Warm Pumpkin creamy Soup

Creamy Pumpkin Soup with heavy cream spider net pattern  decoration

Howdy,

In our way  to French Chefs Cooking Techniques and as winter is at the threshold , will explore another topic of cooking  which is how to prepare soups , creams and veloutés. Today we're gonna have a close look at the Creams .
The technique , once more, will always be the same whether you may want to achieve an asparagus , Celeriac or whatever creamy soup.

Sometimes , you'll see the name "velouté " for a creamy soup; this is exactly the same process of elaboration  except you thicken  with flour and  at the very end of cooking , just before serving , you shall make a egg yolk finish. It gives an more unctuous consistency but can not be reheated at all otherwise , it would split......Flour thickening can be useful if you have no starchy vegetables in the recipe.

As usual now, your are familiar with our techniques directory(just register for free to get it), today we'll get familiar with two new items:

1. Hot & cold sauces - mix 18: Heavy cream thickening*
2. Cooking 39: Creamy Soups & Veloute soups  *

INGREDIENTS - SERVING 8 PAX

• BUTTER                                                          40 GR     - 1,4 OZ
• LIQUID COOKING CREAM                         12 CL  -   4 FL OZ
• CARROT                                                          200 GR    -   7 OZ
• PUMPKIN PEELED                                        800 GR    -   1,7 LB
• LEEK(WHITE PART)                                     400 GR    -    14 OZ
• POTATOES                                                      300 GR -     10 OZ
• CLEAR POULTRY OR VEGGIE BROTH     1,5 L -  3 PINTS
• SALT

       As you can notice , we do not use any  pepper in a soup because it makes ugly  dark spots and pepper gets stronger and stronger when it cooks . This tip avoids having too spicy soups ; except if you love it!!!!

TECHNIQUE : cooking 39

•  Wash  ( be careful to the  grit !) and finely chop the white leek.
• Peel  and Cut  pumpkin , carrot  and potatoes in half inch cubes.
• In large pot melt butter and sweat the chopped  leek white with no color , just in order to get rid of the veggie strong water .
• When done, pour the poultry or veggie broth and bring to boil.
• At boiling point, add carrot, pumpkin and potato cubes and season with the salt.
• Leave slowly boiling with lid on.
• When cooked , blend the soup and strain it if you want to avoid lumps of veggies .
• Bring to boil again  and the last step  will be  the cream thickening.

TECHNIQUE : Hot & Cold sauces - mix 18: cream thickening

This technique is not used that often but it's the same tip as mustard thickening, blood or urchin cream thickening....You'll sometimes meet those weird techniques in classical  French recipes.

But let's be back to our cream for the last step.....

• When your pumpkin ( asparagus, lettuce...) soup is ready bring it back to boil for a minute .

• Pour the cream in a preparation bowl and whisk it slowly while adding a ladle or two of hot soup.This is very useful to heat the cream up and  will avoid a strong temperature chock and a high  splitting risk .You may have noticed  this sometimes when making hot creamy sauces.

• Then pour the lukewarm cream + soup mix  back in the pot while slowly  whisking and your creamy soup is ready  .

With those few tips , creamy soups have no more secrets for you now!!

N.B :  In case you need to cook a Lettuce or Calaloo  creamy soup , you may not use  potatoes  to thicken the soup. Flour will replace the starchy veggie. Then you will use the same amount of flour as  butter. Sweat your leeks in the butter and add flour , leave slowly simmer  for a minute and proceed exactly the same way for the rest of the recipe.....