How to Make Tomato Soup

This wonderful tomato soup recipe comes from the Bistro Jeanty restaurant in Yountville, California. It's one of many fantastic restaurant recipes in Napa Valley.

Bistro Jeanty in beautiful Yountville, California world famous for its tomato Soup En Croute. Hi I’m Chef Jason Hill and Chef Phillip has generously shared this recipe with us, so we’re going to make it back home. Bistro Jeanty Yountville, California has been rated one of the top ten restaurants in America. After eating here I know why, the food is simple yet extraordinary. We’re fortunate enough that they restaurants shares its famous recipe with us whether you dine at the restaurant or go to their website. Now this recipe is not on the healthy side but sometimes it’s fun to indulge. This recipe calls for simple ingredients that you could find at your local market, from the puff pastry which you can find in your frozen section to fresh tomatoes. If you can’t find ripe, fresh tomatoes you can use a canned tomato product. Whole tomatoes about 28 ounce can, also onion that calls for a half a pound which is about a half of it margin in. First it calls for sliced onions, that we add to our half a cup or one stick of butter, we’re going to stir this cover for about five minutes, we don’t want them to color we just want them to cook down. Now we’re going to quarter our tomatoes and quarter them. This has been about five minutes and that is what you want, you can see the onions aren’t colored they just softened and now I’m going to stir in the garlic and then we’re going to add the tomatoes. Now the tomato paste, half of tablespoon of pepper corns, teaspoon of dried thyme, I like to break my thyme with my finger as I added to the recipes. I dropped in the bay leaf and let this simmer for 40 minutes on low. While the soup is been simmering it’s giving me time to put together the next items I need for this recipe. I’ll need a strainer, a blender, a spatula, and a heavy cream. It’s always good to stay one step ahead while you’re preparing the recipe. After 40 minutes tomatoes, onions, and garlic are very soft. Now this is ready to be pureed. I like to use an emerging blender but you could use a regular liquid blender or you can processor to puree the soup. After blending for a good minute or two it’s time for the strainer. To place the soup to the strainer you can use a rubber spatula. Now I’m going to place the soup back into the stockpot, add the cream, salt and pepper, bring to a boil and then were going to chill. Stir that up and add a teaspoon of sea salt and a half-teaspoon of white pepper. As soon as this comes to a boil, I’m going to turn it off, I’m going to put it in the bowls, and I’m going to chill it. The recipe says for two hours but I recommend overnight to get the flavors to melt. Okay it is starting to boil it’s time to remove from the heat. I almost forgot the recipe calls for more butter either a tablespoon or two, I got about a tablespoon here. I’m going to add the soup to the crocks leaving about all three quarter of an inch of space because when you add the puff pastry to the bowl you don’t what the puff pastry to touch down into the soup. The soup is chilled it’s time to cover it with a sheet of puff pastry. The recipe says you’ll need a little bit more puff pastry to hang over the bowl so to do this, I just lay a bowl that I’m going to serve it in over the puff pastry and cut a circle around the bowl leaving just enough edge to cover the bowl. Now that I’ve cover it with puff pastry I’m going to mix up egg wash which is one egg and one tablespoon of water. Brush your egg wash onto one side of the puff pastry. Now the egg wash side down placed over your crock and try to tighten it like a drum and make sure the puff pastry does not fall down and touch into the soup. Now immediately lightly brush some more egg wash on top of the puff pastry and we’re going to place this into a preheated 450-degree oven for 15 minutes. Now remember not to open up your oven door while this is baking you want the puff pastry to set. What an amazing sample of French country cuisine, simple, delicious, and elegant. If you are looking for a great way to blow your diet I highly recommend finding this recipe, thanks for tuning in.