Vichysoisse Creole (recipe) – Caribbean Beachcomber July/August 1969

As promised, I am currently cooking my way through a 1969 Food issue of Caribbean Beachcomber. For much of this year I have been privately delving into older cookbooks, both West Indian in nature, as well as International. In many ways I have found that they have increased my love of cooking and my understanding of ingredients more than many contemporary publications. Many of the combinations and recipes have fallen out of vogue, and may seem odd, or unappetizing at a first glance. However by recreating many of them I have felt as though I have my own private time machine and, believe it or not, so far I have not had any flops!

This recipe was particularly pleasurable to serve as it had everyone scratching their heads trying to figure out what the main ‘secret’ ingredient was. The below recipe calls for recipe, but as I had none on hand I went with what I did have, cassava. The brilliance of the recipe is it takes many of the main components of an oil-down but recomposes them into the form of a cool Vichysoisse Soup. The flavour is instantly recognizable, however because the style of presentation is so unexpected, no one puts 2 and 2 together. When all is revealed the look of shock is inevitably followed with “This is cassava? But… But.. Wow!”

I have included the original recipe below for those who want to see it, but have also included my own slight modifications. Although the recipe didn’t call for it, I decided to create some croutons from an end of homemade French Bread that was ‘suffering’ in the freezer. Pan-fried in butter and thyme, I believe they created the perfect round-off.

Serve and enjoy 🙂

Vichysoisse Creole (d)
SERVINGS: 6
SOURCE: Caribbean Beachcomber

INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 lb. breadfruit, diced (or cassava as I used in this case)
4 cups vegetable stock
1 cup light cream
salt and pepper to taste
chopped chives

METHOD:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in butter until wilted.
2. Add diced breadfruit, vegetable stock and cook until breadfruit is easily pierced with a fork.

3. Let cool, then pureé in an electric blender, adding cream slowly while blending.

4. If the soup is too thick, thin to taste with milk.
5. Season with salt and pepper and serve icy cold, topped with chives.

Original Recipe (click thumbnail to enlarge):