This delicious spring soup made from peas owes its name not to the district of Saint-Germain des Pré, nor to the city of Saint-Germain en Lay, but to Count Claude-Louis de Saint-Germain, the minister of war in Louis XVI. , especially fond of this “green caviar” (unless it is the mysterious Saint-Germain immortal).
At that time, peas were widely grown in the Poissy region. We owe Louis XIV initially to the development of his culture in Versailles. The king was literally furious about this, so much so that he almost died of indigestion in 1706, after eating large quantities of it. The original version of Saint-Germain soup contains rice (to make the connection), but also trotter and pork skin. An “all season” version of this soup exists based on separate peas.
Saint-Germain soup recipe
Ingredients:
- 400 g fresh chopped peas
- 1 liter of chicken broth
- 2 potatoes
- 1 presh
- 1 onion
- Some mint leaves
- 100 g smoked bacon
- 25 cl thick cream
- bread crumbs
- Pepper salt
- Heat the cream (but do not boil it)
- Add the bacon and let it inject for 20 minutes
- Cut the vegetables into small pieces and cook everything in the meat juice with peas for 30 minutes
- Filter the cream, leave to cool and beat
- Finely mix the soup with the peas and correct
- Wait for the mint
- Arrange the soup on a shoulder plate, a slice of bacon cream and some fresh mint