astray recipes: Cream of lettuce soup

Categories: Soups
Yield: 4 Servings

Measure	Ingredient
1 pounds	Boston lettuce
1 large	Onion, finely sliced
2 ounces	Butter
2 ounces	All-purpose flour
6 tablespoons	Clarified butter
4	Slices white bread, crusts removed, sliced into cubes
2	Cloves garlic, crushed and chopped to a pulp
16 ounces	Milk
16 ounces	Chicken stock
	Freshly ground salt
	Freshly ground white pepper

Thoroughly rinse lettuce and remove cores. Heat a soup tureen. Place lettuce leaves in a large, dry saucepan and cook over medium heat for 6 minutes. Into another pan on low heat, place butter, stir in onion, and let cook until soft. Stir in flour, making a roux. Cook 3 minutes while stirring. Stir milk into roux and half of the chicken stock.

Remove cooked lettuce from pot, puree in a blender and add to soup.

Add rest of chicken stock and cook while stirring for 7 minutes or until thickened. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour 4 tb clarified butter into a small frypan and when heated, add cubes of bread, occassionally shaking pan to prevent them from getting too brown. Add another 2 tb clarified butter and garlic cloves. Drain garlic bread "croutons" on a paper towel. Place on heated serving dish. Strain lettuce soup through a sieve into soup tureen and serve at once with croutons.

cream of lettuce soup