My best friend Amy (who, after this many years of friendship, has truly become a second sister to me) and I spent a trimester of high school studying abroad in France. We spent 5 weeks living with a host family in Paris, 2 weeks living with a host family in Pau (see map with ridiculously long and complicated website address: http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&q=pau+map+france&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xd564885b45c7ae9:0x4066517481394b0,Pau,+France&gl=us&ei=HnVvT6naFoWD0QHEuK34Bg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q8gEwAA), and a week traveling through the Loire Valley and the Côte d'Azur. This was the adventure of a lifetime, but we admittedly spent a lot of precious time being homesick. I'd never been away from my family for more than a weekend and then poof! I was suddenly living in France for eight weeks at the age of 15. At that interesting (read: awkward) juncture of my life, I epitomized immature, had no idea how to read a map of the city, and my ability to communicate in French was comical, if anything. Amy and I missed the foods from home, me especially. I went on unsuccessful quests for bagels for breakfast and insisted on storing a half-gallon of imported Tropicana on our window balcony. The family we stayed with in Paris in their very chic Rue des Saints-Pères apartment was, among other things, an avid pack of hunters. They would come home on some weekends and dinner would consist of severely undercooked venison. This was a very far cry from my mom's lasagna and chicken cutlets. The teenage sons would taunt Amy and I: "C'est Bambi!" We did not like when Bambi was for dinner. What we liked and looked forward to, when we finally managed to get the homesickness to a level of tolerable, was our French mother's homemade potage. Potage is a creamy French carrot-leek-potato soup. I have spent forever trying to figure out how potage is made and have searched high and low for recipes. I am confident that I've now mastered it and I am in love with this creation- I've saved the best soup for last in my Feast of Seven Soups. I do want to issue a disclaimer here: I don't know if this soup is for everybody. People who don't adore carrots may not agree that I've saved the best for last. In any case, I feel like I'm right back at that Rue des Saints-Pères dining room table when I eat this... I've adapted the recipe from one of the blogs that I follow http://www.blue-kitchen.com/2009/01/28/potage-crecy-french-for-its-cold-outside%E2%80%94you-need-some-creamy-carrot-soup/:
SHERRIED POTAGE (makes a pot full)
Ingredients:
-3 T unsalted butter
-a spin of olive oil around the pan
-3 leeks (tender white and green parts only), sliced
-2 1/4 lb baby carrots
-2ish lbs potatoes, skins on, cubed
-5 c chicken stock
-2 c sherry
-1 c water
-1/2 t dried thyme
-half and half to your liking (I use just enough to lighten the soup)
-3 T lemon juice
-a dash of nutmeg
-salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
1) heat a large soup pot over medium heat
2) melt butter and combine with olive oil
3) add leaks and saute for at least 5 minutes, stir occasionally
4) add potatoes and carrots and saute for at least 5 more minutes, stir occasionally
5) add chicken stock, sherry, and water and bring to a simmer
6) add thyme, cover the pot, and simmer for at least 30 minutes until the vegetables are very tender
7) puree the soup in blender in batches, filling the blender only half-way (least the soup splash out and you burn yourself, subsequently suing me)
8) return the pureed soup to the pot, add the half-and-half to taste, lemon juice, and nutmeg
9) season the soup with salt and pepper to taste and bring to a simmer until just heated through. Voilà!
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