook it between cookie sheets;
and for those, we are going to put another piece of parchment paper over.
Press and here I have 2 cookie sheets
that I am going to put on the top in order to hold it and to put some weight on the bacon slices.
The oven is set at 350 degrees F.
and we are going to bake the bacon for about 20 minutes.
The soup is boiling to a rolling point.
We are going to turn it down to medium in order to simmer it for about 20 minutes.
Then grind the hazelnuts using a little food processor.
Great! So let's remove it.
And now we are going to look at the consistency.
You don’t want to have big chunks, but that’s good.
The soup has been simmering for about 20 minutes
So it's time now to see how cooked the artichokes are.
It is very soft and tender.
You may taste it too if you want.
Let's blend it.
So ladle the soup into the bowl of the blender.
Don’t fill it too much; it's better to do 2 batches.
Add the lid of course and you are going to protect yourself with a rag
and you will have to press firmly on top of it
as the blender will push and the steam will push up.
Now before starting, we have to open up to release the steam.
Then close immediately and start.
When started, you can increase the speed.
Nice consistency! Smells wonderful! Great!
Bring the soup to a boil.
So back on the stove.
Add the cream to the soup.
Bring to a boil, the soup.
Taste the soup.
Very nice flavour. It's really nice.
The artichokes were canned; so they were a little bit seasoned in the can.
So I won’t put too much salt, I am going to put a pinch.
And I am going to use the white pepper powder
as the soup is clear; so we season soups or clear liquid with white pepper.
Great! Taste again.
Very nice! Let's have a look at the bacon.
So the bacon has been cooking for 20 minutes.
Let's have a look.
So it's cooked, but it’s not totally dry.
So we are going to cook it another 20 minutes.
And now, we are going to increase the speed to 400 degrees.
And that’s 400.
The bacon has been cooking for 30 minutes in total.
Now it's time for us to remove and absorb a little bit of the fat and let it dry.
So with a piece of paper towel, absorb the fat.
And we are going to return it into the oven for about 10 minutes.
Cover like so.
The soup boiled for a couple of minutes and
I have turned it down to medium in order to keep it; the temperature.
Add half of the hazelnuts to the soup.
and reserve the other half for garnish.
By doing so, the hazel nut flavour is going to combine with the artichoke.
So for the last 5 minutes, I have removed the paper from the tray
and I am going to let the bacon dry out; totally dry out
in order to have it very crispy.
With a spatula, pick up the bacon slices to absorb the excess of fat
and leave the bacon on a cooling rack to dry and to cool.
It's time for us now to plate the soup,
For the bacon, you could leave it whole or cut it
diagonally and I like to put it on the top, floating.
And sprinkle hazelnuts all around.
And garnish with a little bit of parsley.
Bon appétit!