"The only real stumbling block is the fear of failure. In cooking, you have got to have a what-the-hell attitude." ~ Julia Child

Cooking Julia: Onion and Potato soup

by Julie on August 14, 2012

in Soup is Easy

Happy Birthday, Julia!

The Teenager looked up from her iPhone. “You’re gonna spend time on that and we’re not gonna eat it. So why?”

So why make potato and onion soup in the dead of summer? Why attempt a version of Julia Childs’ potage parmentier?

Two reasons: it’s allegedly delicious and another food blogger of great repute uttered those immortal words: So easy even you can do it…you know how I feel about dares…

OK, and one more: August 15th marks Julia Childs 100th birthday.

Dorothy Reinhold, of Shockingly Delicious, nudged me on this. It could not be easier, she said. In fact, she’d made it even easier, by switching out leeks for onions and making a few other tweaks.

Here’s her recipe, based on Julia’s potage parmentier:

 
1 pound Russet potatoes (about 3-4 cups), peeled and quartered
1 pound onions (about 3 cups), peeled and quartered
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or minced
8 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
Freshly ground pepper

Put the potatoes, onions, garlic, and salt in the water and bring to a boil. Turn the heat to low and let simmer for about 50 minutes, uncovered.

Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to blend all of this together. Or, if you gave away the lovely immersion blender your mother-in-law gifted you with many years ago before you started cooking and realized how handy it could be, use a regular blender instead and just keep your mouth shut when you have another thing to wash during clean up.

Adjust seasonings.

Cut up the butter and stir in. Add your cream.

Go all out by adding some diced bacon and minced chives and parsley.

It’s true what they all said. This soup is so easy even I can make it. It’s like your standard potato and leek soup but with more flavor.

But the Teen girl did NOT eat it. It became a matter of principal, especially after she saw I was blogging about it.

Wonder how Julia would handle that?

 

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Dorothy August 15, 2012 at 7:18 am

Well……harrrumph! You can lead a teenager to a delicious bowl of soup, but you can’t make her slurp it. Oh well, more for the rest of you! Thanks for making it!

Reply

Jayna August 15, 2012 at 7:48 am

Hmm potatoes, heavy cream, butter, and Julia Child = perfection! The teenager is just a slight snag though. 🙂

Reply

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