melting your mouth

So I only joined this group three weeks ago, and I’ve already screwed up three times. First I missed an assignment — two weeks ago’s Julienne Darblay, a creamed leek and potato soup. The next week, I actually made the Veloute Agnes Sorel on time, but I obviously didn’t get it posted last Wednesday. And now this week, I’ve missed another assignment, the Bisque de Langoustines. Hopefully I’ll do better from here on out. I think I actually have a reasonable excuse this time — July has been pretty busy anyway, and last Wednesday Matt and I took a redeye to New York for my cousin’s wedding Saturday, then flew from NYC to Raleigh, NC on Sunday for another cousin’s wedding (which I was in) on Sunday night, and then back to California on Monday. So, not a lot of time for cooking this weekend!

Anyway, here’s my Veloute Agnes Sorel, a cream of chicken soup, a week late, as I continue to cook through some version of the Cordon Bleu cooking school curriculum along with the rest of the Whisk Wednesdays group. If you want the recipe, I highly recommend buying the book, Le Cordon Bleu at Home. But here’s the gist of it, also in pictures below: I made stock from chicken, carrots, onion, and a bouquet garni, and cooked some mushrooms in butter. I added egg yolks and cream to some of the stock to make it creamy, and then added chicken, mushrooms, and ham to the base. I wasn’t so sure how the ham would be, but it actually gave the soup a really nice, kind of smoky flavor, much more interesting than normal cream of chicken soup. I know this is only my second recipe from this cookbook, but so far I’m pretty impressed with the recipes, though everything sure does seem to require a bunch of dishes!