Although I write under my mother's maiden name, DuVall, I have not had a great deal of prior experience with French cooking. I am the resident Food Ambassador at the State Street Outpost Natural Foods Coop in Wauwatosa, WI. This gives me ample opportunity to try out new recipes and come up with concoctions of my own on a regular basis. Since I recently signed up for the "Weekend In a French Kitchen" Facebook group, I also decided it was the perfect excuse to test out the assigned menus each week on my regular store visitors.
I have always been a great fan of split pea soup, and the idea of serving it chilled with three varieties of peas intrigued me. I skipped the suggested fava beans (sorry Dr. Lecter), and went with snap, snow, and split. As my fellow bloggers have noted, this one takes some patience and TLC. It is best completed over two days, rather than attempted in one fell swoop. There is much chopping, cooking, blending, and straining involved. I also have to confess that I completely lost patience straining the pea skins through a wire mesh strainer. I tend to like a chunky consistency anyway, so this step was not attended to vigilantly.
The finished flavor was indeed fantastic. So fresh and delicate! Of course, none of the curious flocking to my cart could resist the rosemary cream with crumbled bacon garnish, either. The rosemary cream was more than enough, and as another writer suggested, worked deliciously added to mashed potatoes. The end result for CHILLED SPRING PEA SOUP from Daniel Boulud's "Cafe Boulud Cookbook," was worth the wait, and I eagerly await the next culinary challenge.
I have always been a great fan of split pea soup, and the idea of serving it chilled with three varieties of peas intrigued me. I skipped the suggested fava beans (sorry Dr. Lecter), and went with snap, snow, and split. As my fellow bloggers have noted, this one takes some patience and TLC. It is best completed over two days, rather than attempted in one fell swoop. There is much chopping, cooking, blending, and straining involved. I also have to confess that I completely lost patience straining the pea skins through a wire mesh strainer. I tend to like a chunky consistency anyway, so this step was not attended to vigilantly.
The finished flavor was indeed fantastic. So fresh and delicate! Of course, none of the curious flocking to my cart could resist the rosemary cream with crumbled bacon garnish, either. The rosemary cream was more than enough, and as another writer suggested, worked deliciously added to mashed potatoes. The end result for CHILLED SPRING PEA SOUP from Daniel Boulud's "Cafe Boulud Cookbook," was worth the wait, and I eagerly await the next culinary challenge.