Date I made this recipe:
July 26, 2014, the final day of the Tour de France
Bocuse's Regional
French Cooking by Paul Bocuse
Published by:
Flammarion
©1997
Purchased at Arc's Value Village
Recipe: Soupe au Pistou
(Vegetable, Basil and Garlic Soup) – p. 68
Well o-la-la- folks, yesterday the Le Tour de France
My answer: celebrate
regaining control of the remote. My
husband's answer: go out on more bike
rides (although not in France ).
And there you have it!
And congratulations to this year's winner, Chris Froome for his
impressive victory.
As is usual and customary though, we observe the end of this
race down the Champs Elysees by making a French meal and this year's selection
was a good one – the famous Soupe au pistou – a dish that slow simmers on the
stove (thankfully, no oven involved) and is rich with beans and vegetables and
all kinds of other goodness.
This dish hails from Provence ,
in the south of France ,
and although I've been to that region twice, I never had it before so it was
kind of nice to close that circle. I
love how it makes use of so many summer vegetables and just flat out looks
healthy to eat!
And actually, my version of this was totally vegetarian since I left out the [raw] pork rind in the recipe, mostly because I couldn't find it but also because the cheese used for the toppings wiped out my budget and I wasn't in the mood to find a substitute so we went without and it was fine.
And actually, my version of this was totally vegetarian since I left out the [raw] pork rind in the recipe, mostly because I couldn't find it but also because the cheese used for the toppings wiped out my budget and I wasn't in the mood to find a substitute so we went without and it was fine.
So. Paul Bocuse, our
chef/author, is considered by many to be one of the greatest French chefs ever
and one of the first chefs to unveil a French "nouvelle cuisine"
menu. Traditionally, French menus are heavy on the sauces, heavy on the wines
and just plain heavy. Nouvelle cuisine
focuses on light sauces or broths and fresh ingredients, particularly fresh
vegetables. The soup recipe definitely falls into the nouvelle cuisine
category.
Hailing from Lyon, Chef Boucuse is now 89 years old and –
interesting factoid - in 1969, was one of the chefs preparing the menus for the
maiden flight of the Concorde, an airplane that made the journey from France to the US in three hours. C'est tres "cool." Unfortunately, I never got to travel on it
and taste his cuisine because the cost of the flight was tres cher (very
expensive) but I flew on Air France once and was amazed to be handed a beautiful
menu of all the food served on the flight, including perfectly poached salmon
(and I hate salmon), bread and lots of it and wine! For free!
Classy outfit, that Air France.
This book is divided into recipes by region: Lyonnais ; Provence ; Bordelais; Perigord; Brittany-Normand and Alsace . And each region's section features foods
found in that region, as follows:
Bordelais – This area if French wine country, home to the
famous Bordeaux
wines. It also borders the Spanish
Basque country, a region of northern Spain that is a mix of French and
Spanish cultures. Because of that,
you'll find Basque-influenced dishes like Basque-style cod and Basque-style
chicken along with the famous French cassoulet, a dish that combines many meats
and sausages with beans that is baked in a casserole. Since I'm not big on duck or lamb which are
two of the main ingredients, I passed on that dish and besides, it requires
slow-cooking and that was not going to happen on a day it was 90 degrees
outside. Non.
Perigord – is in the south-west region of France , an
hour's drive from Bordelais and here, the recipes feature preserved meats like
duck and pork as well as the world-famous and often controversial Foie Gras
(basically fatted duck liver). There's also a recipe for Garlic Soup, a dish
I've heard about but have never eaten or made – yet.
En fin (Finally), we have the Alsace region, sometimes referred to as
Alsace-Lorraine, famous for various savory and sweet tarts. This region borders Germany and so
there are also dishes for sausages and sauerkraut for you to try.
And so that concludes our culinary tour to complement the
bicycle tour that just took place in France
(and Belgium and Spain ) this
week.
I liked the Soupe au Pistou a lot as it was easy, used next
to no heat (you simmer it for two hours), and it was easily halved. Since we are only two, I often cut a dish in
half to ensure we don't have endless leftovers.
In the "If I were to make this again" department I
have just two minor things: 1) I think I
would have cooked the beans all by themselves for a while to avoid having mushy
vegetables and 2) I might have added pancetta to the recipe to add a bit of fat
and flavor but like I said, I just didn't want to spend more money on the
recipe than I did and felt it was essential to have the cheese for topping rather
than the meat. And perhaps if I went to
an actual butcher I might have found the required [raw] pork rind but that was
just too much effort for a hot day. I
love summer – bring on the heat – but it is wilting to go from store to store.
And so there you go: Viva la France , Viva le Tour, Viva la Soupe
au Pistou!
Vegetable, Basil and
Garlic Soup (Soupe au Pistou) – 6 servings
Ann's Notes: 1)
Pistou is a mixture of garlic, basil, olive oil and tomatoes that is added just
before serving.) Pistou is made by grinding the garlic and basil with a mortar
and pestle. I don't have one and tried
to improvise and that was fraught with peril.
In the end, I decided to use my mini food processor and that was okay
but not the best. Search the internet
for other solutions. 2) You will need to soak the beans overnight; cooking time
is 2.5 hours. 3) As mentioned above, good luck finding raw pork rind. I couldn't even find a substitute on the
internet. Were I do to this again
though, I might use pancetta as it is pretty fatty and should yield the flavor
Chef Bocuse was looking for.
½ pound fresh or dried pinto beans
½ pound fresh or dried white beans (like navy beans)
½ pound green beans
6 carrots
2 medium potatoes
1 white onion
1 leek
2 zucchini
3 quarts water
½ pound pork rind
Salt
Pepper
3 ½ ounces shell-shaped pasta
For the pistou:
1 pound ripe tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
10 stems basil
Salt
Pepper
¾ cup olive oil
For serving:
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese
If using dried pinto and white beans, begin soaking them a
day in advance. Place them in a large
mixing bowl, add enough cold water to cover and let soak overnight. The next day, drain thoroughly.
If using fresh pinto and white beans, they need only be
shelled.
Trim and string the green beans and cut into ½-inch lengths.
Peel and dice the carrots, potatoes, and onion. Trim of all but the white park of the leek,
rinse thoroughly under cold water, and dice.
Rinse the zucchini (but do not peel) and dice.
Place the water in a large stock pot, add the pork rind and
bring to a boil, skimming off the foam that rises to the top. Season with salt and pepper. Add the beans and diced vegetables and simmer
over low heat for 2 hours. Ann's
Note: Since I didn't use pork rind, I
added the vegetables and let that mixture come to a boil before turning the
heat to low. If I had to do it over
again though, I would have added just the beans, brought them to a boil and
then simmered them for a bit before adding the vegetables. The beans were fine but some were a bit
chewy.
As the soup cooks, prepare the pistou: Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes and place
them in a colander to drain. Peel the
garlic, place in a mortar and crush with a pestle. (See Ann's Note above.) Remove the leaves from the basil, chop and
add them to the mortar. Remove a few
pieces of the cooked potato from the simmering soup with a slotted spoon, drain
and add to the mortar. Work all the
ingredients in the mortar together, grinding them with the pestle to obtain a
smooth paste. Season with salt and
pepper.
Add the olive oil a little at a time, starting with a very
thin stream and whisking after each addition until thoroughly incorporated, as
for a mayonnaise. (Ann's Note: even when
I cut the recipe in half, I felt like that was too much olive oil so yes, I
added it a little at a time and very carefully as well!)
When the mixture is blended, add the drained tomatoes.
About 15 minutes before the soup has finished cooking, add
the pasta and cook until tender. Remove
the pork rind. Add the pistou mixture
and mix well. Cover a tureen (if you are
using one) and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving. Place the Parmesan and Gruyere in separate
bowls and pass to sprinkle over the soup.
Ann's Note: The price
of Parmesan cheese has gone up considerably such that I have taken to going to
a few stores that I know sell it by weight and search until I find the cheapest
block. You do not need all the cheese
called for in this recipe, not even if making a half recipe. And Gruyere cheese has always been pricey so
again, I looked until I found an inexpensive block and used that.
The search for the cheapest cheese reminds me of
"Mousier" Keith, a friend of my friend, Susan, who was living in Paris when Susan and I went to France in 1988 (Oh my God, what a
hilarious trip that was). At any rate,
Mousier Keith was a starving artist and told me and Susan about how he always
scrounged around the French markets, pricing potatoes (in the same way I did my
cheese). When Susan later left Paris to go to England to visit her mother's
family, Keith and I went out for dinner which I bought because the poor man was
starving. But to this day, I regret
swapping out my very lovely vegetable salad for his seafood salad (in oil as is
customary) because I took pity on him.
And by the way, Susan and I always referred to him as "Mousier
Keith" because he kept trying to call us to set up a meeting time and when
the hotel gave us the messages, they always said "Mousier Keith t'a
téléphone hier soir! (Mr. Keith called
while you were out!)
