Potage Jersienne, August 2011

Apart from the ingredients themselves–local produce available around the beginning of August in Western New Jersey, this is very much in the tradition of the classic French farmwife potager, soups made out of whatever happens to be popping up out of the ground, usually thickened with potatoes.



2-3 tablespoons olive oil
4 small onions, diced
4-5 stalks of celery, diced
beet stems from brined beet greens*, chopped

Place the oil in a stockpot and heat. Add the chopped onion, celery and beet stems, along with a pinch or two of sea salt. Sautee until softened. Add :

2 zucchini, medium size, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced

Cook until softened, then add 8 cups of whatever vegetable or meat stock you may have around or water or a mix of any of those.



Bring this mix to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or so. Then add :

beet greens from brined beet greens*, chopped
4 small-medium potatoes, chopped
parsley, eight sprigs
tarragon, 1 large sprig

Cook until warmed through, then take from the heat and allow to set for an hour or so.

Puree in food mill, then reheat. Add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add snips of whatever fresh herbs you might have floating around in space out there. Great options are chervil (my new favorite), marjoram or oregano, fennel, torn pieces of basil, etc. etc.

This time around served the potage a few different ways–by itself, with a hunk of country bread, garnished with parsley, or served with some roasted, shorn local corn and fennel fronds from the garden.



I'm not particularly sold on always stressing local ingredients at the exclusion of all else, and I certainly don't think it should be the preserve of the well-to-do and trendy. But it does feel good to make up a batch of something this nourishing from from Shit In Our Backyard. Whether or not it makes me feel like a French or Mexican housewife is frankly none of your concern. However, in the interest of making a record, in this case the green bells, zucchini, celery, beet greens and all the herbs were from our garden. The onions and corn (used for a couple bowls) were purchases from a local farm stand. The potatoes were Jersey-grown yellow potatoes bought from a supermarket. The salt, pepper and olive oil were from far, far away. The stock was from my kitchen, and therefore, here.

* brined beet greens
These were brined overnight in a combination of salt and ice cubes. I intended to put them in a mixed pickle of some kind, but felt like the outcome wasn't worth pickling–I think next time I will skip a brine stage with delicate greens, as many of them wilted. They were awesome in this soup, however, so I intend to explore this technique with some possible refinement. In the case of this particular soup, I'm sure any kind of green brined overnight (or not) would be tasty.