Riberac's take on Floyd's garlic soup

How could you not enthuse about Keith's cooking?

The remedy for a grey, damp, pre-Christmas Sunday when motivation is a little hard to come by is to get busy in the kitchen.  To begin, select some good sounds to accompany you through your peeling chopping, dicing, frying etc.  This Sunday it was the eternally cool 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis.  The recipe selected, 'Garlic soup from the Charente' was loosely based on another eternally cool person (in my opinion), the late chef and celebrated bon viveur, Keith Floyd.  Our close neighbour, the Charente, lies a few kilometres to the north so I think we can describe our soup as being local.

All ready to roll helped along with a little Miles Davis

I have recently discovered a good supplier of smoked garlic and of course what better place to buy it than at your local butcher!  I would hardly have described Floyd as moderate but when it comes to the amount of garlic suggested I found the prospect of only 8 cloves a little conservative;  this was roughly doubled.  So, to begin, the cloves of fat, juicy smoked garlic were gently roasted in some local goose fat until softened and the skins fell away by themselves.  The smell was heavenly!  Some finely chopped onion was caramelised in a little olive oil which had been added to the goose fat pan in which the garlic had been roasted.  

Luscious, smoked, golden brown roasted garlic 

A pan of stock (I always make a good, rich duck or goose stock for my soups) was on the boil.  The roasted garlic and caramelised onion was added to this stock along with a bunch of bouquet garni and left to simmer for about 20 minutes. The bouquet garni was then removed and two lightly whisked egg whites stirred gently into the soup.  When these egg whites had set the pan was removed from the heat and a little of the soup was whisked into the two remaining egg yolks before finally, by degrees, adding the remainder of the soup.  It was seasoned with salt and pepper.  Into the bottom of each soup bowl I placed a slightly stale slice of french bread (a good way to use up yesterday's leftover baguette) over which the soup was then poured.  As a finishing touch I added a swirl of creme fraiche which I stirred into the top.  As the great man himself would have said 'just give it a whirl'.

Ready to be added to the boiling stock

The beauty of Floyd's recipes is their simplicity or rather his ability to make them look simple.  That was his unique selling point.  Click on this link to watch a classic piece of Floyd at his best shot somewhere in deepest Brittany.

http://www.ovguide.com/tv/floyd_on_france.htm

Hearty, healthy soup.  Warning: to be shared with loved ones only