INGREDIENTS:
750 grams green garlic, including the tops
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 tablespoons butter
1 large russet potato, peeled and diced into ½–inch pieces
6 cups best-available chicken or veggie stock
1 cup parsley, stemmed (to boost the colour)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 lemon
best available olive oil for finishing
optional additions (see below)
DIRECTIONS:
Trim off any roots and the fibrous top ends of the green garlic stalks. Then cut the green garlic at the point where the white(ish) half ends and the remaining green tops begin. Roughly chop both halves but keep them separate. In a large pot over medium heat, add butter, the white half of the green garlic and onion, and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until they are translucent but not browned.
Add potato, chopped green garlic tops and stock. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Let cool, then purée in a blender along with parsley.
Press the soup through a fine meshed strainer (ideally a Chinois). Season to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Reheat just before serving, top with the optional additions if you choose, and drizzle with olive oil just before serving.
Cooking time: 1 hour
Yield: 8 – 12 servings
Advance work: Soup can be made up to a couple of days in advance. Plan-overs: Extra soup will last in the fridge for 3—4 days, and in the freezer for 6+ months.
Chinois
A chinois is a large cone-shaped strainer made from a super-fine woven metal mesh. When you “push” (i.e., use the bottom of a ladle to force the liquids through the mesh) a blended soup through a chinois, only a small amount of fibrous mash will remain caught in the finely knit mesh. But what a difference that makes. The resulting soup will have a velvety mouth feel that is satisfyingly rich and decadent.
A chinois can also be used for filtering stocks, straining fresh cheeses and, in a pinch, straining out cork fragments.
