A chicken and mushroom velouté style cream soup inspired by Auguste Escoffier .

This chicken and mushroom velouté style cream soup bears the name of the famous French courtisiane, Agnes Sorel, a favourite of King Charles VII. She used food as a way to the King’s heart and engaged a team of cooks to prepare all of his favourite dishes. Auguste Escoffier was inspired by her story and so called this elegant creation after Agnes.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 litre (1.75 pints) home made chicken stock of excellent quality

• 50 grams (1.75 oz) flour  

• 50 grams (1.75 oz) butter

• 50 grams (1.75 ozs) finely diced leeks (just the white part)

• 200 grams (7.05 oz) mushrooms (a mix of trimming and whole mushrooms)

• 100 grams (3.53.oz) julienne of poached chicken breast

• 100ml (3.5 fl oz) cream (heavy cream)

• Chopped parsley

For the mushroom julienne:

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 50 grams (1.75 0z) butter

• 50 ml (1.75 fl oz) water

• salt

PROCEDURE

1. Poach a chicken breast in the stock on a low heat for 10-12 minutes.  Once cooked, remove it from the stock and keep in the fridge.

2. Julienne 50 grams of mushrooms – only use white mushrooms, or if they are not available, peel off the coloured skin and discard any other coloured parts (particularly the gills).

3. Squeeze the lemon juice over the julienne mushrooms.

4. Melt 50 grams (1.76 ozs) butter in a pan over a medium-high heat, and once melted, reduce heat to moderate and tip in the julienne mushrooms.  Add salt and the water and simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Remove from the heat and set the mushrooms aside in a bowl containing a little of the chicken stock.  Reserve only the cooked mushroom, and none of the cooking juice.

6. Melt the other 50 grams of butter in a pan on a moderate heat, and once melted, reduce the heat to a simmer and sweat the leek and the remaining mushrooms (previously sliced) for 5 minutes.

7. Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes, then remove it from the heat and allow to cool.

8. Add the hot stock into the cooled pan a little at a time and (off the heat) mix everything together.

9. Add salt, return to the heat and bring to the boil, cook for a minute and then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Allow it to simmer and reduce for 25-30 minutes.

10. Pass the liquid into a bowl through a sieve, pressing down on the vegetables to extract as much flavour as possible.

11. Return the liquid to a pan and on a high heat add the cream and whisk in. Bring to the boil, remove any scum and reduce on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until a spoon coating consistency is reached.

12. Serve the soup in a bowl and add the julienned mushrooms and chicken and garnish with chopped parsley.

"A very tasty looking soup. Mushrooms are great in soup. Cheers, Stephane!."

Angelos Koussiafes

"Delicious and elegant !. I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy cooking it. Merci chef"

Rosabel V.S

"I am going to put aromatic French cheese on mine and dip bread in it."

Mike Neidlinger