Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Red Beet Chips

So I began my Thomas Keller @ home culinary journey with this dish.

I am not sure why out of all the recipes, this one appealed to me so much that I wanted to cook it as soon as I saw it.  Growing up as a child, I never really liked cauliflower, but as time went on, I began to appreciate this simple vegetable's versatility.  This recipe looked so rich, luxurious and with enough complexity to get me excited in trying it out.

First, we start with the cauliflower, the recipe suggested 2 heads totaling about 4-5lbs. After reserving some for the soup composition later, I actually only end up using about 1 and 1/2 heads.

8 cups of florets and stems cut into equal sizes for easy cooking.

2 cups of florets saved for later soup assembly.

The secret ingredient in this soup is curry powder.  Something that reminds me of a similar Indian vegetable dish.  The book actually contains a very hardcore home made curry powder recipe, I wish I had the time to make it from scratch, but considering it's NYE and I only have a few hours before hungry friends start to turn up, I opted for a store bought version.  I would love to make it some day though.

The rest of the ingredients are simple: onion and leaks.  We cook them with a parchment lid that is fun to make.  The parchment lid acts as a lid to cover the food but doesn't function like a normal lid.  It keeps the food moist while cooking and prevents moisture from evaporating too quickly so things don't burn as easily.

Parchment lid prevents too much moisture from evaporating.

After cooking the mixture for 20 minutes, we then add the wet ingredients - milk, heavy cream and water.  Simmering the soup for another 30 minutes actually turned the consistency into something fairly thick.  This is mentioned in the recipe as well, more water can be added to thin out if needed, I kept mine the way it is.

Soup turns into thick consistency after wet ingredients are added.

We now move onto the other parts of this soup - red beets.  I have never personally cooked beets at home, but always liked them on my salad.  One word of caution, it is an easily stained vegetable, everything it touches turns red immediately, including your hands, the cutting board or your clothes.  So it's good to wear gloves when cutting or working with it.  This is a time where a japanese mandoline would be very handy, but I don't have one :(  So instead I tried very hard to cut thin pieces for the garnish, I think I did an okay job, but I am sure it would've been a lot better and easier if I did have a slicer of some sort.  The chips fried fairly quickly, it's a good idea to invest in a oil thermometer to make sure the temperature is accurate at 300F.

We also cook/blanch the florets that we saved from earlier in a little bit of salt water with white vinegar.  The vinegar retains the white color of the florets when sauteed later.

Red beet chips frying and remaining florets blanching.

The soup also calls for some home made croutons.  This was a lot of fun.  Take a loaf of country bread and torn into bite size pieces, they taste SO GOOD on its own.  The slow cooking from the infused garlic oil really made the difference.  It was crispy on the outside and moist with the oil on the inside, just yummy.  Patience is a virtue when it comes to these, try to cook them along side with everything else you are doing, because they do take ~20 minutes.

Garlic infused oil for the croutons.

Cooking the croutons on a very low heat.

Finally the soup is ready for assembly!  The layering of the soup starts with the soup mixture which needs to be pureed in a food processor.  The recipe/book suggests a Vitamix which I obviously do not have :(  (It's basically the Rolls Royce of all blenders that cost $500)  So instead I used a hand blender, that was a messy process and the soup wasn't as well blended as it would've been in a food processor but I didn't mind it.

The assembly continues with the sauteed and blanched florets which offer an amazing texture contrast, the garlic croutons and last but not least - the crispy red beet chips.  It's recommended that you serve the soup right away as the beet chips become soggy when they sit in the soup for too long.  I think the presentation of the soup is simply lovely.

Finished soup, it looks as amazing as it tastes.

Tasting:
Ok I admit this is a LOAD of work for just a soup entree.  But the effort is highly worth it.  The texture contrast (florets, crispy chips and croutons) along with the mild flavor of cauliflower works so well together.  The hint of curry is just right and not overpowering.  Most importantly this is cauliflower - a fairly boring ingredient that's made to dazzle on center stage in this recipe.

My friends chowed this down quickly and all loved it.  If this doesn't inspire you to try Thomas Keller, then I don't know what will!  I am very happy my Ad Hoc @ Home adventure is off to a successful start.