Julie & Julia
POTAGE PARMENTIER
[Leek or Onion and Potato Soup]
Leek and potato soup smells good, tastes good, and is simplicity itself to make. It is also versatile as a soup base; add water cress and you have a water-cress soup, or stir in cream and chill it for a vichyssoise. To change the formula a bit, add carrots, string beans, cauliflower, broccoli, or anything else you think would go with it, and vary the proportion as you wish.
[ Source : Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One by Julia Child ]
Julie & Julia
The thing you learn with Potage Parmentier is that “simple” is not exactly the same as “easy”. It had never occurred to me that there was a difference until Eric and I sat down on our couch the night of my appointment at the gynecologist’s, three months after stealing my mother’s forty-year-old cookbook, and took our first slurps of Julia Child’s potato soup.
Certainly I had made easier dinners. Unwrapping a cellophane-swathed hunk of London broil and tossing it under the broiler was one method that came immediately to mind. Ordering pizza and getting drunk on Stoli gimlets while waiting for it to arrive, that was another favorite. Potage Parmentier didn’t even hold a candle, in the easy department.
[ Source : Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell ]
November 08, 2009
Somehow I find that relationship is much like how Julie describes Julia’s Potage Partmentier. Even if what you want is just something simple, it is not as easy as it seems.
