Makes: 2 liters. Cooking time: 1 & 1/2 hours.
Ingredients:
— 110 grams butter
— 1 kg sliced carrots
— 100 grams sliced onions
— 100 grams flour
— 2 & 1/2 liters white stock
— 1 bouquet garni
— seasoning of salt and pepper
— 2 dl cream
— 50 grams butter
Method:
(1) Melt the butter in a deep pan.
(2) Add and sweat the vegetables.
(3) Add the flour to make a roux.
(4) Add the stock, mixing it into the roux.
(5) Bring to the boil, add seasoning and bouquet garni.
(6) Cook for the prescribed time by gentle simmering.
(7) When the vegetables are cooked, remove the bouquet garni and pass the soup through a sieve, soup machine or liquidiser.
(8) Reboil the soup and correct the consistency, and season to taste; a finer texture may be obtained by passing through a fine strainer with the aid of a ladie.
(9) Finish the soup with the cream and the butter.
Note:
This soup may also be served as Velouté Crécy by finishing with the appropriate liaison of egg yolks, cream and butter.
Service:
Cream soups may be served in a soup tureen, consommé cup or a soup plate. Cold cream soup is served in a chilled consommé cup. It should be remembered that soup becomes thicker when cold so needs to be of a thin consistency before chilling.
Assessment of the completed dish
(1) The soup is hot or chilled as the case may be.
(2) In colour the soup should in general be close to that of the main vegetable – in this case carrots. This applies to most vegetable cream soups, with the exception of white vegetables such as cauliflower, jerusalem artichoke or turnip.
(3) The smoothness is the main characteristic of this type of soup — it should be creamy.
(4) The flavour should be delicate but easily identifiable as that of carrots.
(5) In consistency the soup should be similar to single cream, just coating the back of a spoon.
(6) The seasoning should be sufficient to enhance the full flavour of the soup.
(7) A standard portion should be approximately 2 dl per person.
Possible problem, causes and solution:
(1) Soup does not have the correct flavor:
— poor quality stock used; care must be taken when preparing the stock as distorted flavor because of poor stock cannot be rectified later.
— incorrect type of fat used to sweat the vegetables; lard or dripping must not be used as the soup will acquire their characteristic taste and cannot be rectified.
(2) Soup is dark:
— dripping used instead of butter to sweat the vegetables; if dripping is used the dark color cannot be rectified.
— poor quality stock used; care must be taken when preparing the stock as a dark color as a result of poor stock cannot be rectified.
— vegetables over-sweated and allowed to color; care must be taken to avoid this as it cannot be rectified later.
— roux overcooked; care must be taken in the preparation of the roux as overcooked roux cannot be rectified.
— too little cream added in proportion to the quantity of soup; add a little more cream to lighten the color.
— retained for too long in a bain-marie; prepare the soup nearer to the time it is required as this cannot be rectified.
— aluminium pan used; avoid aluminium utensils as their effect on the soup cannot be rectified.
(3) Excess fat rises to the surface while cooking or storing in a bain-marie:
— too much fat used in proportion to the flour; simmer and skim off the fat with a ladle.
— soup overcooked; skim off the fat with a cooking or ladle.
— butter added too soon at the completion stage; skim off the fat with a ladle or soak it up with kitchen paper.
— soup allowed to boil once the cream and butter have been added; skim off the fat with a ladle.
(4) Soup is curdled:
— unsound cream used; care must be taken to use fresh cream as soup which curdles because of the cream cannot be rectified.
— retained too long in a hot bain-marie or water in bain-marie allowed to boil; care must be taken in this respect as soup which curdles cannot be rectified.
(5) Soup is gritty:
— vegetables were not sufficiently sweated and were partially uncooked; care must be taken when sweating the vegetables to ensure that they are cooked as a gritty texture cannot be rectified later.