Potage bonne femme: A delicious cream that warms the heart

Naoya Higuchi is a book lover who also liked to write. He won a prize in a literary contest when he was in high school.

The novel he began writing at night after running a restaurant as a chef became his first work at age 20.

Higuchi spent time and effort writing “Supu no kuni no ohimesama” (A Princess in the Land of Soup), a novel about a young former cook who is hired by an old woman to cook soup for her in her mansion.

Although the story had been serialized in a literary magazine under a different title, the Great East Japan Earthquake, which occurred the year the series ended, led him to rewrite it with a different theme.

Originally, the theme of the novel had been “unchangeable everyday life”. The young man prepares the broth and cooks the soup every day in the mansion. Higuchi felt that such a repetition was noble.

However, Higuchi witnessed that daily life unravel when the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster struck the Tohoku region in 2011.

When the novel was going to become a book, he changed the theme to “memory” and rewrote it so that the characters face their families or the memories of the deceased through soup.

“Potage bonne femme”, a pottage soup dear to the main character, makes a great impression by appearing at the beginning and end of the story.

In French cuisine, “bonne femme” is given to the names of homemade dishes that are reminiscent of comfort food. Literally “good woman”, the phrase means “lady of the house” or “mature woman”.

Beginning with the novel about porridge soup, Higuchi opted to write cooking-themed pieces. He said that he often develops the story by focusing on the background or the recipe of the dishes.

Higuchi said that the dishes have some things in common with the novels.

“You eat something delicious with someone. Your perspective on life can change when you read a novel,” he said. “Novels and good food improve life and enrich it.”

While a potato, carrot, and onion used this week, celery, cauliflower, and a turnip will work well depending on the season.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (For two or three people)

• 1 small potato (80 grams)
• 1/4 (70 grams) carrot
• 1 medium onion (200 grams)
• 20 grams of butter
• 200 ml of water and milk
• 50 ml fresh cream
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• some croutons

1. Peel the potato and cut it into 5 mm thick pieces. Thinly slice the onion against the grain. Finely chop the carrot.

2. Add the butter, onion, carrot, and half the salt to the pot, place over medium heat with the lid on. When the steam rises, turn on low heat and simmer for 5 minutes. When the vegetables have softened, add the water, milk, potato and put on medium heat.

3. When the pot comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 7 to 8 minutes with the lid on. Turn off the stove and cook for another 5 minutes on residual heat. When the potato has softened, blend the contents in the blender.

4. Return contents to pot, add remaining salt and crème fraiche. Mix and heat. Serve with croutons. Enjoy!

Assuming the dish serves two, about 340 kcal and 1.9 grams of salt per serving
(Nutrient calculation by Kagawa Nutrition University Nutrition Clinic)

Adding half the salt when the vegetables are cooking in the pot will make them soften faster. The soup will be made smooth by adding a small amount of crème fraiche which contains more milk fat than milk.