New Recipe – White Vegetables Velouté Bianca Cappello Medici

Claude Monet is well known for his paintings. But did you know that he was a passionate eater and creator of meals? He had a cook, but sometimes he prepared a meal for friends. He of course “painted” it. He created impressionistic works of art with spinach, tomato sauce and potatoes on plates. And was of course very angry, when the guests ate it!!! – When I found a photo of a white velouté with green dots and a kind of parsley weapon in the middle (created by French “chef étoilé”* Joël Robuchon) I wanted to know if an “easy” pointillistic** painting was makable by a non-chef. I admit mine doesn´t look that perfect as Robuchon´s, but it is worth to try. It was my very first attempt.

*No idea how to translate “chef étoilé” into English. There are no tips on internet.

**Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• ½ of a white onion
• 1 medium size cauliflower or kohlrabis, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, every white vegetable of your choice (about 500 g), you can of course use two or three sorts. I mixed kohlrabi and parsnip.
• 1 – 2 tbsp oil for the pan
• 4 – 5 cups water
• ½ cube of vegetable stock (vegan, yeast free and organic!)
• salt, pepper
• 1 – 2 tbsp oil for the soup

• Basil pesto
• ½ cup basil leaves
• ½ of a garlic clove
• ½ cup olive oil
• salt
• a dropping glass (from the next pharmacist – cheap and very helpful!)

Heat oil in a pan, cut onion and white vegetable of your choice in small pieces, add, stir fry for 2 – 3 minutes.

Pour the water in, cook, add the vegetable stock. Boil about 1 minute, salt, pepper, reduce heat. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Let cool for some minutes.

In a blender mix soup and oil until it is very creamy.

Basil pesto: mix all the ingredients with a hand blender.

Pour in bowls or soup plates and make – using the dropping glass – green dots (from the basil pesto). I added more oil so it became easier to drop it onto the soup. Start with drop number one (twelve o´clock), number two is vis-à-vis (6 o´clock), then number three and four (3 and 9 o´clock). Half the distance with the next four drops. Next “lap” (8 drops) half the distance again and so on. You can prepare as many servings as you want and keep them on a teapot-warmer or on a rechaud. The oil drops are lighter than the soup and stay on the surface. For many hours … Add the parsley-lily in the middle. This pointillistic painting is fun and easier to make as you think.

TIP

I made a mistake (s. the photo above on the left), I lost one drop after I had put the last one onto the soup and found a good solution to unmake it (s. the photos above with the tiny achillea branches and the one with the sorrel branches).