Potage Crécy (French Carrot Soup) refined and elegant

1 In a large saucepan, make the butter melt and then sweat the onions in it during 5 minutes. Add the carrots and sweat them 5 more minutes. Add the rice, the 'bouquet garni' and cook covered with a lid during 5 more minutes and keep stiring.

2 Pour the poultry stock and when it is boiling, taste it and season it to your taste.

3 Cook it slowly covered with a lid during 50 minutes then take the bouquet garni off the saucepan.

4 Blend thoroughly with a mixer and sieve it and, at the last moment, add a few pieces of butter.

Serve your soup hot in a soup tureen and put, on the table, a pot of double thick cream and a small dish full of grated gruyère cheese...

(*) 2 'schools' for the thickening of this soup : either cook the soup with some rice (my alternative) or add at the last moment some rice or potatoe starch